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Chris Tammar
Participating Frequently
January 23, 2024
Answered

Persistent Error in Adobe InDesign: ‘There Was an Error Updating the Artifact

  • January 23, 2024
  • 40 replies
  • 27516 views

When I go to update a review link in InDesign, I keep getting this error message "there was an error updating the artifact". After that, the link does not work for most people. I am signed in to Adobe. Everything is up-to-date.... But this issue still persists. Can Adobe please fix this issue? It's emarassing when I go to send the review link to my leaders and they just get an error message when they try opening it.

 

<Title renamed by moderator>

Correct answer NOcreationsBE

@Rishabh_Tiwari They originally opened with Chrome. Which did not work. But they just refreshed the link, and it now works. So i think what is happening, is that there's some sort of lag or delay with the file updating, creating an error message. It must be some sort of Adobe server issue. Other's have noticed this too.... The link won't work right away, but when they try again, it works.


I would like to add that my clients usually do not experience any problems opening the file with the link (even if I get the error message), but sometimes they do. Refreshing the page does do the trick in most cases if that happens. Now usually they are 'slow' in reacting on my update messages, so it is possible that they only experience problems opening the file when they react right away. I will keep an eye on that now, to be sure. So I support the idea of a lag/delay in the update process.

40 replies

Participating Frequently
May 16, 2025

Yes, we're all still getting these errors, we're just tired of reporting them. The links typically do work (not always) even when the error is present which took me a long time to figure out. If you do a lot of back and forth edits with clients on a particular document though, you will eventually have to create a new share since it will stop working. This sucks because it erases all of your history. 

Participating Frequently
May 16, 2025

Also, "It probably updated correctly even though it says it didn't" just doesn't cut it when you're sharing complicated documents for review and final approval.

NOcreationsBE
Inspiring
May 16, 2025

@tom_cog, I completely understand! You can't check 100+ updates in large or complicated documents when you are working with deadlines. The only thing I can tell you, is that I never noticed any changes not updating, even after getting the error. You just have to refresh the page or come back a little later (and refresh the page). It is not a guarantee, but maybe a minor assurance if you have no choice but to work this way and no time to check all upates online.

 

  • I would love to hear from others if they ever experienced that a change in the document was not visible after updating the online version, getting the error message and refreshing the page.
Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 16, 2025

Hi Henrik Engedal Nissen, 

 

I'm really sorry to hear that you're still experiencing this issue. I completely understand how frustrating this must be.

To help us investigate further and report this to the product team, could you please share the following:

 - A screen recording of the issue you're encountering on version 20.3.1. 

 - A sample InDesign file where this problem occurs.

This will help us reproduce the issue on our end and work toward a resolution more efficiently.

 

Thanks so much for your patience and cooperation, I really appreciate it!

Abhishek 

 

Henrik Engedal Nissen
Known Participant
May 16, 2025

The screenshot is exactly the same as several people have posted in the thread already.

It's just a normal indesign file with text and images like most indesign files.

Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 16, 2025

Hi @Henrik Engedal Nissen,

 

Thanks for the update. Could you confirm if this issue happens consistently every time you try to update the Share for Review link, or is it more random and intermittent? 

I know it might feel repetitive, but any extra detail you can share helps us bring more clarity to the product team. I'm here and following up with them closely, so please feel free to share whatever you observe.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Abhishek

Henrik Engedal Nissen
Known Participant
May 15, 2025

I have exactly this error. Is there still no solution? 

 

MAC OS 15.4.1

Indesign 20.3.1

Participating Frequently
May 15, 2025

I think it's fair to say that Adobe is not concerned with this problem and is not working to fix it.

It's simply not possible that a company with Adobe's resources would be unable to fix a bug in its software over this length of time if they were actually trying.

About a year ago, some dude from Adobe popped in to say, "Well it just worked for us so are you SURE it's actually happening and also maybe you're all just doing it wrong" then disappeared back into the mist...never to be heard from again.

This suggests to me that Adobe does not even officially recognize the issue, isn't tracking it, and certainly isn't trying to fix it.

Adobe made like $5.5 billion (with a b) in profit last year. Which is apparently not quite enough profit to devote any more of it to making its products work correctly.

But please, keep using that cash to develop more tools to put artists and designers out of work.

I just paid for the full Affinity suite, and will transition away from Adobe as quickly as possible. I recommend anyone who can avoid using Adobe products, do so, until they realize they have to actually provide value for the money they collect (rather than rely on lack of other viable options).

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

Oh, for fun, here's *another bug* related to this apparently totally unimportant feature (screenshot attached).

Participating Frequently
May 15, 2025

Oh and also...

Participant
March 24, 2025

In case this helps anyone else: I get this error when I update the content before saving the file. Once I save the file, it seems to update the content automatically. I got the error, saved my file and jumped online to figure out a solve. I found this thread, gave up and went back to my file and was about to try one more time when I noticed it said 'Updated 3 minutes ago' (while I was looking for answers). I tried this a few times and the same thing happened. 

NOcreationsBE
Inspiring
March 24, 2025

@lydiao2438454Interesting, I thought I always saved before updating, but I am not sure. I am going to try that out!

Participant
February 17, 2025

Is there any solution for this? I just tried this reveiw feature for the first time and - bam - it doesn't work.

I get the Artifact Error as well.

 

Indesign 20.1 x64

 

I mean, isn't this a core functionality that teams rely on? 

Or how do you out there let others review the current state of documents?

Participating Frequently
February 18, 2025

And it's an actual problem (you listening, Adobe?) because it's not feasible, or even possible, in most settings to send around native InDesign files for others to review. PDF is the way to go. Y'all invented the damned format, yet you can't figure out how to properly handle them now?

Look, if you're simply never going to fix this feature just remove it. Stop being a bunch of jerks about it.

Sure, we'll have to get accustomed to exporting PDFs and sharing them via other methods, but at least we'll have a reliable process folks can get accustomed to.

NOcreationsBE
Inspiring
February 19, 2025

@tom_cog I understand your frustration (let's hope Adobe will have more meaningful competition in the near future)! In the meantime, would you check to see if it works despite the error message? Because I noticed that the document actually always updates, just a little later sometimes. If a customer does not see the update, it is often because they react very quickly. Refreshing the screen usually helps so far.

Participating Frequently
January 31, 2025

This is STILL broken.

Participating Frequently
February 3, 2025

Yeah, but you can ask Photoshop to put a santa hat on a photo of a chipmunk!

So cute!

Participating Frequently
January 13, 2025

New version, high hopes... same error. I've been getting this dumb error for months. What's worse, in the newest version (currently 20.0.1) it even occasionally crashes Indesign.

 

Can't wait to finish my contract with the current client so I can ditch Adobe's overpriced bloatware. In my 25 year design career, Adobe's gone from amazing, groundbreaking software to a bug-filled nightmare of useless features. (Yes, it has tons of great, useful features too...)

SaraBequette
Inspiring
January 2, 2025

I get that message from time to time, too! Just got it now and grabbed the screenshot below. 

 

 

Note: my software is up-to-date. I made one small adjustment and want it to reflect on the reviewer’s side.

Participant
January 8, 2025

This is a constant error for me as well. I keep my software up-to-date with the latest pushed updates from Creative Cloud. It's definitely happening when that Update content button is pushed. This has been happening for YEARS.

Participating Frequently
January 8, 2025

Pretty sure Adobe has this next on their list of things to fix. After they finishing adding more AI features that nobody asked for or needs to do their actual work.

It's a very, very long list apparently.

Zane_E
Participant
November 27, 2024

me too. All was fine until I tried to edit a reply I had made to my own comment. It wouldn't save the edit, so I cancelled it, and then I started getting the same 'There Was an Error Updating the Artifact' error. The only other thing I did at that time was insert a QR code and the hyperlink to the QR code (for desktop users to click on). nb. I deleted the reply I was trying to edit, but didn't help.

Participant
November 7, 2024

I am having the exact same error message. I've restarted InDesign and the message continues.