InDesign CS3 / MAC - BIG problems - please help

[1toomany]

Our GD is pulling her hair out. I think this started with some or other update when her InDesign, which had been working fine, started erroring with "Network connection interrupted..." messages and going into Autorecover loops.

Running InDesign 5.0 on her Mac OSX 10.4.11 would crash, when re-opened it would request whether we want to auto-recover, we would acknowledge the recovery, the file would be recovered and InDesign would crash again and the process repeat itself indefinately.

We tried deleting and recreating her "profile" which would help for 2 or 3 days and the problems would re-surface.

We have now got her to save her files to her desktop instead of the 2003 server but changes she is making through InDesign are randomly saved or not saved with no discernible pattern. Sometimes images she has altered will re-open with the changes and sometimes with no changes. We have tested creating an image in Illustrator, opening it with Indesign, altering & saving the image and re-opening it with Illustrator again, but the changes are not saved.

Is there any utility that can check the integrity of the .indd files and/or repair them if inconsistencies are found?

Any ideas as we are all out...

 

[eugenetyson]

It's very difficult to work off a server. You should work from local computer and copy to the server at end of day.

What's happening is this:

1: The file on the network is linked to the all the files on the network, that is -

InDesign File
Server->Links>*Any Images*

When you saved the file (copy or save as) from the server to the hard drive the InDesign file is still looking for

Server->Links>*Any Images*

IT IS NOT looking for

Hard Drive->Links>*Any Images*

What you should do is open the InDesign file on the Server first

Then choose FILE>PACKAGE and then move it to the hard drive of a local computer.

This will then retain all the links and half your images won't be on the server and the other half linked to the hard drive.

Remember that InDesign only LINKS to files, it doesn't embed them (unless you request that).

So saving an Indesign file to another computer, the links would still look for the original location. If you copy the folder to another computer, that has InDesign Files, Links,Profiles, etc., then that InDesign file is still looking at the original path it was given for the image.

You would have to open the links panel, select all the links and choose RELINK from the fly out menu, from here you choose the new location of the images, which is on the Hard Drive, not the server.

Hope that's clear?

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[eugenetyson]

Edits:

Then choose FILE>PACKAGE and then move it to the hard drive of a local computer.

should be

Then choose FILE>PACKAGE and then package all the files to the hard drive of the local computer...

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[1toomany]

Many thanks eugenetyson,

We tried the packaging process but InDesign kept crashing,
we therefore copied the .indd file across to the desktop and performed the re-linking as you described to the files located on the network.

It would be impossible to re-locate all the linked images due the the local harddrive size and the sheer number of images (239 last time I looked).

 

[eugenetyson]

If you have a lot of images scattered about:

As long as the link is active, i.e., it isn't looking for the link you can do this

On the Links Panel flyout menu

Use the "Copy Links to" command.

This will copy any links that it is using to a specified folder. Now relink all the images to the one's on the hard drive.

If Indesign keeps crashing you should reject the auto recovery when InDesign is asks. You may lose a set of changes, probably before your last ever save on the network.

Open up the folder on the Server that contains the Indesign file.

Find a file called .indl

remove it from this folder (don't delete it just in case).

Now open the .indd file, it should work, although you'll have lost your last set of changes.

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[1toomany]

Hi,

Gave up trying to fix it, thanks eugenetyson, went a did a full re-install od CS3.

So far so good.

 

[eugenetyson]

What use is it reinstalling the software?

That certainly is not a fix, as far I'm aware.

You should copy all the files off your server and then put them locally on a hard drive. Only use the server to back up your data, or move to when the project is finished.

You need to link everything back into the Indesign file.

Unless I misunderstood the original question?

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[1toomany]

Hi again,

Your understanding is spot on. After much agonising over the problem we deduced that, having already re-establishing the links and copying the problematic .indd file to the local drive that there had to be a corruption within the system itself. Rather than spend more time on diagnostics and hit-and-miss repairs we un-installed and re-installed the CS3 suite (just to be sure) and recreated the use's profiles.

This seems to have fixed it, touch wood.

 

[eugenetyson]

Well for the short term it's a fix, but I reckon you're going to run into the same problem again.

File management is important though.

If you need to move an Indesign project in the future make sure you

File>Package

instead of just moving or copying the indesign file to another drive.

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[1toomany]

We are hoping that by re-installing that if we need to FILE>PACKAGE InDesign won't keep crashing on us. We can't play with it too much as the GD is now so far behind schedule she won't let us near her machine while it is working.

Thanks again for all your input.

 

[eugenetyson]

No problem, I understand the fundementals of re-installing though, it's just a bizarre fix.

Good luck with the book.

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[1toomany]

I'm baaack...

Ok, so problem 1 solved (?) now, randomly, assorted InDesign crashes when trying to import Illustrator .eps files.

So, voila 1x40 page .indd file. Some .eps files will import but others crash InDesign.

We have tried "saving down" to CS2 .eps but that doesn't work, yet if we save the file as a .jpg or .tiff it will import fine.

All images are saved to Desktop>>Links and fonts have been disabled.

Any ideas?

 

[eugenetyson]

Don't save as .eps

Eps is a dying file format.

Save as .ai or .pdf from now on.

When saving the .ai make sure PDF compatiblity is turned on.

If an eps files header information of the eps is wrong it won't import, which usually means a corrupt file.

So open the eps in illustrator and save as a .ai or .eps for any files that won't import.

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/