Indesign won't relink files automatically

Question

I've been given a package where all links are broken in the indesign document, all links are in two seperate folders and indesign automatically relinks SOME files when i relink a file. But some of the links it will not relink even though they are in the same folder and have the exact same filename as the ones linked in the document. I've noticed that most of the files have both a special character in the filename (mostly "ë"), and are in a .wmf format.

There are 200+ links and they are all technical drawings that look alike so manually changing them would be both tedious and a big chance of making mistakes.

Has anyone encountered that Indesign won't automatically relink files because of the filename?

Bonus info: when downloaded to a Mac, these files won't even show up in Finder. I suspect this is because the special character ë bugs the system out somehow.

Answer 1

I have never run into this problem before myself, but I think your hunch about the special character causing issues is correct.

My suggestion would be to rename the files with a "non-special" version of the character, and then relink them.

You should be able to search around the internet and find some free/inexpensive resources to help you with this process. I use Windows and purchased a great product called Bulk Rename Utility, which provides a ton of options for renaming files and has definitely earned its cost in time saved many times over. I am sure there are a number of other utilities out there to help you with renaming multiple files.

The fact that the files don't even show up in Finder on a Mac may complicate this issue. If you are doing this work on a Mac, you probably need to start by looking for solutions to find files that won't show in Finder and go from there.

Once you have renamed the files, I would look for an InDesign script that can help relink renamed files. I did a quick search on "indesign script for relinking files with new file names" which resulted in lots of options that you can check out. You will have to test out the different scripts to find one that works in your situation.

I hesitated to post this as an answer because it relies on a bunch of external links--and I know that this forum doesn't like this type of answer because it can become outdated quickly if the links go stale, but hopefully I have provided enough information in the answer itself that it will remain valuable even if these links no longer work.

Answer 2

Issue was resolved when I tried to relink files on a Mac, all files successfully relinked. So I assume this is because of an error with how Windows (or at least Indesign on Windows) handles files with special characters in it.