Can't remove links without updating them.

[Laura...]

So. I've got hundreds of text boxes with linked Excel data. Many of them have been edited in InDesign, so the content from the linked Excel files is out of date. If I could just unlink the content, that would be perfect. But here's the thing: there's no option to unlink.

When linked content is out of sync with the source, the only options are to update the link or relink. The option to remove the link for text content only appears for updated links. (See the attached screenshot.)

Looking around for solutions, the only answer I've found is to copy-paste the content into a new text box. That's not really practical when you're talking about hundreds of precisely positioned text boxes.

Suggestions?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Should be pretty easy to automate through scripting - the copy&paste operation - can you share sample INDD file? 

[Laura...]

Sure -- here's a fragment of the file.

[Laura...]

Still looking for a solution here. Any suggestions?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Sorry, looks like I've missed your last message 😞

Unfortunately, you can't just delete link - you need to delete its parent - in this case TextFrame:

main();

function main()
{
var  doc = app.activeDocument;

    for (var i = doc.links.length-1; i >= 0 ; i--) 
    {
        if (doc.links[i].status == 1819109747)
        {
            doc.links[i].parent.textContainers[0].remove();
        };
    };
};

You need to save this code as "DeleteMissingLinks.js" - or something like that 😉 - into scripts folder - easiest way for you will be to hover over any USER script in Scripts Panel and:

... so you can get into the right folder - then use Notepad or something and save as Plain Text.