Affinity Publisher Windows - Relink does not work

[Dave Vector]

Hi,

I have an Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 document with 150 linked files. I switched the folder name and when I load the document, it gives me the warning about the missing files and I choose Resource Manager.

In Resource Manager, I select all the linked images designated "Missing" and click the "Relink" button at the bottom.

I select the renamed folder and click the "Select Folder" button at the bottom.

Nothing happens.

Clicking the "Close" button at the bottom of the Resource Manager does not execute the action either.

Am I missing something?  I am not sure why it does not work.

[Old Bruce]

4 minutes ago, Dave Vector said:

I select the renamed folder and click the "Select Folder" button at the bottom.

The folder needs to be opened so the actual picture files are visible and then you choose the Select Folder. Completely unintuitive.

[iconoclast]

I'm not sure, but I suppose that you have to do it for each single file, one by one. The better way would be to give the folder it's initial name again. And don't rename folders after you linked its files in Publisher, in the future.

[Dave Vector]

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

The folder needs to be opened so the actual picture files are visible and then you choose the Select Folder. Completely unintuitive.

Okay, Oddly enough my folder path is correct and the .png images are indeed in the folder, but when I select the folder by double-clicking Widows shows nothing in the folder except a message "No items match your search".  This is in the Windows Explorer pop-up with "Select Folder" at the bottom.

[Old Bruce]

8 minutes ago, Dave Vector said:

but when I select the folder by double-clicking Widows shows nothing in the folder except a message "No items match your search". 

Do you mean you select the folder and double click to open it? If yes then what I see is the image files albeit they are all greyed out, non selectable. Then I hit the Select Folder button and all is updated.

[Dave Vector]

Yes I select the folder and double-click to open it.  I do not get the greyed-out files, but this could be a Windows thing. 

But hitting the "Select Folder button, nothing happens.

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, Dave Vector said:

Yes I select the folder and double-click to open it.  I do not get the greyed-out files, but this could be a Windows thing. 

But hitting the "Select Folder button, nothing happens.

You should have a blank folder name field. With that value in it, you are trying to select Downloads\490x470 Icons DARK\490x470 Icons DARK which does not exist.

[Dave Vector]

51 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You should have a blank folder name field. With that value in it, you are trying to select Downloads\490x470 Icons DARK\490x470 Icons DARK which does not exist.

Okay, I tried to make sure that there is only one level of folder, so : "Downloads\490x470 Icons DARK" like this:

This does not work...

HOWEVER... I did discover another way to get APub to see the folder:

1. Upon opening the file, at the message display: "Missing Resource(s)  Some of your linked resource files are missing.  Would you like to locate them?"
2. Instead of clicking "Resource Manager", click on "Yes"
3. A Windows Explorer pops up showing the contents of the new folder (or you can navigate to the desired folder).
4. Observe the file name it is trying to match and click on that matching filename in the window, then click "Open" [first time].
5. Another Windows Explorer pops up, this time with a new file name.  Click on that matching filename in the window, then click "Open" [second time].
6. Another Windows Explorer pops up, this time with a new file name.  Click on that matching filename in the window, then click "Open" [third time].
7. After 3 times, APub finally sees this as the new folder and "Updates" all the links in the document.  Sometimes is works on the second time.

So I think this is a bug, unless I am doing something wrong, but to me the Resource Manager "Relink" button should work for files with missing links.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, Dave Vector said:

but to me the Resource Manager "Update" button should work for files with missing links.

Update? Or Relink?

Relink works for me on Windows.

5 minutes ago, Dave Vector said:

This does not work...

In what way? It keeps the file explorer dialog active, as you showed before? It dismisses the dialog but the linked files are still shown as Missing?

 

[Dave Vector]

I corrected my pervious post.  I meant "Relink".  the button confusingly changes states depending upon the situation, I would prefer it if there were buttons for both "Relink" and "Update" with one or the other greyed out, but I get that UI simplification is a trend...

Regarding the Relinking attempt :

When I said "this does not work" I meant that when I set it up for "Downloads\490x470 Icons DARK" as per my screenshot in the previous post, and click "Select Folder" It dismisses the dialog but the linked files are still shown as Missing, yes Walt.

[Dave Vector]

I tested this on a new APub file, adding seven .png images from the file that was giving me an error.  It works fine.

Seems like either my file has some sort of corruption, or some failing function. 

The file is too complex and there are too many hours into it, to easily pare it down, to troubleshoot and fix it.  I will live with my hack fix... 😑

Thanks everyone for your help! 

[Dave Vector]

Ok, an update.

I noticed that one of my linked pictures was in a picture frame and I could see it in the frame, but the picture frame had a thin black "X" through it, corner to corner.  I tried to find out what that means, presumably a missing image?  Even with the picture frame containing the "X" the file exported as a PDF fine ("X"ed picture visible in the result). 

I then removed the picture frame and just had the image on the root of the page layer and I was able to get the "Relink" to work!

Now when I use "Relink" to find and update the 150 linked images,  I successfully see the updating bar go across the screen, but after a few seconds the progress bar disappears and APub is frozen.  It takes about 105 seconds for it to finish and APub goes from using 2.1 GB of memory to about 9.5 GB of memory, dropping back down to 2.4 after the operation successfully completes.

I don't know if that helps anyone, but there are my findings.  Hopefully it may help someone else troubleshoot a similar issue. 

Again, thanks for the help!

[walt.farrell]

7 hours ago, Dave Vector said:

I noticed that one of my linked pictures was in a picture frame and I could see it in the frame, but the picture frame had a thin black "X" through it, corner to corner.  I tried to find out what that means, presumably a missing image?  Even with the picture frame containing the "X" the file exported as a PDF fine ("X"ed picture visible in the result). 

That should indicate the Picture Frame does not contain your image (i.e., is actually empty). You may have added it to the frame incorrectly. A screenshot showing the Layers panel might help diagnose that.

However, in that case the Xed Picture Frame should not be visible in the Export (or in Preview Mode). So you may be right that there was some corruption.

Regarding speed, and memory utilization: what kind of files are you linking? Things work better if they're true image files (JPG, PNG, TIFF) or vector files such as SVG or EPS. Working with .afphoto, .afdesign, .afpub, or PDF files for your Linking takes much more storage, and probably time in these situations.

[Dave Vector]

@walt.farrell Here is a sample what an "X"ed file that was still visible looked like (icon on the right):

As to your question on the type of files I was linking, they were .PNG files, averaging about 10 kilobytes each, nothing weird or huge.

I should mention that using my 7-step hack I mentioned above ("Replace" files 3 times before APub understood the new directory and replaced them all), that only took a few seconds to complete, not like using the "Relink" so I does seem like there is some sort of glitch/bug/corruption somewhere.

[walt.farrell]

31 minutes ago, Dave Vector said:

Here is a sample what an "X"ed file that was still visible looked like (icon on the right)

Yes. That is an empty Picture Frame, which should not be visible on the export. We would need to see the Layers panel to understand why it's empty. But in any case it should not appear on the export or in Preview mode.