Error message when updating linked excel file import

[jesse63]

I was really looking forward to linking excel files to an annual report containing tons of tables. But all the preparations and good thoughts put into the project have been shattered, and I can't seem to figure out if it's a random thing or not:

Apparently, when I add or delete a row in the linked excel file, an error message appears when I update the link in Indesign stating "Cannot update link for xxxxxxx ... Please place the document again to reset the link". I don't get the message if I just edit the text or the figures.

The weird thing is, that when I opened another INDD document where the same linked spreadsheet also appeared (with modified number of rows), it updated fine, and the changes were reflected in the Indesign doc.

I use latest version of CC and Excel (Mac).

Hope to hear some thoughts from you knowledgeable people. It's frustrating. It's raining. It's monday.

Kind regards, Jes

[KNunnsey]

Disappointing this wasn't addressed. I'm having the same problem relinking a duplicate excel with new data. Exact same error.

[mikeklepacz]

I am having the same troubles right now. I just made 25 dog tags and used Excel to import the words and now I am getting this error and I want to pull my hair out.

[joanditac35763747 · Accepted solution]

I have also encounter this issue multiple times. After months of frustration, I figured that one of the reason that cause this error is the table formatting in indesign. This error happens on the tables if I put width value (see screenshot attached) on indesign. For all the tables where I do this treatment, they failed to update and I have to place the document again from scratch. 

Solution: create page guidelines on your master page, and adjust the table width by snapping them to the page guidelines.

[DavidO2025]

Received this error today after deleting a single row from an imported excel sheet.

My fix? I went to the bottom of my listings in Excel and added a space in each cell. Saved and was able to update back in InDesign. Much nicer than having to re-import some 20 tables across 8 pages. I'll need to update those tables properly at some point but this is a nice quick fix.

I've learned InDesign does not like null values in imported spreadsheets, so if you had a value somewhere previously, and delete it in Excel, sometimes it will refuse to update the sheet. InDesign also doesn't let us update the imported range(that I've found), so it will continue looking at the same range in excel, only now it sees an empty section because something above was deleted.

And this doesn't always apply, I added new items to the data, but didn't have some information and left it blank, and it updated fine. Seems particular to deletions, and also when a calculated field returns a null or empty value. If you're in Excel, you can use the IFERROR formula and have it add a " " in the event of an error if you are awaiting data to import in your document.