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2

Illustrator file does not appear correctly when imported to InDesign

Participant ,
Nov 02, 2025 Nov 02, 2025

So I have sets of illustration in separated artboard (same layer) in Illustrator. But when I am importing it to InDesign, some parts of the illustration is missing. It occurs on some illustration, especially reused graphic asset from Freepik. 

Funny enough, this isn't happening using the previous version of Indesign. Right now I am using the current latest 21.0 (not beta).

 

What I have done for the workaround;

  • saved into a new file, only the error artboard. not working.
  • saved the error artboard into EPS, works. But I wish everything works in native format. 

 

illustration in Adobe Illustratorillustration in Adobe IllustratorImported to InDesignImported to InDesign

TOPICS
Import and export , Performance
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correct answers 2 Correct answers

Community Beginner , Nov 13, 2025 Nov 13, 2025

I have found that if I copy and paste into a new Illustrator document and import that, it fixes my issue. But I should not need to do this.

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Adobe Employee , Nov 26, 2025 Nov 26, 2025

Hi Markus Toffe,

Thank you for reaching out. As per the latest comment here. The issue seems to be resolved in our latest beta version, 30.2.12.

We kindly request that you update and share your feedback.

Awaiting your response.

Thanks,
Harshika

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correct answers 2 Pinned Replies

Adobe Employee , Nov 10, 2025 Nov 10, 2025

Hi everyone,

 

Thank you for your patience. I checked with our product team about this behavior, where certain Illustrator (v30.0) files appear partially or drop colors when placed in InDesign 2026 (v21.0). The team is aware of similar reports from the community and UserVoice and is currently investigating them.

Currently, we have been unable to reproduce the issue internally. Having your affected Illustrator and InDesign files will greatly assist us in narrowing down the issue. If possible, ple

...
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Adobe Employee , Nov 14, 2025 Nov 14, 2025

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks so much for sharing your files and observations. The product team is actively working on this, and the latest updates are being posted on the UserVoice report for this issue. Please keep an eye on the thread here for progress and fixes as they roll out: https://adobe.ly/3WXLj3A

If you notice any new behavior, feel free to share it, so we can work on it.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek
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Explorer ,
Nov 06, 2025 Nov 06, 2025

I'm trying to reproduce the problem myself with a dummy file, but since it occurs at random I can't seem to 'trigger' it right now. I did upload my system info, and a screenshot is in my initial post.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 18, 2025 Nov 18, 2025

I've been having the same RANDOM issue with AI files not dispaying properly when placed in InDesign, and this only started happening about a month ago, after a couple of Illustrator and InDesaign updates. (can't recall which one).

After a long time of testing, I figured out a quick fix for Illsutrtor files no displaying right. I opend the Illustrator file in question,  and I made a NEW LAYER, and moved the artwork to that new layer,  deleted the old layer, saved the files, then updated the link in InDesign,  and that finally worked!

This seems like an Illustrator layer problem where is somehow renders OLD artwerok that was moved or edited, and then the file re-saved. This has randomly happened with bth new and old illustratort files. Adobe, you need to get your act together with all these udates that keep breaking things!! Or stop releasing updates until you test them properly!!

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2025 Nov 06, 2025

I had previously posted a new thread about the bug here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/50643335-illust...

 

Here is an example ai-document that has the bug: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10USCi-VXLvZ0YneUNZUYznUOQyVOCDNh/view?usp=drive_link

Try opening it in e.g. Photoshop or placing it in InDesign, then comapre with opening in Illustrator. You get very different versions.

 

To fix it, all you have to do is re-save the file, and then it is fine. So it's not consistent, and I've been unable to reproduce it on purpose.

 

Encountered originally (for a colleague) multiple times on version 29.8.2, and encountered two days ago for me on version 30. Both on Windows 11. Background save was ON for both of us, and the files are located on a network share.

---

Since it has happened at least a few times, we now have to manually check every time we save a file if it is actually properly saved (by checking it in InDesign/FrameMaker/etc. to verify the latest changes are included). Not great. But hopefully the tip about disabling "background save" might help (time may tell).

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Community Expert ,
Nov 12, 2025 Nov 12, 2025

Here's another file from last week showing the bug: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X2D695VgrQBh4jFbcBqubhudMPiy8mFs/view?usp=sharing

The gray square bottom left is in the PDF version but not in the AI version. Re-saving fixes it. Annoying. We have hundreds of illustrator files, and no way of knowing if any of them are bugged at any point without visually comparing the file in AI and another app. 😬

 

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Community Expert ,
Nov 05, 2025 Nov 05, 2025

@JonasRogne  schrieb:

Yeah, having similar issues. The embedded PDF preview showing an outdated version of the file. I have a single layer...


 

Does it help when you turn off "Save in background" and then save?

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Community Expert ,
Nov 06, 2025 Nov 06, 2025

Just a regular save is sufficient to fix the file. It happens too rarely, and I'm unable to reproduce it at will. So far I have seen it a total of two times myself (on v29 and v30, with two different users with two different files).

I have left my background save on, and turned it off for the other user. No way to tell if it has made any difference yet. Will post more details in another reply.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 13, 2025 Nov 13, 2025

I have been having this issue too with graphs that I have created from scratch in Illustrator. For me, it doesn't drop colours, but it moves columns around and doesn't put them in the same place. And this is not something I can outline and expand, as I need to update the numbers as needed.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 13, 2025 Nov 13, 2025

I have found that if I copy and paste into a new Illustrator document and import that, it fixes my issue. But I should not need to do this.

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 14, 2025 Nov 14, 2025

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks so much for sharing your files and observations. The product team is actively working on this, and the latest updates are being posted on the UserVoice report for this issue. Please keep an eye on the thread here for progress and fixes as they roll out: https://adobe.ly/3WXLj3A

If you notice any new behavior, feel free to share it, so we can work on it.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek
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New Here ,
Nov 20, 2025 Nov 20, 2025

Hi Abhishek, I find that if I delete any empty layers in Illustrator, the linked Illustrator file tends to appear in InDesign correctly. Also, I've had a couple of Template layers cause the links not appearing correctly. Might be worth looking into to solve the above issue.

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New Here ,
Nov 23, 2025 Nov 23, 2025

I am having a similar issue.  When I move my illustrator file into InDesign the clipping mask in incorrectly applied.  The screen shot is from InDesign.

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 26, 2025 Nov 26, 2025
LATEST

Hi Markus Toffe,

Thank you for reaching out. As per the latest comment here. The issue seems to be resolved in our latest beta version, 30.2.12.

We kindly request that you update and share your feedback.

Awaiting your response.

Thanks,
Harshika

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