Hyperlinks Disappearing in InDesign

[Didiero]

I am working on a catalog with around 700 text hyperlinks to web URLs that I inserted by hand which is a tedious and time consuming process. I first had the part with the hyperlinks in a separate document for easier management. When the linking was finished I copied the whole text with the links over into the layout of the final catalog. After that I noticed that a substantial part of those links was missing for no apparent reason and with no system behind it. I had to fix those links in the layout. I typically regularly save numerbed versions of my layouts to document my progress. Now I notice that again a huge part of the links is gone simply by saving the document into a new version. What is going on there?

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[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @DidierO,

I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble with disappearing hyperlinks—it sounds like a frustrating issue, especially with so many links involved. To better assist you, could you please provide a bit more detail on the following:

1. Are the hyperlinks disappearing from both the text and the final layout, or just from one of these?
2. Could you let us know the version of InDesign you're using and your operating system details?
3. Are you working with any specific styles or text formatting that might be affecting the hyperlinks?
4. Have you noticed any pattern to when the links disappear (e.g., after a specific action or saving)?

In the meantime, you might try the following steps:
- Ensure that your document and links are not being affected by any third-party plugins or scripts.
- Check if there are any updates available for InDesign.
- As a precaution, consider saving a copy of your document with the hyperlinks as a separate file before making major changes.

I look forward to your response and am here to help with any additional questions!

Thank you, 
Abhishek Rao 

[Didiero]

Thank you for getting back on me Abhishek! 

I am using Indesgin version 19.5 on M1 Macs with Sonoma 14.6.1., but I don't need no more assistance: I have found the culprit. When I copied the text with the many link URLs over into the final layout it changed all links to links that point to the original document and then to the URL (see screenshot, unfortunately in German as Adobe software only comes in one language contrary to all other software on my Mac). The reason for this is beyond me, I would never have expected such a strange behavior. The breaking of the links then happened when I moved the original document to my archive and Indesign could not find it any more. The most annoying thing here is that you do not get any kind of warning that this important resource is missing. No warning when opening the document and no warning when exporting the PDF. Therefore I sent a PDF with truckloads of broken links to my clients asking them to test the links. They must have thought I'm crazy. The links export fine when the original document is present. Since those links are just absolute Internet URLs it makes no sense whatsoever to tie them to a second Indesign document.

Also I just noticed that the hyperlink pallet is not reliable when showing the function of the hyperlinks. I found four links that were shown in green although there was simply no link associated. I had to go through all 700+ links manually to find those missing links. 

Thanks again

Dietmar

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Didiero

What do you mean by "disappearing"?

Only on the pallet or physically in the text? 

If you export PDF - are they there and working? 

Can you show some example Hyperlinks in the text - InDesign is "picky" if there is no "https" at the beginning of the hyperlink and reports it as "broken" - or if there is no http/https at all. 

[Didiero]

Thank you for getting back on me Robert!

I meant that the link text ist still there but the link target is gone and cannot be clicked in the interactive PDF.

I have found the culprit in the meantime. When I copied the text with the many link URLs over into the other document it changed all links to links that point to the original document and then to the URL (see screenshot, unfortunately in German as Adobe software only comes in one language contrary to all other software on my Mac). The reason for this is beyond me, I would never have expected such a strange behavior. The breaking of the links happened when I moved the original document to my archive and Indesign could not find it any more. The most annoying thing here is that you do not get any kind of warning that this important resource is missing. No warning when opening the document and no warning when exporting the PDF. Therefore I sent a PDF with truckloads of broken links to my clients asking them to test the links. They must have thought I'm crazy. The links export fine when the original document is present. Since those links are just absolute Internet URLs it makes no sense whatsoever to tie them to an external Indesign document.

Alos I just noticed that the pallet is not reliable when showing the function of the hyperlinks. I just found four links that were shown green although there was simply no link associated. I had to go through all 700+ links manually to find those. Experiences like these bring me so much closer to finally making the switch to Affinity.

Thanks again

Dietmar

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

So your original links were URL - but somehow switched / converted to "document"?

How often are you doing Save As with a new name - or only Save? 

[Didiero]

I originally had two documents: I had one document that I just used to implement all those numerous links in one big text box and another document with the final layout of the whole brochure with many other pages that have nothing to do with those links. I naively thought I can just copy the whole text containing the links over to the layout document when I'm finished with the linking process. But it did not copy the URLs "as is", it changed them to links pointing to the first document. When I hover over a link in the pallette it shows the name of this Indesign document directly followed by the URL (see photo, sorry for the Moiré, but a screenshot did not work). When the first document is present it will export the links just fine. But when the document is not found it will also export the PDF without giving any warning but the PDF will not contain any clickable links. Very annoying and not professional in my book. I am too late in the production process to change all those links to pure URLs because I found no fast way to accomplish this. 

I quite often save with a new name, mostly when I send a new version of my progess to the clients as a PDF. Therefore the PDF names correspond with the .indd names.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Can you check in the original / "good" document - how link looks like when you try to edit it?

If you can share your document - on priv - just INDD file - I can try to fix them for you.

[Didiero]

Robert, this is super nice, thank you, but I think I'm okay now that I have understood what happened. I'm pretty sure that I can export one final working interactive PDF now. These links change on a yearly basis anyway so a year from now I will have to go through the process again. And I will not work with two documents then, that's for sure! I will also experiment with importing links from Word, maybe the linking can be done on the client side.

Thank you again for your assistance!