Disable automatic linked image update

[Matthias_Schoeffl]

Hi,

Is it possible to deactivate the automatic update of linked images when they changed outside of Illustrator (asking for CC2015, CC2017 and CC2018)?

Many thanks and best regards,

Matthias

[JonathanArias]

why don't you just make a duplicate of the file that one will not be linked? why would you not want it to update?

[Mario Arizmendi · Accepted solution]

Hit command K and in the file handling option chose auto or manually, but really, why you want to do that?

[Matthias_Schoeffl]

Thanks for that, I set to 'Manually' (we had 'Automatically').

The reason for my question in general was how often Illustrator checks for file changes in external links, and if there is a setting to change that behaviour. Working in an Adobe unsupported environment with a big SMB file share, remote desktops, I was curious how to optimise as best as possible our Illustrator workflow.

I could imaging a setting like update links only when opening and saving a file would be great.

[MikeEscoMP]

Thanks.

I would love to keep this feature turned on.

But with the new M1 Mac Pro/Mac OS Monterey, and using Google Shared Drives, Illustrator keeps thinking the files have updated every 5 seconds, when really there have been no changes to the file at all. I think this is either on Google or Apple to fix, since it's happening in Non-Adobe applications as well. 

Needless to say it has been super frustrating having a pop-up break your workflow constantly.

Hoping it's fixed in the near future.

[Met1]

It's probably because you are working off a network, not a working practice I would recommend.

[MikeEscoMP]

Touché.

The files are downloaded locally though. Still a problem with google seemingly refreshing the modified date/time. Was working fine on my old mac, even without the files being downloaded.

[stephanieo77691348]

one reason for doing this is I have mannyyyyy files that need to relinked and I couldnt add anything to library because the relink notification kept popping up

[S_Gans]

Just curious... if you don't want the ability to update it a linked image, why would you choose to link it? I don't mean this disrespectfully in any way - I'm genuinely curious, since to me, that's the only real benefit of linking. For me, if I didn't want the ability to update it, I'd be sure to embed it.

[Matthias_Schoeffl]

We are working with images which are linked in several Illustrator files.

[dDembicki]

S_Gans, i know this is way late for a response... but I wanted to share some rationale for when you would or would not link an image, and why you would want it to NOT update automatically.

When you are working with a file that has linked images, they are linked for a few reasons.

1. Not having to re-place (reposition, resize) every time you update the file.
2. If the updated file is linked to many documents, you only need to update the one and the rest will follow. 
3. If' you're working with a template where you place art in the same place as the same size, regardless of the dimensions of the original artwork.

I design packaging for print. For each project, we create a presentation template so that placement of versions of the same art will be the same from page to page, and all the following revision presentations will have the updated art in the same place. In my case, I'm working on artwork that is very large and doesn't fit on letter sized paper, so I work in another document at full size and then place that art into my presentation template. Then when I pass that artwork to the production team to make it happen, all the spatial proportions etc between elements are already completed, and they can take my working file and run with it. 

I have run into situations where I'm working on the presentation doc, and all my "actual" work is in the working files linked to the presentation doc, and they are also open. Every time I save one of the working files, a dialog box comes up asking if I want to update the links in the presentation doc (because my prefs are set to Ask). It comes up on top of everything, not when you switch back to the document with the linked images, which personally I find annoying, but this is expected behavior. I'm saving my working doc so I don't lose anything, but I'm not finished with it yet and I don't want to update it in the file to which my working docs are linked. 

Therefore, I can totally understand why Matthias would want to have better control over these dialog boxes. Hope that helps!