Illustrator crashed and recovered document is showing missing links error.

[georiako]

My illustrator crashed!!!! I went to recover my file and most of my images arent there anymore. They show up as missing links but I cant see the image and they are all individual images. There are probably 60 photos that need to be relinked but I have to do it one by one and I dont remember what image goes where!  My whole design just fell apart. Please Help!!!!! 

{Renamed by MOD}

[Disposition_Dev · Accepted solution]

you don't need to know which photos went where (in the design). When you look at your links panel, you can see the file name of each link. so you click on it, then click relink and select the correct file from the dialog.

If you're saying that you don't know where to find the images on your computer to relink them, then you may be out of luck. Make a habit of "packaging" (in the File menu under "Package") your files if they contain lots of linked images (and if you don't want to embed the images for any number of reasons). That way, all your images (and fonts and any other linked assets) get saved into a folder that is local to the .ai file and you never have to go tracking them down. 

[georiako]

In my links panel, all of my files are named the same ("Links").  They arent missing but it says that the links are damaged. I will definitely create a new work flow after this but I just really needed to get these images restored:(

[Srishti Bali]

Hi there,

So sorry to hear about this trouble. I agree with the suggestions shared by William. For more details, you may also check out these tutorials:

• https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/importing-artwork-files.html#embedded_and_linked_artwor...
• https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/package-files.html

For crashing, apologies once again. If this is happening frequently, please share the following details:

• OS and version of Illustrator
• Is the issue related to a specific document? If yes, could you please share the document with us? You can upload it to the Creative Cloud (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/share.html) and share the download link.
• Where the files are saved (Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System /External HDD)?
• Does the steps shared on this article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/crash-file-data-recovery.html) help resolving the issue?

We're here to help, just need more info.

Regards,

Srishti

[audriek52708293]

This is happening to me very often recently - at least 2x per week. My Illustrator will freeze, my iMac crashes, then restarts, and when I open Illustrator, the recovered files' imagery is totally absent, and the app asks me to replace the "" link (it completely loses the link name and just shows up with nothing in between the quotation marks), so I ignore all and get left with a mess like this to relink manually:

[Monika Gause]

Please tell us your computer specifications and your version.

Where do you store files?

Do you keep backup copies of your files and do you save often?

Any third party plugins?

Is there any regularity in the crashes? When saving? when printing? when applying some effect?

Do you have any other applications open at the same time? e.g. Chrome? It has memory issues.

[audriek52708293]

27 inch iMac, 2019

3GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5

32GB Memory 2667 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro 570X 4 GB

Saving files to desktop, and most of the links that disappear are also somewhere on my desktop. 

I don't keep backup files, I could probably save more often (but you know how it can be when you get in the moment sometimes!). I have auto-save recovery turned on, but it doesn't help when this happens. Seems like it happens when my scratch disks are full, my computer will shut off and then all the links disappear.

I haven't noticed a pattern to it, it seems pretty random, recently I've been working with larger files so it's been often (4 times in the past 24 hours). 

I typically always also have Chrome, Outlook, Teams, iMessage, Notes open in a regular workday. Sometimes Photoshop as well. 

[Disposition_Dev]

Oh oh oh! I just had an epiphany. I wonder if you had all the linked files in a certain directory that was relative to the .ai file.. Then when illustrator crashed, you opened the recovered version, which may be saved in a different location (I've personally never had to recover a file in this way because I'm obsessive about saving while I work.. So I don't know where recovery files are saved..)

Try opening the recovered document, then doing a "save as" and save it back to the location where you were originally working. That may restore all the links without any more work on your part. 

[FlyMachine Dazza]

I have been dealing with this exact issue but it only started happening (not the crashing, been dealing with crashes since the Macromedia days) after I moved much of my active work to a drive and working with iCloud. Ai would crash my system and cause a reboot and when the restored artwork opened every link would be missing, I long thought it had something to do with the remote location of the files but couldn't quite focus long enough to get my head around it and apply a solution - Dilliam just hit the nail right on the head! That is exactly the issue at least in my case, the solution however isn't working, what's more Ai now is only partially opening the artwork and it's not especially massive 😞 Trying to make aliving here

[FlyMachine Dazza]

...just to add to my comment above in trying to find a solution, in my case the missing links are not even named, when I 'go to link' it shows where the missing image should be but shows no name or detail, the only way to recover this now seems to be to try and remember what image was used and manually finding it on my drive and then relinking for a ton of images, some I wont remember and I'm on deadline and to redo this would take weeks. I am actually furious. 

[default8ty4yy6fcud0]

It irritates me so bad that this is the only thing you can find on the subject AND it's marked as SOLVED. No. I have a moodboard with 180 plus images with no names. A general knowledge of where they go but a repository of 180 plus images to go through. OH AND if you relink an image that was multiple places. Illustrator f*cking forgot EVERYTHING so it requires you to manually relink that file in every location. I straight up bought astute for auto savior after this becuase I cannot rely on adobe to make a product without completely and utterly ruining a pretty key feature everytime. I try to save often and frequently but I'm literally installing safety nets with saving timers becuase of increasingly frequent crashes and followed by a "Recover" function that is honestly more frustrating than if you just deleted the whole Frickin folder and made me start from scratch. Adobe needs to step it up, Monumentally. 

[John_Fuller]

Happening to me as well - however just started today after the update to 26.0