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Participating Frequently
July 26, 2024
Question

InDesign Book keeps saving duplicate files

  • July 26, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1281 views

My team uses InDesign books all the time so multiple people can work on a project simultaneously. Books are supposed to only allow one person to open each file within the book. If someone already has a file open, the book is supposed to show a lock icon next to that file and no one else can open it.

 

However, this week, InDesign has stopped doing this. It allows us to open a file in the book even if someone already has that file open. Instead of making the file read-only like the few previous times we've had this problem, InDesign allows both people to edit and save their changes, and makes a new duplicate file when saving the second person's edits.

 

This is a very frustrating problem, because we now have to check ourselves if someone else has each file open - which InDesign is supposed to do and has always done before - and manually re-merge duplicate files. At one point a file in our most recent book had FOUR duplicates because of this bug!

 

Does anyone else have this issue and has found a fix? InDesign 2024, version 19.5 - it looks like this issue started after that update so maybe there's a bug in it that caused this? The image shows a file from our most recent book and the duplicate created by InDesign.

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2 replies

Participant
July 26, 2024

My team collaborates on files shared through Dropbox, and we often face the challenge of multiple people editing the same files simultaneously. To prevent this, we use a script that ensures only one person can open a file at a time:

https://github.com/t3n/indesign-prevent-multiple-opens

MadelineWAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 29, 2024

Thanks for the suggestion, but my problem is that InDesign is supposed to do that already with books and it's suddenly stopped. I'd prefer to get InDesign working how it's supposed to without using scripts to add in features it's supposed to already have.

leo.r
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 30, 2024
quote

Thanks for the suggestion, but my problem is that InDesign is supposed to do that already with books and it's suddenly stopped.


By @MadelineW

 

From the description of your issue, it looks to me it's SharePoint that's duplicating the files under a new name. I could be wrong too, of course.

 

As a test, try to mimic your workflow using a different cloud service such as Dropbox or Google Drive. Will it work as expected?

leo.r
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 26, 2024

As a test, try to revert to InDesign 19.4 - will it make a difference? You can do so from the Creative Cloud app:

 

 

Also, while not related to your particular issue, may I suggest to enable file extensions at all times:

 

Also, where are your files located - what kind of server?

MadelineWAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 26, 2024

We'll try reverting to 19.4. The files are in SharePoint. We moved to that about a month ago from a regular network drive to improve remote work and storage.