InDesign CS4 Package/Collect for Output - Missing links problem

[_JAD_the_mad_]

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.

[Guest]

When I was digging through my images for backslashes, I decided to just use Spotlight and search for /.  I targeted just the image folder. I returned a bunch of results, but only a handful of them actually had a / in their filename.

So, I can confirm that I too had images with a / in their name when I experienced this problem...

But, I also wonder what it is in those other images without the /  that made them come up in the search, AND does InDesign also consider those images to have /....

[Phil1947]

After 15 years, I've recently switched from Quark to InDesign. My old job files easily convert using Q2ID. Thus, when I needed to reprint two of those old jobs I tried to Package them for delivery to my printer. No-go. Since these had both been Exported for Output in Quark before with no problem, I naturally blamed some quirk with InDesign. But other converted jos had previously been packaged without a problem. Why these two? I don't tend to use a / in a file name, but even on the rare occasion when I had in the past, that has never caused a problem before in Quark. Sure enough: a quick search found two image file names which included a /...including the very first on each list, so, from what's been discussed already, that's got to be why none of the images had been collected. Once those names were corrected, and the links updated, I was able to successfully package both jobs.

[DonHammond]

I am not suggesting that the backslash is the source for everybody's problems in CS4 packaging—I have my doubts about that—but in my case I went through my image files and found one that I'd gotten from a client with a backslash in it. Once I got rid of it, everything packaged up fine.

Don Hammond

Ann Arbor

[I_meant_to_thank_u_Gerald]

We're having the same problem here. It appears to happen very randomly for me. The last time, I managed to fix the problem by correcting any missing suffixes or inconsistent ones (fine on a small job with only 20 images). It seems if one file is incorrect it just stops collecting there. It doesn't like .tif .jpg .eps suffixes to be missing or if one file ends .TIF and all others are lower case .tif, it starts to play up too . . . but then again most of the time it completely ignores these rules and collects fine, so very unreliable and annoying.

[G.Singelmann]

Did you do the update to 6.0.2?

[I_meant_to_thank_u_Gerald]

Thank you, have done this now. Is this the solution or just a recommendation?

[G.Singelmann]

Both

6.0.2 claims to have solved this bug.

[Phil1947]

I had already updated to 6.0.2 (after I got an auto message a couple of days ago) but hadn't tried Packaging a job yet.

So I just went back and tried one that had given me trouble before (one with a pesky / in the file name of a linked image) and...VOILA! No problemo.

At least a good start. Don't know about the missing or inconsistent file type tags. Anybody?

[Jonibean]

It did fix the problem, I am happy to say.

[JAD_the_mad]

Seeing as I posted the original problem I thought I better make a comment... with a sigh of relief!

So there we have it, I guess the update fixed the problem. (I haven't tested it thoroughly yet but it looks promising)

Thank you everyone for taking the time to outline the problems you were having with this particular feature of InDesign CS4. I must say it's nice that there are some software companies out there that actually take comments seriously.

But before I go I have one small note to Bob Levine - next time don't be too quick to dismiss bug reports as human errors or designers not knowing their software. Looking back at your comments on this forum they have not been very constructive to say the least, and are even patronising at times. We designers use this stuff day in day out, we know a bug when we see one.

Thanks again,

All the best,

JD

[BrandHOUSE]

Agreeing to all Jad_the_mad wrote.

[I_meant_to_thank_u_Gerald]

Yep, good work JD, glad you're all out there.

Thanks x

[Stephen MD]

Ditto from here as well, was a bad bug!!

Stephen

[G.Singelmann]

JD, there is certainly a danger when you know your app extremely well (as Bob does) and spend a lot of time in these forums. You see so very many cases of PEBCAK that you may see one too many where none is.

>we know a bug when we see one

If you had written "I know..." I wouldn't have objected. But in the form "We (all designers) know a bug..." the sentence is just simply wrong. Most designers I talk to do not even know the definition of a bug and cannot see the difference between "badly conceived" and "badly implemented".

Again: nothing against you personally. But experience shows that what you claim for yourself cannot be claimed for all users.

That said: yes, what a bad bug. Package used to be so reliable.

[Stix_Hart]

In support of Bob I don't see you on here answering people's questions!

Some people would find your 'We Designers" comment a bit patronising too!  No offence meant or intended.

[BobLevine]

Nobody dismissed anything. Questions were asked which you overlooked or intentionally dismissed.

Those questions were asked to help get to the root of the problem and to find out if it was indeed a bug.

"Bugs" get reported here constantly and almost all of them can be attributed to user error.

Bob

[BrandHOUSE]

Maybe some, it's a stretch to write almost all, as there was not one file with anything other than an alpha or numeric symbol to cause some of my files to package incorrectly.

In another life under another name I used to contribute greatly in here when I could, maybe there is a reason I don't anymore.

[BobLevine]

No...it's not a stretch at all.

Yes, bugs get uncovered here, but for the most part user error or system problems are to blame.

Bob

[NTC Ann]

Hi Bob, How nice to see a picture of you. Has anyone come up with a solution (without having to figure out a script for this and for CS3. My links are still linking to CS3. Thank you.

[NTC Ann]

I meant my links are still linking to old folders in CS3 and when I go to the document to size them, they are still in the old location.

[Guest]

Hi all,

I came across the same prob that everyone was having - only 5 links packaging out of 47- so fixed file names etc and did all as suggestioned as posted but nothing worked.

Until...

One of my files was being linked from my backup drive that Time Machine uses. Once I replaced the file using the file from my actual harddrive, it packaged! (Don't ask me how I placed the file off of the backup drive in the first place - I have no idea)

Hope this solves the problem for some!

[Jonibean]

I am having this problem too, and it is going to take a lo-o-o-o-ng time to do it manually. Someone said to get update 6.02, but I only see 6.01 on the updates page. Where did you find the newest one?

[Kenneth C. Benson]

Help > Updates

Ken Benson

[Jonibean]

Thanks so much. I will try that.

[Jonibean]

I only get 42 out of 193 links when I packaged my file.