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Participant
September 9, 2026
Question

Why are my Adobe programs unlinking everything when nothing has changed?

  • September 9, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 32 views

Recently I have had issues with Adobe programs missing links (specifically Illustrator and InDesign).

For reference, all my files are on dropbox and I work directly from there. I will work on a file, save, and then the next day when I open it again it tells me all my links are missing and I need to relink them. It NEVER used to do this and it is getting very frustrating.

Is this the result of an update? Is there some secret setting I can turn off?

    4 replies

    Participant
    September 9, 2026

    Darn. Unfortunately it’s still happening to me, even though the files are fully synced to my hard drive. I’m also getting a weird error where the links do not have any indication of being missing (no red warning) but then it won’t let me save out as a pdf because they can’t be found.

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    September 9, 2026

    Hi ​@Bewitched_perspective408b,

     

    Sorry you're dealing with this repeatedly. Could you please try Bob's suggestion and let us know whether making the files local resolves the issue?

    Additionally, please make the entire project folder available offline in Dropbox, including the InDesign/Illustrator document and all linked assets, rather than only the main document. In Dropbox, right-click the project folder and choose Make available offline, then wait until it shows as fully synced before reopening the document. 

    Looking forward to your observations.

     

    Thanks,
    Abhishek

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 9, 2026

    Make sure that any smart sync features are turned off in Dropbox and that all files are fully synced to your local harddrive, not downloaded on demand.

    Participant
    September 9, 2026

    Hi Bob,

    Thanks for the note. I’ve double checked and I had set the folder to be available offline but it looked like there may have been a delay or glitch. I’ve set it up again, so I’m going to check tomorrow (if I reopen the file the same day I haven’t been having any issues - just when I open it another day).

    I’ll let you know if that fixed it!