InDesign Share for Review Error

[MelissaM1024]

Hi, I'm trying to use the Share for Review feature and keep getting the error: There was an error creating the artifact. I am using InDesign version 16.2.1 and Windows 10.

Thanks for any help!

[Laubender]

Hi Melissa,

something went wrong with PDF Export that happened "under the hood".

Could you export your document to PDF (Print) with an PDF/X-4 preset without any error?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[MelissaM1024]

Yes, I can export to PDF/X-4 fine. I did get the following warning though: 

[Laubender]

Hi Melissa,

I think, we can ignore this error for now.

Hm. What could we check next?

"Creating the artifact" in essence means, that a temp PDF file is written to your system volume. And that failed for whatever reason. Hard to tell why, now that your PDF export principally is working.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[MelissaM1024]

Thanks. Is there anything else I can try to get this feature to work?

[Laubender]

Sorry, no idea.

Instead using Share for Review you could share an exported PDF with your customers stored on Dropbox or a similar service. That PDF could contain PDF Annotations ( also known as PDF Comments ) . InDesign has a panel to work with PDF Comments. More on this:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/import-pdf-comments.html

Note: Not all types of PDF Annotations from Acrobat Pro or Adobe Reader can be seen as PDF Comments in the InDesign panel.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[MelissaM1024]

Thank you. My SMEs actually don't know how to annotate a PDF or don't have access to due to a lower version of Acrobat. They only know how to annotate in Word. I wanted to see if they would be able to use the annotate function in Share for Review.

[Rebekah295847136svq]

I just had this same issue and the only thing that worked for me was to close out other InDesign documents. Once I only had the document I wanted to share open, I was able to use the Share for Review feature. It might be important to note that I had already successfully shared the document for review and was trying to update the link. 

[jsk1979]

I just had the same error, it's quite a heavy .pdf though.

[christinaderby]

I'm also having the same issue with both large and small files. The updates that I make do appear for others to review. However it is annoying to get the error. Seems that there still are a lot of bugs that Adobe needs to fix with the Share feature. 

[Laubender]

Hi @christinaderby ,

I wonder if that could be a permission issue of your file system.

What's your operating system's version?

Has InDesign granted access to your User folder?

My guess is that the temp PDF file, the artifact, is stored there.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[christinaderby]

Are there instructions on how to fix this? I would need our IT department to look at it. Thanks

[Laubender]

Hi @christinaderby ,

sorry, I'm not aware of any instructions in this direction.

It's just a guess. I can be wromg on this.

What's your exact version of macOS ?

What's your exact version of InDesign?

Are any other InDesign documents open when the error happens?

Is the InDesign document part of an InDesign book file?

I would test with only one single document open, could be a workaround only to have one document open.

What I can do is to trace the temp artifacts and get the folder where it's stored on my system.

Done. So the artifact is stored in the cache folder for InDesign. The path of that folder for my German InDesign is this:

/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version 18.0/de_DE/Artifact

Note:

The Library folder in your user folder is invisible by default.

You can still navigate to it, at least in macOS 12.6.8, if you are in the Finder and use the menu command Go To, hold the Alt/Option key, then the Library folder will be listed.

Instead of the de_DE in my German system your Artifact folder should be in a en_EN folder perhaps. Depending on the localisation of your version of InDesign. If you are using InDesign 2022 for example the version folder's name would be Version 17.0, according to the main version number of InDesign.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi @christinaderby 

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Would you mind trying the steps shared below:

Sign out of the InDesign & CC Desktop app.
Close CoreSync & all Adobe-related processes from the Task Manager/Activity Monitor.
Reboot the system.

Sign back in on the CC Desktop app and launch InDesign from there.

Once you have launched, please try again and let us know if this resolves the issue or if you need further assistance.

Thanks
Rishabh

[Aaron245078679xo3]

I am getting the same error. I have had to delete the link and create a new share for review link to resolve this (not ideal when trying to get clients to buy into the Adobe browser-based review process). I have been able to recreate the error and found, for my particular project, that when I add or take away a spread that is bookmarked and/or has an interactive button that, when triggered to an assigned spread that is bookmarked, this error appears. It's something in the background that breaks the share feature when the bookmark links have been broken. 

[Jeremy@M · Accepted solution]

This happens to me waaaay too much for simple changes (not removing spreads with bookmarks like you mentioned), like making text edits. I've been aware of this since day one of this feature being "released."

When updating links, I always:

1. make sure to save my document before publishing changes
2. ensure nothing resource-intensive is going on in the background (on computer in general)
3. ensure that my internet connection is working
4. double and triple-check that my internet connection is working
5. Click the update button
6.  Wait for the wheels to stop spinning before touching anything (this is crucial)
7. Save the document again after changes are made (if it is successful)

(Yes I have a modern computer with a stable release of ID)

I usually have a 60% success rate when updating share-for-review docs. I once contacted Adobe phone support and it was pretty clear that they were aware of this yet tried to turn it on "user error" and could not come up with any solutions besides "unshare and reshare," despite mentioning several times that there is a comment history that will be lost if I proceed with their suggestion.

My company pays way too much money to them for this issue to be effectively ignored for two years now. Whenever I'm working with stakeholders who need to review critical documents, I always feel like I have to walk on eggshells and frame it up that "there's a chance that we may lose all of our comments and I'll have to send a new link," which of course always goes over well.

I really like that there are a lot of challenger apps becoming more available on the market so we won't have to rely on Adobe much further.

[iand96374149]

My company pays way too much money to them for this issue to be effectively ignored for two years now. Whenever I'm working with stakeholders who need to review critical documents, I always feel like I have to walk on eggshells and frame it up that "there's a chance that we may lose all of our comments and I'll have to send a new link," which of course always goes over well.

I really like that there are a lot of challenger apps becoming more available on the market so we won't have to rely on Adobe much further.

By Jeremy@M

Absolutely this. It's embarassing to have to keep tell my clients to see another Link, and that their previous comments willl have disappeared...
SORT IT OUT ADOBE!

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing the feedback. I understand your concern, in case if it happens, please create a post with sufficient details like the version of InDesign & OS. We'll try our best to assist you.

Thanks

Rishabh

[Jeremy@M]

Okay, that will be a lot of separate threads.; pretty much every incremental version of InDesign I've used in the past couple of years.

[Krista26520851qyto]

The entire thread is a post with sufficient detail. The entire Share For Review process has been faulty and buggy since it was released. We ALL are having the same issue that we can't update the link after we publish it at least 50% of the time. It's an ADOBE PROBLEM, not a user problem. Making the users continue to provide insane hoops to jump through just for Adobe to say "Hm, sounds like a you problem" is ridiculous. This feature should be working. It's been released for several years at this point. My company spends $15,000 a year on Adobe subscriptions and we can't use this simple feature. 

[Krista26520851qyto]

And making us rename a bunch of directory folders over and over again IS NOT a solution. 

[erinb48733158]

I am also experiencing this issue. When trying to update content on the Share for Review panel, I get "There was an error updating the artifact." I am using the most updated version at the time of this comment (19.2), have an updated OS system (Sonoma 14.4). I saved a copy of the document and it worked again for about 15 minutes and then threw the error again. At this point, there are multiple comments on the Share for Review version that it will be labor intensive to re-save the document again. What are the workarounds for this? How do you clear the error?

[Alex33556277c083]

I am also experiencing the same issues as the other users posting in this thread. Sharing and uploading worked at first, but then susequent attempts to update the layout when changes had been made had failed, producing the the same "Error Creating Artifact" message in the SHARE dialogue box.

The REVIEW feature is great for effecient workflow changes between Designer and Client ... when it works. When it doesn't its frustrating. The only workaround I found was to copy the link into an email. Not as fluid and seemless within the applciation, but it got the latest draft to the client.

Hope Adobe can put a fix together ASAP.

[jsk1979]

I stopped using this feature for a while. I had too many issues. Nowadays, I just import the comments that my clients make on the .pdf file that I send them for review. Not as fancy, but much more reliable.

[Krista26520851qyto]

That's what I have done too. I thought maybe it had been resolved so I started to use the feature again recently, and turns out, Adobe hasn't done anything with the reported issues in over two years. Continually providing new links, either Adobe PDF or ID based, to clients is messy and defeats the purpose. They need to address this issue.