Skip to main content
I
Isoneryum
Known Participant
July 21, 2025
Question

cannot package file because a linked smart object is missing - how to find??!!

  • July 21, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 311 views

UPDATE

So I spoke with Adobe support and after wasting a couple hours of my time after which it became clear the person I spoke to had completely misunderstood the issue and was therefore no help in fixing it. He said he would "speak to his manager" and get back to me which, predictably, never happened.

Eventually, I spoke to someone else when nobody got back in touch. They said this is a well known problem with Photoshop and the only two things that MIGHT help would be to package the files via Bridge - an option which does not appear to exist as far as I could find. OR Move the files off the cloud to package them - which means I would be basically manually packaging them anyway. 

 

Complete crock of sh*t. 

 

Oh, and, if you do manage to get rid of the missing objects, wherever the hell they are (which took over 4 hours of opening and checking every single linked or smart object in the file - a single file which was 1 of about 50 files I needed to package), the pain doesn't stop there! Because now you'll be getting error message about colour spaces. So aftet going through every single linked file or smart object for the 100th time to check they were all CMYK - which they were, I eventually realised that even if a linked file is CMYK, if you happen to have an adjustment layer or a mask selected when you save and close the file, it does not register the file as being CMYK anymore. So I had to go through all the linked files and smart objects AGAIN and select an actual layer and save them again so it would recognise the file as CMYK.

 

Thanks Adobe, great work. 

 

Hi everyone,

 

I have a very big photoshop file that a lot of different people have been working on and I'm trying to package it for the next person. 

 

I've updated and relinked all missing and out of date links and smart objects and I've opened most of the bigger links with huge portions of the document that obviously have tons of links and smart objects in them and done the same there.

 

There is nothing in the layers panel if I use the filter for Smart Object and then missing or out of date. 

 

How on earth am I meant to find the one (or more) missing smart objects? There msut be a way of figuring this out without sitting here for 3 hours and opening every single linked or smart object in the document????

 

Please help!

 

Thanks

2 replies

J
jazz-y
Legend
July 21, 2025

You can try my script from the topic How to relink files in multiple Photoshop files  

It check each linked file in the opened document (including nested smart-objects) and allows you to easily find/replace files.

Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that it will work on the latest version of Photoshop - in version 24.5, Adobe added an additional window with a message about broken links when trying to edit a smart object, it cannot be suppressed (in the worst case, Photoshop may freeze or crash when using the script). Versions older than 24.5 are still available from creative cloud, you can install any of them and it should work fine

At the moment, I found a way to bypass this annoying link error window in the latest versions of Photoshop, but I have no time to integrate it into the script yet, so I hope that the older version will help you

* You can find out more about how to install scripts at Downloading and Installing Adobe Scripts by @Stephen Marsh

    I
    IsoneryumAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 21, 2025

    amazing, thanks, I'll give it a go!

    Kevin Stohlmeyer
    Community Expert
    Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 21, 2025

    @Isoneryum as you are finding out, linking smart objects and sharing - especially on Mac OS can be a nightmare. The linked resource has to remain in the exact same location or it breaks when opening. Are you linking instead of embedding due to size restrictions? 

    When you open the document, it should pop up a missing link window showing you the last known location of the linked smart object. You can use that window to relink to the new location: 

     

    I
    IsoneryumAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 21, 2025

    Hi Kevin, thanks for your reply. There was a box like that when I initially opened the file and I already relinked all of the files listed there. If I save, close and open again, no pop up.

    Linking because all the links are used across the whole project in a lot of different files and locations so they need to be consistent. The project consists of aound 20 different components and each component has several files with 100s of links and some of the links are other psd files with more links and smart objects 😕😕 

    I've had this issue with another file since posting this. 

     

    The files are also using layer comps so it isn't a case of being able to just delete all the layers that aren't visible because they may be needed on a different comp. 

    This seems like an insane oversight if there is no way of figuring out which link or smart object is the problem. Photoshop clearly knows which one it is, why does it not tell me or flag it in some way? I feel like I am basically going to end up manually packaging this whole project because it would be quicker than all this faff trying to package properly.... I hate working with other people that don't clear up or organise their files properly or at all!

    Kevin Stohlmeyer
    Community Expert
    Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 21, 2025

    Besides the pop up at open, the layers panel notes missing links as well: 

     

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices