Publisher file not opening

[Chris Patmore]

I am trying to open a Publisher I worked on at the end of last year to make some new text corrections. The original file was done in version 1.10.1 and I am now using 1.10.5 on a Mac Mini M1 with MacOS 12.3

When I try to open the file I get this error message:

This is for every type of image file, and there are hundreds of images in the document so I haven't gone all the way to the end pressing OK. I have tried two different copies of the file (one from a back up) with the same result. Other recent similar files open without any issue. 

Any clues or suggestions as to what the problem could be?

[walt.farrell]

Do I understand correctly that you're getting these messages for Linked files that are referenced in your .afpub file?

What happens if you try to Open that .jpg file directly in an image editor, such as Affinity Photo?

[Chris Patmore]

When I try to open certain Publisher files (not all of them), that error message pops up. If I click "OK" for all the images the document will open, but I have to go through and individually replace/relink all the images, then the file works as previously. There is nothing wrong with the images. As there are over 500 images in the book, it's a pain in the proverbial to do. The file and links were originally on my main drive and Dropbox. Once the book was printed I set the files to be only stored online on Dropbox, which may have something to do with it, except I also backed up everything to an external before storing on the cloud. I get the same error messages when I try to open the backed-up version on the external. I would possibly expect to get a missing links error message, but not the wrong file type.

I have figured out a workaround, but it's not a solution to the error, which seems to be a bug and not just a user error.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, Chris Patmore said:

Once the book was printed I set the files to be only stored online on Dropbox, which may have something to do with it

Yes, that probably accounts for it.

My guess: You have Dropbox configured to keep only a stub of the file (basically, just the directory entry) present in your local Dropbox folder, rather than keeping the complete files available. Sorry, I don't know the proper Dropbox terminology for that setting. Something like "keep available", perhaps?

The Windows interfaces that Publisher is using to Open the files apparently load only the local version (which is not usable), rather than delaying the application and triggering Dropbox to fetch the file. Thus, what the application gets is not actually a usable JPG file, and thus you get that error.

[Chris Patmore]

That is what I was suspecting, especially as there is currently a bug in Dropbox for the Mac that won't let it access or open the online-only files. I guess the Publisher file on the external drive is also trying to access those online files rather than the ones on the external. I'll try putting all the files back onto the main drive and see if that resolves it. Thanks for confirming what was floating around in the back of my mind as a possible cause.

[walt.farrell]

Just now, Chris Patmore said:

guess the Publisher file on the external drive is also trying to access those online files rather than the ones on the external

It depends on how you saved or moved the .afpub and image files to the external drive. If you just copied them to that drive, then yes, the .afpub still points to Dropbox. Creating a Package would be a better approach.

[thomaso]

51 minutes ago, Chris Patmore said:

I guess the Publisher file on the external drive is also trying to access those online files rather than the ones on the external.

You can proof this guessing in the Resource Manager, it displays the initial respectively last file path for a selected item, regardless of being linked, embedded or missing.