Data Merge Picture Location Issues – Can't Find Photos Due to File Path Error

[CSIPrinting]

I don't know what is happening. I was able to pull photos in a data merge in the past without issues. But now it's not working correctly.

When it goes to pull the photo location to place the pictures, it keeps popping up that it can't find them because of the source file. It brings up this error:

The first half of that location is where the .csv file is saved.

/Volumes/New Artwork/Artwork to Print/ARTWORK/Dealers/Dealer#4600-4699/4649 Interstate Ford/Holiday Cards/Drew Schendel/List/

and the second half is where the picture is saved. 

S:\Calendar Cropped Photos\4649\0558856_0558856-R1-019-10.jpg

I don't know why it keeps thinking that they need to be together. I've checked the original Excel File and the CSV file to make sure they were written correctly and they are.

I've even made brand new files and put all the information in brand new. And this is still happening.

We work on a really big server and different things are saved in different areas of the server. It is not realistic to move the photos to where the rest of our stuff is. That would take hours to go grab them. I've done this easily with other things, however, the list and the pictures were within close proximity (still not in the same folders though). I had no issue before.

How do I get it to pull correctly?

Let me know if you need more information at all.

<Title renamed by MOD>

[CSIPrinting]

UPDATE: We realized the Excel Sheet was created and originally came from a PC User. And we currently use Apple. So I changed up the file path to match the way Apple can read it. It got us closer. But still not working correctly. You can see that here: https://imgur.com/a/pudK7s0

We tried many different ways to write this. using the actual Server name/number and adding and taking out different parts of the path.

We are no longer getting stuck with the first half as mentioned in the original post, but we can't figure out how to tell it where to go.

[Joel Cherney]

Does it usually work for you, to have WIndows S:\style paths for the server for the picture file and Mac style /Volume/etc path for the CSV? I'd expect that you'd want all your paths to be in the same kind of platform-specific format, but I don't know, as it's been a while since I ran a Mac at home, and even longer since I used one in a Windows shop. 

Also, does it usually work for you to have that hash mark (#) in the middle of your path? I haven't dealt with anything Mac-related in a few years, but it may well be one of those characters that causes a Windows file path to choke but works just fine in macOS. I'd try the merge without a path with a hash mark in it, just on GPs. 

[CSIPrinting]

We must have posted at the same time.

I did switch all the style paths to be Mac Style. The # does work in Mac but is part of the section that we didn't want. I've been able to get it really close but still not there.

I went back to the file I used a year ago that used this same method. I opened it and immediately tried merging and I get the same error. So I think something broke when InDesign Updated (either this most recent update or if there was an update in the last 8 months or so). So it no longer works on my computer at all. I do not have a PC with InDesign on it that I can try so see if it's a Mac issue. Here is a picture from when I tried with the old file: https://imgur.com/a/pudK7s0

I can try Monday on one of my CoWorkers PCs. They are not setup for graphics at all but we can temp try it and see if it's a Mac issue or an InDesign issue.

[Joel Cherney]

I do recall some discussion somewhere of recent changes (either in v19 or v20) regarding platform independent file paths. But my first question is going to be "how sure are you that there actually is an image at /Photodisk/Calendar Cropped Photos/et cetera?" Your described method of "adding things and taking things out of the path" is maybe not the most straightforward way to get where you're going. What's the path to the images? 

I don't know if this is still relevant, but back in April of this year apparently Data Merge couldn't find images referenced with absolute paths on macOS. 

[leo.r · Accepted solution]

These are not valid Mac paths:

They should start with /Volumes/Photodisk/...

These paths are also not valid at all:

It looks like a POSIX folder path to which is an HFS path to a file is appended.

You must use POSIX paths to your files only.

You can Option-Right click a file in the Finder, then select "Copy as pathname" to get its POSIX path.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@CSIPrinting

You have some "#" and ":" in the middle of the File Paths - abd it looks like there is Mac beginning and then full PC path anyway? 

Can you post FULL csv file? 

If you can't - then start "divide & conquer" approach - split your file in half - see which part will load - then keep splitting in half - then post here smaller file. 

[CSIPrinting]

SOLVED!!!

I came in with some new eyes over the weekend and looked at all the comments I received here and on reddit and was able to find what had changed and how to fix it for the future.

If you go to this page from Adobe, you'll see they mention that Apple has phased out HFS paths as of macOS versions 10.0-10.9. In the most recent update of InDesign, Adobe switched to using HFS to POSIX-style paths. This guarantees compatibility with all future macOS updates.

So a year or so ago, I was able to use,

Macintosh HD:Users:labuser:Desktop:1.pdf

But with all the updates it now has to look like this:

/Users/labuser/Desktop/1.pdf

For my specific issue, I had to switch the PC path formatting from backslash to forward slash. I then had to add on /Volumes to the beginning of my path to get the correct path for macOS. (S: = Photodisk)

So I went from this (the PC path):

S:\Calendar Cropped Photos\4649\0558856_0558856-R1-019-10.jpg

To this (the macOS path):

/Volumes/Photodisk/Calendar Cropped Photos/4649/0558856_0558856-R1-019-10.jpg

Now it works without any issues. Thank you everyone! Hopefully my struggle helps someone else in the future.