Persistent Error in Adobe InDesign: ‘There Was an Error Updating the Artifact

[Chris Tammar]

When I go to update a review link in InDesign, I keep getting this error message "there was an error updating the artifact". After that, the link does not work for most people. I am signed in to Adobe. Everything is up-to-date.... But this issue still persists. Can Adobe please fix this issue? It's emarassing when I go to send the review link to my leaders and they just get an error message when they try opening it.

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[NOcreationsBE]

@Henrik Engedal NissenYes, we all are wondering what some good competition would do to Adobe. And I believe that moment is getting closer and closer... 😉

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi Henrik Engedal Nissen, 

I'm really sorry to hear that you're still experiencing this issue. I completely understand how frustrating this must be.

To help us investigate further and report this to the product team, could you please share the following:

 - A screen recording of the issue you're encountering on version 20.3.1. 

 - A sample InDesign file where this problem occurs.

This will help us reproduce the issue on our end and work toward a resolution more efficiently.

Thanks so much for your patience and cooperation, I really appreciate it!

Abhishek 

[Henrik Engedal Nissen]

The screenshot is exactly the same as several people have posted in the thread already.

It's just a normal indesign file with text and images like most indesign files.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Henrik Engedal Nissen,

Thanks for the update. Could you confirm if this issue happens consistently every time you try to update the Share for Review link, or is it more random and intermittent? 

I know it might feel repetitive, but any extra detail you can share helps us bring more clarity to the product team. I'm here and following up with them closely, so please feel free to share whatever you observe.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Abhishek

[NOcreationsBE]

@Abhishek Rao, usually once the error message appears, it keeps reappearing every time in the same document. Sometimes it's more random (then it does for a few times, then it doesn't) and (in my experience) when I save the file with a new name, it can disappear. But then, of course, the review link is also new and the comments are no longer linked, which is not a good workaround. I've been experiencing this for years now with different versions of InDesign, simple and complex files, with resolved, unresolved, mapped and/or unmapped comments, and so it's still totally unclear to me what it could be due to. The only thing I do know, is that  I have never seen the error message appear after uploading a brand new file (the first time you choose Share for review for a file). It only happens after updates.
I understand that this is therefore also difficult for you to reproduce. Possibly the problem is not even related to the file (content or comments) itself. Since many people have this problem, I think it would be more efficient to have many Adobe employees create different files themselves on different devices and share them online for review, so that you can see and test for yourselves on the spot when it occurs and when it does not. That would probably work better than constantly asking complaining users to share files (because you cannot reproduce the issue with these files) and screenshots (because they are always the same) and ask if they have the latest updates (because it's obvious that's not the problem there either).

[Leon1982-2]

Yes, we're all still getting these errors, we're just tired of reporting them. The links typically do work (not always) even when the error is present which took me a long time to figure out. If you do a lot of back and forth edits with clients on a particular document though, you will eventually have to create a new share since it will stop working. This sucks because it erases all of your history. 

[tom_cog]

Also, "It probably updated correctly even though it says it didn't" just doesn't cut it when you're sharing complicated documents for review and final approval.

[NOcreationsBE]

@tom_cog, I completely understand! You can't check 100+ updates in large or complicated documents when you are working with deadlines. The only thing I can tell you, is that I never noticed any changes not updating, even after getting the error. You just have to refresh the page or come back a little later (and refresh the page). It is not a guarantee, but maybe a minor assurance if you have no choice but to work this way and no time to check all upates online.

• I would love to hear from others if they ever experienced that a change in the document was not visible after updating the online version, getting the error message and refreshing the page.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for sharing the details. I've escalated this to the product team, and they are currently investigating the issue. I'll keep you posted and share an update as soon as I hear back.

Thanks for your patience. 

Abhishek

[SteveU65]

Seems to me havign experienced this issue on a regular basis and having read the Adobe replies where they test user documents and cannot replicate the error... HAVE they thought of leaving the Adobe building and Intranet and tried testing it as if they were a subscriber and not an Adobe employee - maybe then it might be reproducible?

2020 - 2025 and it still happens to many, many users it is an ADOBE end issue not the users as this period will cover mulititudes of hardware, software versions etc. BUT all into the same Adobe network so the common factor is...

[NOcreationsBE]

Exactly what I was thinking @SteveU65! It happens so often that they say they cannot reproduce the problem/error, also with other issues, while seemingly every user outside Adobe is experiencing the same issue on multiple platforms and multiple versions. How do they work??

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience while we looked into this. I checked with the product team, and they've tested multiple files (including those shared by some of you) but weren’t able to reproduce the issue on their end, even after several tries. It seems to be intermittent, and in many cases, retrying the Update Content option works successfully on subsequent attempts.

The team also noticed in one of the shared recordings that unmapped comments were present, which might be contributing to the error. They're reviewing this further, but for now, please try updating the content again and let us know if it works. If the error persists, kindly check if you notice any unmapped comments and share your observations so we can dig deeper.

Looking forward to your updates.

Abhishek

[NOcreationsBE]

@Abhishek Rao we already established that this error is not related to unmapped comments. See my comment on July 31 2024. 

[Leon1982-2]

Maybe you should have one of us test your software for you? We can replicate the problem consistently/daily. What a dubious response to a continued issue.  Even if the issue were related to unmapped comments (it's not) fix it! There's FIVE pages of copmlaints here... What more do you want us to say?

[Leon1982-2]

Sorry for replying to the wrong person.

[NOcreationsBE]

@Leon1982-2 Apology accepted. It was clear you were not talking to me. 😄

[Good Venture]

Once again, the issue is being shifted onto users instead of being properly addressed. Please stop suggesting that the problem is related to unmapped comments — it isn’t.

Moreover, unmapped comments are themselves a problem, since there should not be any unmapped comments in the first place.

How about Adobe focuses on improving the software to ensure comments don’t become unmapped — if that’s truly the issue?

[Scott28929874pbtb]

I am having the same error as the rest of these users, unmapped comments do not seem to be the issue.

[sungkhum]

Getting this issue a lot. I've found if I only have one file open at a time then it doesn't error. Maybe that will help others get around the bug until Adobe gets around to fixing it (seems like its been years and years).

[NOcreationsBE]

@sungkhum don't bother: I hardly ever have more than one document open in InDesign and I get the error anyway. It is quite random, but usually happens only after multiple updates of the Share for Review file and after that the error usually persists.

[KathCau]

I am unable to update the content in Share for Review. It keeps giving me an error message: There was an error updating the artifact.

Also, it says that I last updated 4 days ago. So it is not pushing the updated content to the cloud.

I have tried closing the application and restarting. 

I am on OS 15.5 and the latest Indesign 2026.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @KathCau,

Thanks for sharing the details and the screenshot. I tested this on my end and found Share for Review working as expected. Could you please confirm if the issue occurs with all documents or just a specific one? Also, try signing out of the Creative Cloud app, restarting your system, and signing back in before updating the Share for Review link again to refresh the cloud connection.

If the issue persists, please switch to a different network, such as your phone's hotspot, and check if that helps.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

[J E L]

@Abhishek Rao I am also getting the same error lately as @KathCau when using Share for Review. This has been happening with the last version before updating to v21.0. And it just happened again with the latest version. I've tried all the steps you mention, and then some. The file will simply not update anymore. If I save as a new file with a new name and re-share it, then it will go through without the “artifact” error. But it only works the first time. If I make any updates and reshare, the error returns. Note this is a large file and there are many comments. The Share feature works better with small files by my experience. And it doesn't seem to like a lot of comments or resolved comments. It's not ideal to keep starting over and over by sharing a new file. It's frustrating to explain to authors that they must now find the most current layout at yet another link. I think you'll find this is a problem going back a year or more.

[KathCau]

I tried on a different file and it has the same error. A different network didn't make any difference. 

I can create a new link but not update the content on the exsisting link.

[Nils370528324kwg]

I am getting the same error on all my files after updating to v21.0.