Package. . . Cannot copy necessary linked file(s)

[larrycfc]

I created a publication based on a previous one. It's in a new folder with the default [fonts] and [lins] subfolders. Preflight shows no linking errors. Since there are numerous unused graphics in the link folder (from the old version), I wish to create a new package before sending to production. I get the above error with no explanation. How do I do this without manually copying every link (70) and font (46)?

This is CS3 on Vista Home Premium.

[JasonDeller]

Bob - I must not have been clear. Sorry about that. My post wasn't intended to rename files. I simply want a want to relocate batches of files that are pattern-based. As in, InDesign sees a link with the same bad character. I change that batch of images with a new appropriate character. Now I'd like to use regular expression in the links palette to say find that same file name with the swapped in good characters.

Ex. Bad name:

Pattern_name/1234:00.eps.ai

Find fixed renamed file:

Pattern_name_1234-00.ai

Thereby using regular expression to fix the slash, colon, and double extension. If you're dealing with hundreds of previously linked images that follow this naming convention, it should be simple to use regular expression.

It's not always a simple matter of asking a client to fix their files. Sometimes files are acquired in a buyout or merger, leaving a design team to sort millions of assets on the fly. It's simply a feature request that I feel would be valuable to InDesign. Perhaps I need to look to the scripting community.

[BobLevine]

Thousands of years? A slash has been an illegal character on Windows and DOS before it forever. You can complain all you want but computers don't care what you want.

You need to adapt to a multi platform life.

Bob

[BHPioneer]

We are experiencing this issue also with a newly installed CS6. Did you find a resolution to the problem other than the posts below?

[rossee66]

Hi there,

Unfortunately no solutions were forthcoming and I have not been able to resolve a suitable work around other than to watch out for the file names in the thousands of files I continually receive to be used in my design docs. Rather frustrating though as I'm pretty sure that I'd not had this issue in previous versions of indesign and is adding an unnecessary step into my workflow.

Will certainly be keeping on the lookout and crossing my fingers that someone that cares at Adobe thinks it may be something to address.

Ross

[MW Design]

Adobe must comply with naming conventions appropriate to the OS it is installed on. As Bob mentions above, the slash (back or forward) has never been viable in a file name on DOS or Windows.

For your reading pleasure:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247.aspx#basic_naming_conventions

You only need to read through the top portion of that Microsoft article.

For Mac it is different through the various iterations of its OS. But in general, the above ought to be observed if there is any chance files will be exchanged with a PC.

Take care, Mike

[hashimuda]

I am facing the same problems too. I have several files named with URL. Try to rename links files especially URL files. It is work for me. Just sharing.

[Laubender]

Adobe must comply with naming conventions appropriate to the OS it is installed on.

@Mike – this should definitely be the case. Therefore it is a bug, if the Package feature will not work on special file names. However a quick test with InDesign CS5.5 7.5.3 on Mac OS X 10.6.8 is showing that a round bracket or a forward slash in a placed image is not preventing the Package feature from working.

Could it be that InDesign on Macs is not affected?
Or is it due to my poor test case,  because I had not chosen the "right" combination of "special" characters to cause the error?

Placed files were named:

/File.psd

Fi/le.psd

1)File.psd

Of course it is highly debatable, if it's wise using slashes and brackets of any sort;
or bullets and asteriks…

@BHPioneer & @Ross – on what version of OS are you?

Can you give us your exact version of InDesign?

Uwe

[rossee66]

Hi Uwe,

Thanks for your message. I have just done some quick tests and still get the error on both:

InDesign CS5 7.0.4 Mac OS 10.8.2

InDesign CS6 8.0.1 Mac OS 10.8.2

The example linked file I used was named 122/02.png

(Out of interest I tried using /File.psd but also got the error with that)

Cheers

Ross

[MW Design]

I did write that Macs were different...Glad it works for you on 10.6.8, Uwe. Doesn't seem to be working on 10.8.2 for whatever reason.

Do you know of an Apple document for file naming conventions? The only ones I found were for applications (like FinalCut Pro) which expressly say to not use such characters. Linux doesn't like those characters in filenames.

Mike

[Laubender]

Do you know of an Apple document for file naming conventions?

@Mike – unfortunately no. Nothing more than you have found…

At the "FinalCut Pro" page there is a lot of talk like: "should be avoided" and: "may not aloud" mainly because of cross-platform compatibility reasons. And, of course, for scripting reasons. But this seems to be a relative weak standpoint for me. If someone is developing applications or scripts for a specific OS she/he should calculate in   OS specific file name conventions.

At least for Adobe's flavor of JavaScript (ExtendScript) the Mac OS provides some other specialities like compound glyphs in file names. This seems to be a implementation problem of Adobe.

Example: ExtendScript sees the "Umlaut" "ä" in OSX file names as  two glyphs,  a + ¨. Opposed to that an "ä" in a text frame in InDesign is a one-glyph thing. So "ä" is not equal to "ä". A scripter has to take that into account when comparing file names to text strings…

You can guess the problems you can run into if you deal with German, French or Spanish file names, if you are used to plain JavaScript. But let's get back to the Package feature:

Maybe it's my German version of Mac OSX 10.6.8 and/or InDesign that allows the Package feature to work on special file names?! Can't tell…

Uwe 

Message was edited by: Laubender

[MW Design]

Uwe--it may be a simple case of accommodating the lowest denominator (being Windows). But I have no idea at all if that is true. Only Adobe can answer the issue.

Take care, Mike

[Laubender]

@Mike – and there are other cases if we see into ADPS (Adobe Digital Publishing Suite).

With some versions it is even unwise to use special characters (Umlauts included) in naming objects or object states.

Maybe thiese issues are resolved with the current version of DPS, but it could also be that thiese bugs rear their ugly heads any time a new version of DPS comes out…

What I also like to see is a definitive fact sheet by Adobe where/what/when special characters are doing harm to a workflow.

Can anybody please comment on OS versions like "Russian", "Chinese", "Czech", "Japanese" etc. regarding to file names?

Uwe

[Jim Kinney AEL]

I had the same problem with using heretical characters on the Mac. If I recall, the names had either slashes or colons and the packaging failed. I changed said characters to underscores and the process worked fine.

James Kinney

[Laubender]

@Jim – can you or one of the admins remove your personal data from your last post?

Uwe

[Fooling88]

I had the same problem. InDesign CC, Mac OS 10.8.4.

Like other people have mentioned, my issue was fixed by checking the linked files and removing a '/' from one of the file names.

Annoying that this propblem still persits after 4+ version updates!

[HollyRF]

I've been having this same issue since updating to CC. After trying a million different fixes, I've found that if you have a really large file and you downsize it in InDesign, it will also cause this error. My example: I had a 15 x 15 inch square, downsized to 3 x 3 inches in InDesign. After resizing the image it to 3 x 3 in Photoshop, problem was solved. Hope this helps someone out there!

[HollyRF]

I should add, that this is SO annoying. My workload does not allow me to constant troubleshoot all my files. Is there ever going to be a fix for this? I have had problem after problem since upgrading to InDesign CC. I'm very close to reinstalling my old CS 5. I never had issues like this with CS 5. Has anyone else been plagued with problems since upgrading?

[Valerie McMillen]

I realize these posts are old, but I did a search for this issue of not being able to package a file and this came up. In the meantime, I figured it out for me at least. All linked files also had to be updated to cc files. I had cs6 illustrators files attached, once I reopened in cc illustrator and saved, same name as before, relinked, then try to package again, it all worked. For me.

[Josue_Hidalgo]

I was having the same problem. I tried everything listed here... I found that some of my links were saved as RGB and never noticed before, that was causing the trouble. I selected the RGB links and then Menu>Edit With, I opened them in Photoshop and then convert to CMYK. Luckily there were only 11 links, but then I had to go one by one which took me about 10 mins... all my images came from diff places from diff servers.... even worst. After doing that I was finally able to Package the file. So, there could be tons of possibilities that can cause this.

Good luck!

[bernie373]

I was having the same problem with a CS6 document and thought it was an issue with my new iMac running Yosemite since I had copied the file from a Mac Pro on an older system. So I recreated a new document, copying the pages from the old file and when I went to package it, it still gave me the "cannot copy necessary linked files" message. So I started recreating the document piece-meal, one page at at time and finally discovered it was a placed pdf that was causing the problem. The pdf file had a / in the name. When I removed the forward slash it packaged the files just fine! I was curious if my old Mac Pro running Snow Leopard would have the same issue but it didn't. It packaged the file with no problems even though the file name still included the forward slash. Guess I'll be careful not to use forward slashes when naming files on my new iMac.

[kevinfitz]

I have found that at work if I did not have the specific permissions to a particular folder containing linked files to my document, will cause the indesign file to fail to export or fail to package regardless of where I may be packaging or exporting to. May not necessarily be a problem for yourself if you have all your folders local but may be a solution for someone who is working with a number of people from a business server.

[chameleon_stew]

The problem still exists, I'm using Adobe InDesign CC2014 and a forward slash in a linked file (which I might add was named automatically when I took the screenshot of a website) stopped from packaging the file. Fortunately I found this thread. So thanks guys.

This wouldn't really be an issue if the dialogue box that appeared actually explained what the problem was! Surely that's simple to do right?!

Cheers

[DCardillo_PRH]

late to the conversation, but this is the first time I've ever experienced this error.

Yes, it's due to slashes ("/") in the file names. Changed the names, and the problem went away.

Using CS6, latest updates, on a Mac. Tried packaging to two different server volumes, with full rights and permissions, as well as the local desktop.

What would be _extremely_ helpful was a more descriptive error. Perhaps some sort of error trapping, and a notice that there's an issue with one or more file names, because of characters like slashes and colons. (I'm assuming a colon would cause a similar error.)

[dianas10379484]

I have the same problem with InDesign CC.

I discovered that it was a permissions issue. I had a duplicate profile with conflicting permissions. After I removed the duplicate my file packaged fine.

[jfgagliardi]

This just happened to me exporting a 300+ pg. INDD catalog to Epub from CC2014 (Mac). It would not export from our network, so I decided to package the files and run them locally which is when I started getting the error. All image files met "best practices" for naming conventions so I knew that wasn't the issue. Turns out there was a single rogue image that had become corrupt and caused the export/copy to puke. Resaved the image on the network and that appears to have solved the problem. Hope this info helps.