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Participant
July 27, 2025
Question

Images Showing Up as Blank in Illustrator

  • July 27, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 276 views

Hi,
I'm working in Illustrator v 29.6.1 and all my linked images are showing up as blank (just white boxes), even though the links seem intact and the file paths haven’t changed. The artwork is selectable and the bounding boxes are there when I drag my mouse over, but the images themselves don’t display.

I' ve tried  (Cmd+Y), Tried toggling GPU/CPU previews. Images are not embedded, just linked

2 replies

Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Community Manager
July 28, 2025

Hi @2773791,

 

Thanks a lot for the screenshots and the detailed info.

Can you please confirm the macOS version you're using as well? Also, just to rule things out, could you check the following. Open the Links panel and expand the view by clicking the small panel menu (three lines at the top-right), then choose Panel Options and enable all columns including Status, Path and Modification Date. Select one of the missing images and verify if Illustrator is flagging anything such as a modified or missing link.

Try relinking just one of the affected images from the same location again to see if the issue is resolved. This might help determine whether the file path is intact or if there's a rendering issue.

Moreover, please confirm if this is with this file only or with others as well. If only with this file, where exactly is it stored, like on the cloud, a remote location, or the system's local drive? 

Additionally, try disabling View > Overprint Preview if enabled and restart Illustrator.

Let me know if the problem continues after checking the above and feel free to upload a sample file or share one image that doesn't appear if that's possible. I'll be happy to take a closer look.

 

Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Abhishek 

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 28, 2025

Can you select an image and show the extended Links panel? 

It also looks like there are more objects invisible than just images.