Inspiring

Answered

InDesign Not Reflecting Updates from Linked AI Files

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
September 4, 2024
5 replies
1099 views

Hello, I have a multi-page AI file placed in my InDesign document. After making changes to the AI file, I save it. When I check the Links panel in InDesign, the yellow triangle alert appears. I ALT-click the update button, and InDesign updates all the links, but the changes I made in the AI file are not reflected in InDesign.

This is a process I've done many times before without any issues. The same problem occurred with a different file yesterday. I've tried restarting my PC in case it was a glitch, but that didn't help. Do you have any idea why the link update function isn't working as it should?

Correct answer MEONHOMES

I have since deleted the linked file and re-placed it which seems to have resolved the issue. If it happens again I will try this. Thanks.

Creative Overlord

Known Participant

I’m experiencing exactly the same problem on a mac running 26.5.2 and Indesign 21.4.1.4 and illustrator 30.6.0 placing multi artboard .ai file into indesign file image frames, usually works like a dream but started showing the yellow triangle in indesign recognising the .ai file was updated, but when I click update all links some pages don’t track the changes. Interestingly if I go to re-place that page into the frame that didn’t update (by ticking “show options” when placing, the little preview window that shows up also doesn’t see the changed version of the file). If I go back into illustrator and re-save, indesign will do the same thing and still not update that page, BUT if I go back into illustrator and change something on the page that isn’t updating, even if its nudging an item by 1px, THEN re-save, and update all in indesign again IT UPDATES. BUT if I change something on another artboard, then save, then update all, the problem page will not update, the change has to be on the exact artboard having an issue.

Unfortunately if you’ve got 50 artboards placed it’s really hard to know what’s not updating, so the process to work around it isn’t viable. I’ve placed lots of files this way before and it’s never been an issue until this week.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Creative Overlord,

Thank you for sharing the detailed information and sorry to hear that you experience this. I tested this on InDesign 21.4.1 with Illustrator 30.6, using a multi-artboard AI file. After making changes in Illustrator and updating the links in InDesign, all the linked artboards updated correctly on my end, so I wasn't able to reproduce the behavior.

To help us investigate further, could you please confirm whether your Illustrator file is stored locally or in a cloud-synced location (such as Dropbox, OneDrive, or Creative Cloud Files)?

Also, if possible, could you share:

A screen recording demonstrating the complete workflow and the issue in action.
The sample Illustrator (.ai) file (with multiple artboards) along with the corresponding InDesign document that reproduces the issue.

If the files are confidential, you can share it via DM and can use any of the public cloud sharing platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. This will help us investigate the issue further and better understand what's causing the affected artboards not to update.

Looking forward to hearing back.

Abhishek

Creative Overlord

Known Participant

I work directly from dropbox however I have tried copying the files to the hard drive and testing and get the same result.

However I have a fix:

When I tried the .idml conversion trick suggested further down (as I remembered that helping once before with a different issue in an InDesign file) the problem was solved!

Something about this process in InDesign fixed it:

Save as > .idml > opening the .idml > save as > .indd with a different file name to the original > open that and it now works.

Unsure how long for, I’ll let you know if the same issue comes up again with the same file or any others.

This particular file had already gone through 6 versions of a normal save as > .indd processes so it’s definitely the .idml itself that provides the fix.

The only other clue I have for you is that the fixed .indd file created from the .idml conversion was only 15.8 mb in size where the original .indd file having issues was 51.8 mb. It’s vibing like perhaps there is some compiled caching of previews that isn’t clearing with larger documents or something?

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@MEONHOMES

Maybe your file got corrupted.

Try IDMLing to fix your file - export as IDML, open, save with a new name - do not overwrite your original file.

MEONHOMESAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

I have since deleted the linked file and re-placed it which seems to have resolved the issue. If it happens again I will try this. Thanks.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

I have since deleted the linked file and re-placed it which seems to have resolved the issue. If it happens again I will try this. Thanks.

By @MEONHOMES

Do you still have a copy of your file - before replacing AI file?

Can you try IDMLing it anyway? Just to see what happens.

Replacing AI file might have fixed the corruption.

leo.r

Community Expert

I have a multi-page AI file placed in my InDesign document.
By @MEONHOMES

Does it happen with any Illustrator file or only multi-page ones?

p.s. multi-artboard, to be accurate.

MEONHOMESAuthor

Inspiring

So far seems to only be with multi-artboard AI docs

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

Are you linking to files on your hard drive or to files on a server or cloud? If you've been linking to a source that is not your hard drive then try the process with files on your hard drive and see if the problem persists.

MEONHOMESAuthor

Inspiring

Good morning, I tried copying the working folder (with linked files) to my hard drive, opened the ID file, it asked to update the linked file which I did, but unfortunately, same result. 😞

leo.r

Community Expert

What are your versions of InDesign and Windows?

MEONHOMESAuthor

Inspiring

Latest of both, ID 19.5 and Windows 10 Enterprise

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