Missing link in illustrator but appears in preview

[JasonChapman_LaraNichols]

I have an annoying issue which is related to receiving .ai files from my client which has missing links. If I open the .ai file in preview (Mac) I see a full res version of the image, however if I open in illustrator theres an error and the link is missing. My client complains that I am the only supplier who cannot see these so she blames me, but I simply dont understand why or how to access the linked file. 

Any ideas how to access it without annoying my client and asking them to embed or package?

a full res preview available in 'Preview' on Mac OSXError messagethe file with the missing link in illustrator

[Ton Frederiks]

In Preview or in Acrobat you will see the PDF part of the file, which has always the links embedded.

When you open the .ai file the files may be linked and if not provided, are reported missing.

Ask your client to package the Illustrator file to give you the linked files.

[Monika Gause]

You can get it from the PDF if you wish to. Explanation is in this video: https://youtu.be/IpDh8Y7q8yE

Only you might not want to do that in case you need to do some editing to the content (depending on the nature of the editing and the nature of the content.

[Danny Whitehead.]

It's possible that her other suppliers don't actually need to open the files in Illustrator, and simply print the job using the PDF portion of the file as-is. Is there definitely editing that you need to do in Illustrator? You might be able to remove dielines etc by opening the file in Acrobat.