Participant

Answered

InDesign Share for Review Error

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
June 9, 2021
9 replies
9685 views

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!

Publish online

Correct answer Jeremy@M

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:

make sure to save my document before publishing changes
ensure nothing resource-intensive is going on in the background (on computer in general)
ensure that my internet connection is working
double and triple-check that my internet connection is working
Click the update button
Wait for the wheels to stop spinning before touching anything (this is crucial)
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.

L

LeaAnn33636999mpvs

Participant

I am receiving this error, and I have done everything as outlined in this answer. However, the link does appear to update even with the error. All the changes I have made did, in fact, update on the shared document link. I plan to report it but will continue to use the share feature. It is a much easier way to get feedback.

D

default21883955a44ijf

Participating Frequently

If you don't want to hunt through to verify changes you made were uploaded, you can also view the modification date at your review link. It's in the sidebar on the right, at the "i" icon.

keithconover

Inspiring

I have experienced the "spurious error" problem, but right now I have a Share for Review out for comment and the error is not spurious, the changes are not shown in the Share for Review.

I do not regard this issue as solved.

Uwe suggested it was a problem with a pre-existing file in the caches folder. On my Windows 11 system, this is: C:\Users\kcono\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version 19.0\en_US\Caches\Artifact. I tried closing InDesign, deleting everything in that folder, and trying again.

I can export my document to PDF (Print) with an PDF/X-4 preset without any error.

This is my computer information:

This is Task Manager after my computer is freshly rebooted:

This is Task Manager after rebooting and then starting InDesign with no file open:

This is after I open the file in question in InDesign:

Uwe suggested this might a problem with the cache folder. On my Windows 11 system, this is

C:\Users\kcono\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version 19.0\en_US\Caches\Artifact:

I tried moving everything in this folder to a subfolder (temp) and then updating the Share for Review. Got the same error, and this is what the cache folder looked like:

The Share for Review was again not updated online.

Given all the issues I've had with Share for Review, if I can't get this fixed in a week, I'm going to abandon it and badmouth it to everyone I can get to listen. Share for Review has such potential, but Adobe docsn't seem to be able to get it to where it works reliably. I did try to provide as much detail as I could, in the hopes that Adobe might be able to use this information to fix it. I certainly have failed.

D

default21883955a44ijf

Participating Frequently

I'm now seeing the same error. Initial generation of review links went smoothly, but now getting a persistent "Error creating the artifact" message. Have tried quitting and re-opening InDesign, making sure the file is saved.

This is an incredibly disruptive error, and it sounds like it's happening for others as well.

Our company is paying for Creative Cloud, and the client is paying our company for the work we're doing. Adobe: you're blowing it. Fix this.

edit: As we proceeded with this project updating the review link we sent the client, it turned out that regardless of the error message, the review link WAS in fact being updated correctly. We checked carefully to see the changes we'd made each time and they were showing up. So, it seems the error message is actually a false alarm, at least in our case. Very disruptive, though! It's no fun to have to abandon a review link with client comments attached -- especially when there isn't an actual problem "creating the artifact" to begin with.

A

Alex33556277c083

Participant

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.

J

jsk1979

Participating Frequently

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.

K

Krista26520851qyto

Participating Frequently

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.

A

Aaron245078679xo3

Participant

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.

J

Jeremy@MCorrect answer

Inspiring

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:

make sure to save my document before publishing changes
ensure nothing resource-intensive is going on in the background (on computer in general)
ensure that my internet connection is working
double and triple-check that my internet connection is working
Click the update button
Wait for the wheels to stop spinning before touching anything (this is crucial)
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.

I

iand96374149

Participating Frequently

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!

christinaderby

Participant

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.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

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

Participant

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

R

Rebekah295847136svq

Participant

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.

J

jsk1979

Participating Frequently

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

L

Laubender

Community Expert

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 )

M

MelissaM1024Author

Participant

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.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

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 )