Illustrator files MOVE unexpectedly when layers switched on/off when linked in Indesign.

[Matthew A]

I have a strange glitch with Indesign. I often reference layered Illustrator files into Indesign, then use the 'object layer options' to toggle frames on/off.

I have turned off content aware fit under Preferences/General, and I have 'Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking' checked in File Handling preferences.

On a current file, if I switch off some layers in my Illustrator fiel via Indesign's Object layers dialogue, the Illistrator fiel moves to a totlaly new point in my Indesign page!!

This is unexpected and buggy behaviour that I havent noticed before with this common operation.

I made a little video to illustrate this — see how the silhouetted figure on one FIXED layer  moves when other illustrator layers are switched off!

Im not sure if this is a new bug or local to my particular pair of files...

thanks for looking...

[Peter Spier · Accepted solution]

That's very strange, and I wish I had a definitive answer for you.

I see two possibilities here, a bug, or a relationship to to the crop options when the file was placed, specifically if it was set to crop to Art.

This is pure conjecture, but if the crop is set to Art, and layers are hidden, the Art Box might be considered as different and the position adjusted accordingly. I would say this is only a possibility if some coordinate, say the upper left corner, of the frame remains in the same place. There's not enough showing inthe moivioe to know if that's the case.

[Peter Spier]

I suppose it's also possible the .indd file has some corruption. You can usually fix that by exporting to .idml, opeing that and saving as .indd with a new name, so that might be worth trying.

[Matthew A]

Thank you so much for your insight @Peter Spier  — I tried re-placing the .ai (set : Crop to 'Crop') and now it's behaving as expected 🙂

Nailed it!

[Peter Spier]

Glad you got it to work.