Opening Illustrator files duplicates linked images

[default39dac83u3sxu]

Hi All, when opening multiple illustrator files with large linked images, Illustrator seems to replicate and position (and scaled) images from within the file, sometimes even duplicating existing links. Each link in the file is accompanied by an extra image which Illustrator prompts to be relinked upon opening the file. This has only started occuring after updating Illustrator to 27.4.1.

Wondering if any one else has this issue and hoping this bug gets fixed.

Thanks

[Monika Gause]

Never seen this or seen it mentioned in this forum.

Did you already do the obvious? Reboot the computer, reset the preferences (which will erase your settings)?

Where are the files located, where are the images located?

[Duncan295999878otv]

At least I now know I'm not alone! It's like try to drive and someone keeps graping the steering wheel! 

[Jasmine259681103f79]

Yes, it is sooo frustrating, slowing down my work by half...

[johnh81311789]

I’m having exactly the same issue. Unfortunately Adobe don’t seem to be offering a fix or even recognising this is an issue. I work on multiple packaging files and it adds additional images and also imports additional images that are greatly scaled up on my designs.

Absolutely infuriating as I cannot keep removing these duplicates every time as theres just so many.

[Duncan295999878otv]

I'm sorry to hear that. I spent over an hour with Adobe Support taking over my Mac to try and resolve the issue. They couldn't. Only work around is to only have one Ai file open at a time. Ridiculous. Hopefully they will fix it with the next update. If I still have a job by then!

[Duncan295999878otv]

Several updates since this bug first materialised and it's still not fixed!

[Jasmine259681103f79]

I am having the same problem, everytime I have extra files opening, the images are unlinked and duplicated... It is soo time consuming when you need to relink everything, or close and open files repeatedly.

[slide_lewy]

Having the same issue also, I also get this error message. Hope they fix it soon. 

 

[sunstreet]

I jave the same issue. Just been on a chat with Adobe and they just ‘fobbed me off’ with various other explanations. The only work around they seemd to offer was to work on files from your desktop????

[Eric318314687qx8]

Hi everyone, I have the same issue as well. Very annoying and time-consuming. I found out recently that I only have this problem when I have multiple AI files open at the same time, but if I open the file without any AI files open, it will open without this issue. Hope Adobe fixes this soon.

[Monika Gause]

Did you already tryresetting the preferences?

[Duncan295999878otv]

Safe to say both I, and Adobe support, have tried everything - to no avail.
Several reinstalls, preference resets, three Illustrator updates, and still the only work around I have is to just have one AI file open at a time.
Which massively impacts my productivity.

☹️


Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[Monika Gause]

---

@Duncan295999878otv  schrieb:
Safe to say both I, and Adobe support, have tried everything - to no avail.
Several reinstalls, preference resets, three Illustrator updates, and still the only work around I have is to just have one AI file open at a time.
Which massively impacts my productivity.

---

Did you report it on https://illustrator.uservoice.com 

That would be important. And any additional info you might have.

[Gabrielle23045253fafu]

This happens to me EVERYTIME I open an illustrator file. It happens even when I have no other files open (as some people have stated might be a workaround). It's so frustrating hving to spend 10+ mintues cleaning up the file and relinking before I can even do any work on it.

It seems that all the links get placed multiple times and enlarged over my artboards. I always get the same error message. And then my accurately placed links become pixelated and have several duplicates sitting on top of each of them. See attached screengrabs.

Thank you for posting this– it's the first time I'm seeing someone with the same issue on here and I've been dealing with this for about a year now. Multiple people in my company are also having the same issue, with no resolution. In the past, uninstalling and reinstalling Illustator used to work for a bit but it's recently gotten so much worse. Hoping someone can finally find a fix!!

[jenjentothejen]

The exact same thing is happening to me! Unchecking the "Optimize File Open and Save..." mentioned above unfortunately doesn't work for me either. Please Adobe, help us! 🙂

[Ton Frederiks]

According to your other post, you suspect a Monotype plugin causing this.

Maybe others in this post can check if they have that plugin installed.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/monotype-plugin-extension-causing-duplicated-...

[Lu2 · Accepted solution]

Try changing this setting, it solved it for my colleague.

[Gabrielle23045253fafu]

Yes this works! So far so good... will report back.

THANK YOU!

[Gabrielle23045253fafu]

I may have spoke too soon... it worked for a little whilte- but it's right back to it's okay shenanigans. This is SO frustrating.

[Duncan295999878otv]

Yes I tried it too.

No joy.

I live in hope that Adobe will resolve this in an update at some point.

[Mike_Gondek]

I see this is happening to a few people in this thread. Questions I have:

1. Are you linking to images locally on your hard drive, or on a network drive that is different and what OS that network drive is formatted with, or Adobe Cloud images
2. What OS version & AI version are you all using? Make sure your application and OS are compatible with each other.

   Illustrator system requirements | earlier releases

   
   
   
   ba.bro.2.psd

[Lu2]

In our case, we are running MacOS, latest version of OS and Illustrator. The data is on a Synology file server, connected through 1GBit local network over smb protocol.

[KURT6C29]

We are having the same issue on both Illustrator 2023 and illustrator 2022.

We experience it working both from a cloud server - Egnyte  and working locally with all files saved and relinked to desktop.

Its really infuriating and has been going on for a year or so now.

All our Macs are up to date and the Illustrator versions (both 2022 and 2023) have the latest updates.

We work on a packaging artworks and this is causing us lots of problems. in files where there should only be 4 linked images we currently have 6copies of each linked image - sometimes they dont duplicate in the same layer but randomly appear in other layers.

Even when we remove the extra lined images some of them appear as low res or pixallated images so we even have to go into the links window and relink every link...

We tried the solution above abut it did not work.

Adobe needs to sort this out soon!

[KURT6C29]

After many discussions with Adobe support there only solution is to work from your local computer.

Apparently Illustrator CAN NOT work with files and links stored on

- Cloud server

- Local network server

- NAS drive

Their only  solution was to package the job from the server onto the local computer (desktop) and ensure all the links are reading from the local links folder. THen when you have finished working on the file - reupload it to back to the server. Everytime you want to make a change you have to repeat the above steps.

This is a rediculous situation.

The solution of copy all the files off the server, relink locally and then resave back onto the server causes too many problems in the modern ways of working.

• We use Egnyte cloud server which retains previous versions of a file when saved. however file when copied back onto the server from the desktop undermines the historic version control system on our server meaning we lose all previous version of the file . Now If we need to go back to an earlier version – the only way around is to manually keep multiple copies of the file for every time someone makes amends – this takes up far more space on a server - and is subject to human error and more processes.
• It creates an issue if someone fails to reupload the files at the end of the day and the latest version is now on remote desktop.
  
• It creates issues if a file is corrupted, and additional back ups now need to be set up for the desktop computer so - additional local computer backups.
• Downloading entire jobs locally and reuploading takes additional bandwidth - remote working staff will wait longer and waste time waiting for all files including links to download and then upload back to the server – very unproductive.
• Productivity of remote staff has halved due to this new process and staff without access to a superfast broadband are struggling.
• We use Esko products which require the files to be stored on a main server and all our automation is based on a central serve – so this is now additional work and cost to the business to find a work around.

It is madness that when more businesses are working hybrid and have changed their systems to cloud based, Adobe decided, a year ago, to do the opposite and make life even harder and more challenging by changing how Illustrator worked.

Illustrator worked fine before and was able to work with files on a server with no issues.

We have now reverted to Illustrator 2021 (V25) as this is the only version where we do not have the links issue, but this version is not supported with updates from Adobe and probably will start having issues as the MAC OS updates...