Disappearing elements after updating table of contents

[annv94869910]

Hi, I'm working on a file designed by my client (price list 210 pages), the wanted me to do the update. So I did all the modifications, and in the end I wanted to update the table of contents. I made sure I generated a TOC in a separate thread / text box, NOT replacing the existing one. The moment I clicked ok, on a big number of pages elements disappeared. On one page a text box, on another page a table. No logic. But in no way I can go back to my old, complete file. I seem to have lost at least half of my data in the book. Has anyone had a similar problem? It looks like a bug, is it known in the graphic community? If anyone can help, I would be most grateful (I tried everything, changing paragraph styles, change all possible settings, ...). Would re-install Indesign help? I'm a bit afraid to do so, to be honest. Thanks for any advice!

[Chad Chelius]

If the document already had a Table of Contents, why are you generating a new one? Why not just choose Layout > Update Table of Contents?

I've never seen a Table of Contents remove elements from a document like you describe. Did you configure a new Table of Contents setup or did you generate one from settings that existed in the Table of Contents dialog box.

[Eugene Tyson]

You can have more than 1 toc oer doc.

I wrote an article on it before - can't find it now... ah well.

I too, have never seen TOC remove elements. Very strange. 

Can you share the file?

[RLChris121]

Have seen a similar issue many times - always unpredictable. Last time I had to remove all chapters from the book and rebuild the book by importing the chapter or section documents again and resaving the book file. This fixed it.

Have a detailed TOC set up for 7 chapters - based on paragraph styles and a TOC Style.  Has been working great for weeks. Now have edited some text in one chapter - and when updating the TOC - it now loses all information from the other chapters. Only shows information from the TOC/Cover section.

Completely ignores the rest of the book. Have successfully synchronized, updated all numbering, updated all cross-references, and saved the book. Updating TOC worked fine a week ago. Now it doesn't.

Used to be a simple 1-click task - now it's a time-consuming hassle.

Frustrating. Guess I will try rebuilding the book file again...

[Laubender]

"I too, have never seen TOC remove elements. Very strange."

Hi Eugene,

do it like this in [2] followed by [3] below, something someone should never do:

[1] Add a new TOC to a document.

[2] Thread the text frame of that TOC to a different story's text frame.

[3] Update the TOC.

The contents of that story is gone.

Replaced with the contents the TOC function will still find in all the other stories.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )