Vector smart objects in photoshop - broken link to cc library

[elliep_1]

Hi! Advice really appreciated on a CC library linking issue:

I copied and pasted a group of objects (including photos and vector shapes) from Illustrator to Photoshop, pasting them as a vector smart object. By default, this seems to have placed them as a linked smart object, which lived in my CC library (I mistakenly thought they were embedded, but the 'add to cc library' box must have been checked). 

I have since deleted the contents of my CC library, and I don't seem to be able to recover my assets. When I go into the photoshop file, the smart object link is highlighted as missing, but everything still looks fine in the file – nothing is pixelated, even if I resave the PS file as either a PSD or JPEG. Existing links from an InDesign doc to the PS file also appear fine and unchanged, so (at a surface level, at least) there doesn't seem to be a problem.

I can get rid of the missing link warning by right clicking and selecting 'convert to smart object', which seems to embed it instead, but alarm bells are ringing – if the link was missing, how has it managed to embed the smart object at this stage? Can anyone shed any light on how links to CC libraries from PS work, and whether there's problem with me converting the missing links to embedded smart objects at this stage? I don't need or want the objects to be linked in any way, so embedding them is a good outcome – I just don't want to loose quality.

Thanks!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

A Smart Object instance is just pixels and as long as you don’t transform it, filter it, … the pixel representation is not affected by a missing linked source. (At least if the containing document is saved with maximized compatibility.) 

Converting a missing SO to another SO means the missing warning is just wrapped into another psb but when transforming this new SO the pixel data, not the original vector content, will be used. 

[elliep_1]

This is super helpful, thanks so much! 

Quick follow-up question: If I wanted to try and track down the missing CC library links, do you know where I would be able to find these on my mac? I only deleted them from my CC library last week, and I have a Time Machine backup, so if the files were stored locally, I should be able to find them somewhere and re-upload them?

Thanks again.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The Cloud Library is not local. 

Have you tried »View deleted items«? 

[elliep_1]

Yeah – unfortunately I think I'm a day too late in discovering my error (I can still see stuff I deleted the following day, but not the assets I need). As I understood it, CC library links do exist somewhere on your mac, which is how you can access assets offline – but I could be completely wrong there?

Thanks again for your help.