Inspiring

Question

SOLUTION FOUND: Why does the publishing get stuck on Indexing Referenced?

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
March 27, 2025
9 replies
808 views

I wanted to post on a thread that I started last year but it says the discussion is locked and the reply options are all greyed out.

In a nutshell, my problem was that when I tried to publish my manual the process would get stuck on Indexing References. The manual itself would still fully publish but the search function would not be working. I was baffled in that I would be able to identify an offending topic but when I deleted that topic and what I thought was the asset folder, the previous versions of the manual would then be corrupt.

I have since discovered the issue. Unless I would create a new asset folder for the new topic, Robohelp would place any copy-and-pasted or even imported graphics inside the general assets folder, but not inside the topic's individual asset folder, if that makes sense. It seemed that anytime there was a graphic outside of a topics asset folder, even if it was still inside the project's asset folder, it would get stuck on Indexing References. This solution may have already been posted in other discussions but I wanted to come back to it and share anyways. I hope my explanation makes sense.

A

Amebr

Community Expert

Quite a few organisations block file transfer sites. Sometimes they'll temporarily unblock them on request or do a one off upload for you - it can help to have a sample project that you can prove doesn't contain any corporate info.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Can you share the project? If you can, then see the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

I can take a look in 2019 and also upgrade the project.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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M

mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

For some reason I can't connect to your site. I've tried two different days and it just spins. The solution I've found seems to be working consistently.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

It must be a block at your end as it is working OK.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

One thing to try. Create a copy of the project in File Explorer. In that copy delete the .rh folder and then open the project. Does it still have the problem?

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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M

mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

I tried this step last year when you were helping me with this problem and that didn't fix it. I believe the issue arose because with this manual I started to build it by importing html documents instead of building the topics from scratch in Robohelp. When I would import an HTML file, Robohelp would create the additional asset folder for each topic that nests inside the assets > images directory. That, coupled with some of the graphics going to assets > images outside of the topic folders , is what caused the issues.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

So Assets > Images > Sub-folder-for-topic = trouble but Assets > Images works, correct? Weird and I haven't heard of that other than from yourself.

Looking back at some notes, I think it was the upgrade that changed. Originally going from Classic all images got moved, later the upgrade only moved images and certain other assets if they were in the root of the project. Even in 2019 you should be able to put the images within any folder as long as you can see them in the Contents Panel. Thus I'm not sure the later version will fix this problem. However, a lot of other things have been fixed.

At least you have a solution that you can work with.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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M

mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

It's actually the opposite: assets > images > image file creates the error; assets > images > topic name folder > image doesn't cause the issue.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Are you still on 2019 New UI? The workflow was different there.

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My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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M

mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

I am using 2019 as my department hasn't upgraded yet. I realize I wasn't specific enough in the directories I was describing.

This is what my user expererience has been: When creating a new topic I was first copying and pasting images onto the page. When I did this the publishing step would get stuck on Indexing References and I would have to close out Robohelp to continue. The full manual would still publish, the images would display, but the search function would not work. This was also happening when I would add them by using insert image from local file.

What I discovered was that when I copied and pasted images or inserted from local file (ex. image01.png) they would be placed in assets > images > image01.png. I then learned that if I didn't first create a topic folder inside assets>images, this error would happen. For instance if a topic was names Records Retention, if I didn't first place the image in assets>images>Records_Retention>image01.png, the error would happen. I learned this because I deleted all of the images that were in the assets>images directory that were not placed inside topic folders. When I did that the problem went away. When I insterted an image outside of the topic folder the issue came back. Perhaps this is unique to me but the solution is working and I will be able to complete my manual.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I have added a link to this thread in the locked thread.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

Use menu (bottom right) to mark as Best Answer or to Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

A link to the original post would help. If you encounter this again, just post asking a moderator to unlock the thread. It is unusual for threads to be locked so I am curious as to why that was done.

When you add an image to a topic, it doesn't matter whether or not it is already in a project folder. Using the Insert Image icon you get three options, Project Files, Local Files and Web Image. With Project Files you browse to where the image is, with Local Files you do the same but when you save, the image is copied to Assets > Images automatically. You are free to move it to another folder. If you paste in, then it automatically goes to Assets > Images but again you can move it.

It doesn't matter to RoboHelp whether the image is in the topic folder, the assets folder or any other folder in the Contents panel. As long as it is in the Contents panel is all that matters.

You have said when I am adding the graphic to the page I select 'Import' from a project file. Importing from a local file was placing the graphic outside of the asset folder.

Is that still happening? That is definitely not correct. I just checked by using the Insert Image icon and browsing to an image in local files. As soon as I clicked Save, the image appeared in Assets > Images.

You can of course create a folder for images as a sub-folder to the topic folder and import first or just import into the topic folder itself. Once an image is in any folder, it can be dragged to the topic instead of using the toolbar icon.

Please check again and let us know what you get. Also add a link to the locked thread.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

Use menu (bottom right) to mark as Best Answer or to Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

You referring to this thread - https://community.adobe.com/t5/robohelp-discussions/previous-versions-becoming-corrupt/m-p/14772090 ?

M

mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

Jeff, yes, I am referring to that post. Thanks for posting the link.

M

mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

I can't edit the above post: what I should have explained more is that when I am creating a new topic, I need to first import all the graphics into the asset folder that I created for the topic, then when I am adding the graphic to the page I select 'Import' from a project file. Importing from a local file was placing the graphic outside of the asset folder. The image would still display, the page would still publish, but the publishing process would be stuck and I would have to close out Robohelp.

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