InDesign CS4 Package/Collect for Output - Missing links problem

Report · Jan 12, 2009

I posted this on the PC forum by mistake so I apologise for doubling up on the message for those who have found the same message twice. As far as I know this is a Mac only problem!

Having recently freelanced in 3 design studios since the CS4 release, the Collect for Output problem within InDesign seems to be widespread. I've seen this happen on a range of machines from a G5's to laptops. All have been running the latest version of Leopard.

For some unknown reason any document created in older versions of Indesign that is opened in IndDesign CS4 does not collect all the linked files when it's packaged. All preflight checks are fine, the new live preflight feature shows green light, I even tried re linking all files to a new source folder containing all links and it still only randomly collects one third of the needed linked files with no obvious pattern emerging between the files omitted, i.e clipping paths, colour profiles, file types.

The worst thing is that it happens randomly on documents created fresh in InDesign CS4 as well so I'm having trouble trying to pinpoint where the problem stems from.

This is driving people crazy, and I can see that it's going to be a major pain for numerous design agencies. I hope Adobe sorts this out quick or it's back to CS3 for most of us who charge for our time. I guess I can always send Adobe the bill for the time spent manually collecting all files for a job!!

Please no obvious suggestions on preflight settings as it's happening to people with twenty plus experience in the business.

Thanks for reading the post.

Report · Jan 12, 2009

With all your experience you managed to ignore the various questions
posed in that other thread. There are a number reasons links would be
ignored in a package.

If you post one of the files, we can take a look.

Bob

Report · Jan 12, 2009

I have the same problem with CS4 with collecting linked files.
I work with G5pro Leopard 10.5.6
I never update a new version again, i will wait at least one year in the future

Geert Westerhof

Report · Jan 12, 2009

Bob,

Please explain why the problem would occur in multiple documents on different machines all of which are documents successfully packaged on previous versions of Indesign. We are talking about documents with no known preflight issues here. Documents that have only been amended in IndesignCS4 and packaged for reprint. This is a serious CS4 problem.

Any reasonable suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
JD

Report · Jan 12, 2009

Like I said, post the file so we can take a look. If the images are
linked and on live pages (not the pasteboard) then there's a problem
somewhere, but without seeing the file there's nothing else I can offer.

I need to see the file. It's a very rare occasion when I use the package
feature so if there's a bug I'd be the last person to find it.

Bob

Report · Jan 12, 2009

Thanks Bob, and thanks for the offer but at the studio where the problem is happening currently they are working on a large file and it has over 600 links to different items for a catalogue. I don't have any permission to send you this for copyright reasons and recreating the problem on a smaller scale is difficult as it generally happens randomly. Having talked to the design staff today the links on the mentioned document have all been moved to a single source folder and relinked from fresh. However, this morning on opening the document some links were listed as missing again. I doubt the problem can be solved by looking at the Indesign file, the problem has to be deeper than this.

If you can outline what you suggest to look at by studying the document then I might be able to get them to release a small part of it.

Regards,
JD

Report · Jan 12, 2009

I can only think of a couple of things off the top of my head...number
one, make sure that the links are valid and that nothing is missing,
two, check to make sure everything is on a live page, not the paste
board, and last, check to be sure the graphics aren't already embedded.

Bob

Report · Jan 13, 2009

Thanks for the suggestions Bob but I'm afraid it's not that easy to pin down. I'm hoping someone from Adobe will read this post and that people will ad to it as I've heard of another company today who's had the same problem after installing CS4.

Manual file collection is not good news! I guess we just have to wait for an update :(

JD

Report · Jan 13, 2009

Unfortunately with nothing to go on, I'm out of ideas. But I will tell
you that as the name implies, this is a user to user forum, not a direct
line to Adobe.

If you're convinced this a bug, report it using this form:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

Bob

Report · Jan 21, 2009

Hi JAD the mad,

we have the same problem on our machines here at work regarding the randomness of the Indesign CS4 package function collecting links.

The office has recently upgraded to all new Power Mac G5's with Mac OS X Version 10.5.6. 2x2.8Ghz 4GB RAM, a new server and all new Adobe CS4 packages.

Another user on the forum also has the same problem he said:

nguyen khanh duy - 7:40am Nov 23, 08 PST (#31 of 67)

I have a problems with my document created with Adobe Indesign CS4.
I can not package the file with its links into a folder. Sometimes a few files are collected, but when I convert all the images into CMYK color space, none of them were collected.

My documents contains 70 links and 140 pages.
So when I need to collect links, I convert the document into CS3 INX file and use Indesign CS3 to collect the links.

I've tried with other document with hundreds of links and all or them are 100 pages. All the links were collected. (offcourse with CS4)

Please help me. Thank you very much

As for our specific problem,

We have files which do not package all the links properly. Indesign only packages a random amount of the links into the new folder. There seems to be no consistency with regard to file type, size, colour profile or location. The pre-flight shows a green light and this error seems to occur randomly. It is very annoying if we are working on the local hard drive and have links there and on the server and then want to package everything to upload to the server or to work on another computer. We have to find all the links and copy them individually to a new folder.

Saving as with a new file name does not help. Also copying all links to a new folder from the links pallet does not copy all the links. The error is disconcerting due to it's seemingly random occurrence. We have tried all the simple solutions and it seems very much like a bug in the software.

Does anyone else share this problem? It would be great to hear any suggestions or similar stories.

Regards

Steve

Report · Jan 22, 2009

Hi Steve,

I'm afraid I'm out of suggestions here, I've absolutely tried everything I can think of. It's definitely a bug. It's just shame it's a bug on such an important feature! I've lost count of the people I've heard about who are going back to CS3. I'm now thinking of doing the same.

Regards,
JAD

Report · Jul 30, 2009

I ended up in the wrong forum, but after reading the posts here I am now convinced that I am not crazy. I have been experiencing the same problems with a Windows system and CS3. No going back for me. I had hoped that Adobe had fixed the problem with CS4.

stearnscreative

Report · Jul 30, 2009

stearnscreative wrote:
I ended up in the wrong forum, but after reading the posts here I am now convinced that I am not crazy. I have been experiencing the same problems with a Windows system and CS3. No going back for me. I had hoped that Adobe had fixed the problem with CS4.
stearnscreative

Exactly what problems were you experiencing on Windows? Pretty hard to use an illegal character in a file name that originates on that platform.

I believe the essential problem was fixed, too, in the 6.0.3 update.

Report · Jul 30, 2009

Peter,

I think I was having the same issues that everyone was talking about. I would package a document and 2-3 out of 20 links were missing from the links folder. Since I work on a larger server. I was able to just go get the files manually and re-link them to the document. I never delete the files.

The issue with illegal characters could not have been the problem here. I am not allowed to use them in the file names and always have to include the program extension.

I just ordered the Creative Suite 4 upgrade...today....thanks for letting me know that the problem may have been fixed.

By the way, do you know anything about a different issue: When exporting a PDF from InDesign, the default file name is not the name of the file. It is a previously saved name of the file. For example, I take a document named "Blue Brochure" and do a save as to rename it "Green Brochure". When I export as a PDF it still thinks the document is named "Blue Brochure". Considering the program wants to save it to the last place I saved a PDF and not back to the origination folder, I could lose a document (large server with 100's of folders).

Jill Rogers

Graphic Designer

Stearns Packaging Corporation

Report · Jul 30, 2009

That happens if you export to PDF with a name that doesn't match the file name, and then save the document. It is a real pain in the posterior. It shouldn't happen if you don't change the PDF name from the original filename default.

Exporting to .inx might clear the PDF name info from an exisiting file -- haven't checked.

Report · Jul 30, 2009

And it doesn't seem reasonable to me that your missing links problem is the same unless these links originated on a Mac with illegal characters in the names. It's been so long since I got anything like that that I've forgotten what happens, exactly, but I think windows is happy to save the filename when you save from an email attachment, for example, but then can't use it. Are the links showing as up to date in the doc before you package?

Report · Jul 30, 2009

Peter,

These are files that have never seen a Mac. (As an experienced mac based designer, that is really sad.) Mostly photos that I shot or logos that were created in Illustrator CS3. And yes, The documents were current with no missing links. The only preflight error I got was that the images used a RGB color space instead of CMYK. Since, I was not going to an external printer, it did not matter to me, so, I let it package.

The reason I like to use package is because I want to collect the photos and keep them away from their original source so that I can change them to a 100% image import. I have a lot of problems if the image has been resized when I print to my Xerox Docucolor 240. They get really pixilated.

Jill Rogers

Graphic Designer

Stearns Packaging Corporation

(608) 246-5150

Report · Jul 30, 2009

Anything predictable or that stands out about the missing links? My first suspicion would be some sort of network issue.

Report · Jul 30, 2009

I'm gone for the day, so, I'll have to answer that one later.

Jill Rogers

Graphic Designer

Stearns Packaging Corporation

(608) 246-5150

Report · Jul 30, 2009

Fixed on latest update

Report · Feb 02, 2009

Hi,

I just experienced the same problem. I got a phonecall from a colleague saying that some of the links in the document I sent him were missing. I found this strange beacuse I was certain that I packaged the file before I sent it a few weeks ago.

Anyway to be certain I packaged the book file again, and I saw that only 13 of a total 33 links were packaged in the new links-folder.

I could easily see that the links missing were from 2 of the 4 documents in the book-file, and all of them were missing. I then tried to package one of the unique files, and experienced that the links weren't packaged at all, and no links folder was created.

This is spooky, beacuse I usually work with larger files than this, and I rarely check that all linked files are packaged.

I'm willing to send the complete document to Adobe, so that this can be checked out, if necessary.

best regards,
Rune

Report · Feb 02, 2009

I posted the link to report bugs earlier in this discussion. The more
people Adobe hears from the more attention it will get.

Bob

Report · Feb 02, 2009

Ok, thanks

Rune

Report · Feb 02, 2009

Add me to the list of Mac/Leopard users not being able package links correctly in CS4. No problem in CS3....

Report · Feb 10, 2009

Count us in as well. All the same symptoms, and nothing works. What needs to be done to escalate and get Adobe to create a patch? This is a real show stopper.