Images missing when creating a pdf from indesign

Forum|Forum|24 days ago
July 13, 2026
7 replies
60 views

I create a 42 page pdf and images are missing. The error is “Version 4 ICC profiles were converted to Version 2 ICC profiles during pdf export. Error encountered while ready tiff image.”

The indesign file is a file linked with other indesign files. No error occurs when creating pdfs individually from each of the indesign files, so images are not damaged.

Is it a indesign glitch or a acrobat glitch. We have been creating pdfs this way for years and it recently became a issue.

Is it a indesign glitch or a acrobat glitch.

leo.r

Community Expert

The indesign file is a file linked with other indesign files. No error occurs when creating pdfs individually from each of the indesign files, so images are not damaged.

Yes, it’s a known bug in InDesign 2026: linked InDesign files are missing from exported PDFs. There are several threads on the issue, I’ll look them up.

leo.r

Community Expert

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @nicoles45565553,

I'm sorry you're running into this issue, and thanks for reporting it. I tested this on InDesign 21.4.1 on Windows 11 using a Book file and wasn't able to reproduce the behavior, my PDF export included all linked images correctly.

To help narrow this down, could you please try exporting the Book in smaller page ranges to determine if the issue is isolated to a particular document or page? Also, please check which linked TIFF image(s) are missing during the combined export and let us know if only TIFF files are affected or if other image formats are missing as well. If possible, open the affected TIFF(s) in Photoshop, Save As (or simply re-save them without making changes), relink them in InDesign, and test the export again.

Additionally, could you share a short screen recording showing the complete workflow (from successfully exporting an individual InDesign document to exporting the Book PDF) where the images are missing? If possible, please also share a packaged copy of the Book and its individual documents for investigation (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/preflighting-files-handoff.html#package_files). If the files are confidential, feel free to send them via Direct Message using any public cloud-sharing service such as Google Drive or Dropbox.

Looking forward to your update so we can investigate this further.

Abhishek

N

nicoles45565553Author

Participating Frequently

Still trying to gather some more info but here is a coworkers words on our problem:

When exporting an InDesign document with linked pages from other InDesign documents, I selected the High Quality Print preset, enabled Crop Marks, and used Document Bleed Settings. The export failed with the error: "Error encountered while reading TIFF image. Image may be damaged or incompatible. Resave."

I opened the linked InDesign document that contained the TIFF image error and relinked every image in the file. After saving the document, I updated the link in the combined InDesign document and exported again using the same settings. The pages in the relinked document exported correctly, but several pages before it were blank or missing images. Even pages containing PDF ads exported as blank.

The only solution I've found is to go through each linked InDesign document, relink every image individually, save the file, and then update the link in the combined InDesign document before exporting. Even then, why would the export effect a pdf linked to the document?

There are no errors when separately exporting indesign files (not the linked indesign files).

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @nicoles45565553,

Thank you for the additional details. I tested the workflow again on InDesign 21.4.1 using a Book with linked InDesign files, TIFFs, and PDFs, but I still couldn't reproduce the issue.

To help us investigate further, could you please share a short screen recording showing the successful export of an individual document and the failed Book export? If possible, please also share a packaged sample of the Book and linked documents (or a simplified sample that reproduces the issue). If the files are confidential, feel free to share them via Direct Message using Google Drive, Dropbox, or a similar cloud service.

We'll be happy to investigate further once we have these details.

Abhishek