Relink to folder - filenames with accents doesn't work

[michaljanata]

Relink to folder doesn't work for filenames with accents (czech language in my case), it just doesn't find such files, even they are present. But relinking every single file separately (very annoying) works.

I have reported this bug 6 years ago and it is still not fixed.

I suspepect some issue with win and mac file names encoding that InD can't handle. But in case of relinking single file, there is no problem, so I'm not sure.

Indesign just updated to InD 2026 on Win 11.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @michaljanata,

Thanks for sharing the details. I tested this on InDesign 21.0 on Windows 11, and the Relink to Folder feature worked fine for me. I was able to relink multiple files, including those with accented characters, without any issue. Could you please confirm if this happens with all folders or only a specific one? Also, let me know if your images are stored on a remote location such as an external drive, network folder, or cloud storage.

Please try creating a new document with a fresh set of images and test if the problem persists. You can also try manually resetting InDesign preferences and checking again. Ref: https://adobe.ly/4occROp.

Let me know how it goes.

Abhishek

[michaljanata]

Hi @Abhishek Rao,
files are always on my internal harddrive. It happens with random folders and I can't find any relation with anything except different file systems.

When I make new fresh InD document, then there is no issue. Unfortunately I have to work with original documents I recieve from designers.

They are working on MacOS and they send me Indd documents and pictures over dropbox. Then I synchronize it on my hardrive and I work on them on Win11.

Also I have made test with files moved to different location on my local hardrive not connected with dropbox and it still same. So I guess location doesn't matter.

As I can remember, this is mostly the case. So I suspect there must be something between MacOS and Win.

If it helps, I can send you privately some samples.

[michaljanata]

hi @Abhishek Rao,

I have tried open that problematic document at home on my Mac and there is no problem at all.
So again, I'm really convinced that there is some problem with InDesign for Win with reading file names created on MacOS in Relink to Folder.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @michaljanata,

Thanks for testing that and sharing these detailed observations. Could you please share a small sample package (an INDD file along with a few linked images that reproduce the issue) through a private message if the files are confidential, or via a file-sharing link, so I can test your exact scenario? You can refer to this article for packaging instructions: https://adobe.ly/49tjck0

I really appreciate your patience and the time you've taken to look into this.

Looking forward to your update.
Abhishek

[leo.r]

Relink to folder doesn't work for filenames with accents (czech language in my case)

Indesign just updated to InD 2026 on Win 11.

By @michaljanata

I understand your frustration, and I agree that if this indeed happens, then it's a bug.

However, if you ask me, it's simply not a good practice to use any special characters in your file names - in any language and on any platform. You can run into all kinds of problems with countless third-party tools, cross-platform operations, cloud solutions, and the web in general (just to name a few). Not to mention bugs related to the processing of special characters, similar to the one you already witness. 

[michaljanata]

@leo.r Yes, I know. Can you tell this to all of people I'm working with? Particulary to all of mac users, who are used to use characters not supported by windows and all of young people who are used to use all characters as in native langugae and didn't live in ancient times when there utf-8 didn't exist and we used to use only basic characters.

Also as I wrote in my first post, relinking every single file separately is absolutely no problem. Problem is only Relink to folder, so that's why I suspect some malfunction of Relink to folder only.

[Dirk Becker]

Are your Mac files stored on rotating disk (as you mention 6 years)?

That could indicate a HFS+ rather than APFS file system.

They could also check using Disk Utility or command line.

Were the folders involved created in that time frame?

Does it still happen for folders created by macOS 13.3 or later?

Does it still happen for folders created by you and synced back via Dropbox?

MacOS had some changes in this area, file names were once stored "decomposed" and maybe your DropBox copies those names verbatim. Ventura 13.3 also had changes.

When you send example documents to Abishek, include duplicates where you relinked in both ways.

[michaljanata]

@Dirk Becker Do you thing I'm keepeng 6 years old hardware and files? No, I'v been talking about 6 years of first reporting. My hardware is new and files I'm dealing with are also created and changed every day.