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chongho_7797
Participant
Jan 31, 2026 3:53 AM UTC
Question

How InDesign .idlk Lock File Naming and Hashing Works for Detecting Open INDD Files

I'd like to know the convention for naming .idlk files generated by InDesign.
When opening an indd file, I want to determine if the file is already in use by someone else, but this is problematic due to the idlk naming convention.
The idlk file name follows the following convention:
~<file name>~<Hash>.idlk

If the file name is too long, it will be truncated.
The standard length for truncation is 18 characters, but it seems to vary depending on the user's encoding.
For example, alphanumeric characters are 18 characters, but in other languages, the length is not simply the number of characters.
I'd like to know if this is determined by the user's system encoding or if there are fixed encoding conventions.
 

Furthermore, if there are multiple long files, the truncated file names will all be the same.
In this case, I need to check the hash value, but I don't have the information to determine the hash value.
I'd like to know the criteria for determining the hash value or the generation convention.

 

Thank you

    3 replies

    Community Expert
    Feb 1, 2026 3:42 AM UTC

    What exactly are you trying to achieve? As ​@leo.r mentioned tracking idlk file is not reliable. Many a times when InDesign quits abnormally the idlk file is not deleted and you have an inconsistent state. If this is a script maybe a better way to check it is to iterate the open files and match their filepath with the file you are trying to check

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    -Manan
    leo.r
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Jan 31, 2026 3:36 PM UTC

    When opening an indd file, I want to determine if the file is already in use by someone else, but this is problematic due to the idlk naming convention.

     

    .idlk names are not a reliable way to determine if a particular file is already open. There’s no way to determine what file exactly is open by looking at an .idlk file name, as far as I know (if there is a way, I’m sure others will correct me). If you attempt to open a file that’s already in use, InDesign should inform you about it.

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    DTPtutorialyCZ-L.Zalesky
    Inspiring
    Feb 1, 2026 8:51 AM UTC

    You can use startup script. This script will create a txt file next to indd file with the file and user name.

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