InDesign Won't Package Properly?
Hi all! I'm running InDesign CC 2017 on my Mac (Sierra 10.12.2) and experiencing issues with packaging files. (It's probably noteworthy that I'm also connected to a server here at work, and that connection can sometimes be exceptionally slow.)
Here are the issues I'm experiencing, using one recent book layout as an example:
1) Not all links get packaged. It looks like InDesign skips out on about half of them, i.e. there was a document with 112 links and it packaged 65. I don't see a pattern in its selection process... but here's the really weird thing: if I try to manually add one of the links it missed inside the Links folder, I get a dialog box from Finder asking me if I want to replace it. In addition, if I right-click on a link I know was skipped from the packaged .indd file's Links panel, and ask it to reveal in Finder — I watch it suddenly appear in the Links folder in front of my eyes. The links are there, but not there. Mostly, not there: if I send the package to another person, they get a missing link error for the 57 missing/"ghost" links. Definitely not packaged, then.
2) InDesign now refuses to package because of links. The above happened last week. This week, the program has decided to simply refuse attempts at packaging because it "cannot copy linked files".
3) Packaged files become corrupted in that they can no longer produce PDFs. Once I packaged the InDesign file, I can no longer open the resulting .indd and export Interactive nor Print PDFs from it. I simply get the error that it failed. I have to go back to the working file I created the package from.
Needless to say, our department's workflow is slowing down significantly and we have concerns about our final files at all times. Can anyone help me assess what's going on? My initial thoughts are: a) Trash preferences? and b) I've read theories about shortening link filenames, and deleting special characters from them (read that even 1 or 2 offending filenames can cause issues). I've also read a theory that InDesign will behave strangely when link paths are too long? Can anyone corroborate these thoughts? It will take forever to save these links differently, and our source content will always be on a server and thus have a lengthy path — I'm hoping that going forward I won't have to manage version control across local drives and servers just to cater to this issue.
Thank you!
