Adobe Community: Files turn into alias. Original file vanished

Currently Being Moderated

Files turn into alias. Original file vanished

May 30, 2011 5:53 AM

We are experiencing a scary problem on some of our machines. We are using intel macs with 10.6.7.

They were using InDesign CS5 (7.0.3) at the time of the problem. Both machines have been updated to 7.0.4 and have not had the problem since.

However this has been a periodic error the whole time, so its not easy to replicate it...

This problem is as follows.

During working in InDesign it quits unexpectedly and we need to open it again.

When we locate the file (on a windows server connected with smb) it has turned into a shortcut or alias witch points to nothing.

The original file is nowhere to be found. Also, the file has been labeled with the red label from OSX...

We managed to get the log from one of these incidents:

27.05.11 13.00.11 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:00:11 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 7023

27.05.11 13.00.11 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:00:11 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1b6f

27.05.11 13.04.09 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:04:09 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 7078

27.05.11 13.04.09 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:04:09 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1ba6

27.05.11 13.04.36 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:04:36 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 7088

27.05.11 13.04.36 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:04:36 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1bb0

27.05.11 13.12.12 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:12:12 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 7168

27.05.11 13.12.12 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:12:12 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1c00

The machinename has been altered. The error occurred 13:04:09.

So far I have not been able to find anyone else with the same error. And in was not mentioned as a fix in the 7.0.4 update we ran.

At this point we do not know when we will loose the next file, and thats not a fun situation...

Has anyone else heard of this error?

At this point even someone else with the problem but no solution would be a comfort..

Thanks

6151 Views 41 Replies Latest reply: dlssas, Mar 6, 2013 9:08 AM

Replies 1 2 Previous Next

Currently Being Moderated

1. Steve Werner,

May 30, 2011 6:45 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

I'm not an expert (since I never use servers to store files), but it sounds like a server problem. Move the files to your local drive before editing them to be safe.

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

2. John Hawkinson,

May 30, 2011 9:57 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

During working in InDesign it quits unexpectedly and we need to open it again.
Do you have the Adobe crashreporter enabled? It should be unless you have turned it off. What does the Crash Data button produce?
That is the data that would be useful. [It will also be long. Upload it to pastebin.com and post a link here.]

We managed to get the log from one of these incidents:

27.05.11 13.00.11 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:00:11 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 7023
27.05.11 13.00.11 [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[198] Fri May 27 13:00:11 MACHINENAME Adobe InDesign CS5[198] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1b6f
This is almost certainly unrelated. It's an error from the Macintosh Core Graphics API about an invalid window. But it's not a fatal error and it happens many times before your crash. And it is unlikely to have anything to do with the filesystem.

You should really try to look at the crash log itself. Also, Steve's reasoning is definitely sound!

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

3. LiesbethMAC,

Jul 29, 2011 3:39 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Is there any solution yet for this problem?

We also have this problem.
It seems as if it happens more frequenty the last week.
We work on Indesign 7.0.4 on new MAC's - and also on a Window server - like you.

Indesign files just dissapear into an alias that leads to nowhere.
My collegue wanted to open an Indesign file this morning, which he did not work on for a while, and saw it had been changed into an alias, which was not leading to a file.
Yesterday I worked on a file and saw the file change into an alias. Because I did not close it, I could name it differently, and safe my file!!!

We are desperately looking for a solution here. And asked Adobe for help also.

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

4. John Hawkinson,

Jul 29, 2011 7:08 AM in reply to LiesbethMAC

Report

Hello, Liesbeth:

    It seemed to me that the person asking the original question didn't come back and provide the details I asked for that would enable us to understand what was going on. But perhaps you can!!

    Are you seeing the crashing problem? Or just the bizarre transmogrification into aliaes?

   Can you tell us more about your Windows fileserver? What software and version is it running? For that matter, what MacOS version are your clients running? Presumably you are connecting with SMB not AFP?

Where do the aliases point? Does Get Info in the Finder (or ls -l in Terminal) give you any more information?

This sounds just plain weird. I would tend to pin the blame on the fileserver, though. It's not as if InDesign ever creates an alias under normal operation, so it's not as if it should be easy for it do so inadvertantly during some sort of fault condition. But it's tough to say.

    How reproducible is this problem? How often does it occur? How many clients do you have? Do you have an automated backup system?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

5. wiitho,

Aug 2, 2011 5:13 AM in reply to John Hawkinson

Report

Sorry for my late response. Its been very hectic and then a long vacation

The problem i still around.
There are 3 different machines with this issue now. All of them have been updated to InDesign 7.0.4, so that did not help.
All the machines are using 10.6.

I do not have access to the crash data at this point.

We are connecting to the windows server via SMB.

The files are on a 2008 Storage Server with all the latest updates.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

6. LiesbethMAC,

Aug 2, 2011 6:02 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Dear,

i send your mail through to our IT.
This problem is very serious - but nog yet solved.

Thanks for your mail.

Met vriendelijke groeten / Kind regards,

Liesbeth

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

7. Peter Spier,

Aug 2, 2011 6:03 AM in reply to LiesbethMAC

Report

Liesbeth,

Please remove the autoquote and your personal information when replying by email. Your response is posted to the web.

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

8. John Hawkinson,

Aug 2, 2011 7:37 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

So, rereading this thread,I see two different flavors of problems.

wiitho sees crashes and after the crashes the file turns into a null-pointing alias.
Liesbeth sees files turning into aliases, without crashes.

Can you confirm? Wiitho, do you always see crashes, or just sometimes? Liesbeth, do you never see crashes.

In any case, wiitho said:
I do not have access to the crash data at this point.

Well, it's pretty clear. With the crash data, we can tell you what is going on. Without it, we cannot. So please go get it.
It should not be difficult. Fire up Console.app and look in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

9. wiitho,

Aug 8, 2011 1:43 AM in reply to John Hawkinson

Report

On Friday I went to get the crashlog but did not find any.
When I didnt find it I rechecked with the user and it turns out I was not remembering correctly. Im sorry about that..

InDesign does not crash during this error.
The files just "magically" turns into aliases witch dont lead anywhere.
The red label on the alias seems to be consistent.

Its a periodic error, so I have no means of producing the error for research.

So with no crashlog I guess we are back at square one...
But at least the error seems more identical now

Thomas

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

10. John Hawkinson,

Aug 8, 2011 6:04 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Thanks for looking.
It sounds like this will remain a mystery for some time.

If you can achieve a reproducible test case, there are some tools we can use to see what InDesign is doing to the files it writes to and manipulates, and that might be instructive. But they'll produce an extraordinary amount of output if left running, so it's really necessary that you have a test case before we go that route.

You could also ask Adobe Support if they have seen your problem.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

11. wiitho,

Jan 17, 2012 4:30 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Hello again!

The issue is still unresolved, and yesterday it happened again.
At the same time as it happened I found this again in the log:

16.01.12 11.24.14              Adobe InDesign CS5[214]               kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 923
16.01.12 11.24.14              Adobe InDesign CS5[214]               kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x39b
16.01.12 11.24.14              [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[214]      Mon Jan 16 11:24:14 Svein-Bremerthuns-Mac-Pro-5.local Adobe InDesign CS5[214] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 923
16.01.12 11.24.14              [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[214]      Mon Jan 16 11:24:14 Svein-Bremerthuns-Mac-Pro-5.local Adobe InDesign CS5[214] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x39b
16.01.12 11.29.18              /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder[104]              getattrscore: EINVAL from getattrlist() getting {27c60a, 0, 4, 3600, 0} at /Volumes/Hovedpolet/W/Wilson/2012/28615 Årsrapport 2011/Dummy omslag2011.indd
16.01.12 11.31.49              Adobe InDesign CS5[214]               kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 975
16.01.12 11.31.49              Adobe InDesign CS5[214]               kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x3cf
16.01.12 11.31.49              [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[214]      Mon Jan 16 11:31:49 Svein-Bremerthuns-Mac-Pro-5.local Adobe InDesign CS5[214] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID 975
16.01.12 11.31.49              [0x0-0x1f01f].com.adobe.InDesign[214]      Mon Jan 16 11:31:49 Svein-Bremerthuns-Mac-Pro-5.local Adobe InDesign CS5[214] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x3cf
16.01.12 11.34.20              PubSubAgent[1103]          EntryCore: Multiple authors not supported yet (ignoring subsequent ones)

This is the same error as last time.
This time the customer tried to click on the document in the "Open recent window" and he was able to open it.
Other than that it was the same as the previous times.

We have contacted adobe a few months ago. They had not heard about the problem and seemed to take it serious.
We have however not heard anything after the case was opened..

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

12. wiitho,

Jan 17, 2012 4:56 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

I contacted Adobe again, and they have now concluded that the customer need to work locally.
They claim to "not support servers".

At this point I guess we will have to work on how to make that work in the workflow in the office..

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

13. Peter Spier,

Jan 17, 2012 5:53 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

I think I remember a bug, which may have nothing to do with this and should have been patched before 7.0.4, that allowed multiple users to access a file at the same time over the network. That line about Multiple authors not supported yet brought it to mind.

What is the language locaization for this installation?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

14. wiitho,

Jan 17, 2012 6:08 AM in reply to Peter Spier

Report

Its a norwegian version.

InDesign is 100% updated, so if it has been patched it cant be the same error.
Adobe explained the error as a failure to create lock files when working with a document on a server.
However, the problem is periodic and have just happened >10 times during a year.
Every file worked on for that period of time has been on a server.

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

15. John Hawkinson,

Jan 17, 2012 6:18 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Hello, wiitho:
The issue is still unresolved, and yesterday it happened again.
Does this mean the problem has not occured for the past 4 months?

At the same time as it happened I found this again in the log:
This is the same error as last time.
Which one are we talking about here? Please be specific? This time your log has:

16.01.12 11.29.18 /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder[104] getattrscore: EINVAL from getattrlist() getting {27c60a, 0, 4, 3600, 0} at /Volumes/Hovedpolet/W/Wilson/2012/28615 Årsrapport 2011/Dummy omslag2011.indd
which seems like the only thing that could conceivably be pertinent. Is this the file that is being worked on? This is the Finder reporting that it was unable to access the file attributes assocaited with this file, presumably because it is no longer a file. As such, it is perhaps an indicator that this problem has occurred, but gives no information about the cause.

I suppose that the invalid window events could correlate with this problem, but that is not very convincing [and also, sadly, not very helpful even if they did].

I contacted Adobe again, and they have now concluded that the customer need to work locally.
They claim to "not support servers".
Well, that's trouble. I would ask them, very firmly, for a clear affirmative statement of what they do not support, and how it could possibly be the case that they do not support servers when they themselves recommend server-based workflows (e.g. for InCopy/InDesign interaction).

But that said, it may well be that the file server is part of the problem. It certainly adds to the complexity, and being able to determine whether it is or is not a required component of the failure is important.

Either way, I would try to get your file server administrator to debug this, perhaps with debugging logs on the server.
But that really brings us back to where we were in August...can you find any way to trigger this problem?

Because trying to debug things that happen only once every four months is a losing proposition...

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

16. Peter Spier,

Jan 17, 2012 6:58 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

wiitho wrote:

Its a norwegian version.

I bet that has a lot to do with it. It's not all that uncommon, unfortunately, for non-US localizations to have their own bugs. There's a good chance this wouldn't have shown up in testing if it's as obscure as it seems. I don't think there are a lot of testers for Norwegian betas.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

17. Alex R Lee,

Feb 14, 2012 8:30 AM in reply to Peter Spier

Report

We've just experienced the same alias creation issue as others have experienced here.

What has happened is that we work off a server (Windows based, using SMB) and the server went down. When my colleague went to re-open the file, it had converted to an alias.

We're not using any localisation version of InDesign and it's version 7.5 (CS5.5) running on Mac OS X 10.7.2.

Any thoughts? Apart from not working from the server?

- Alex

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

18. John Hawkinson,

Feb 14, 2012 10:12 AM in reply to Alex R Lee

Report

Is it 7.5.2.318?

In any case, do you have a reproducible case? Is it the server going down that causes it, or the client getting disconnected? [can you unplug the client from the network?]

I think the thing to do is to enable debugging on the fileserver, but that's going to require help from an experienced server administrator.

Any thoughts? Apart from not working from the server?
Well, I tend to think Macs work more smoothly with AFP than with SMB...

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

19. TBIOz,

Mar 21, 2012 7:34 PM in reply to wiitho

Report

Hi,

We are having the same problem using Indesign 5.5 (version 7.5.2). We have had this happen to different people in our team working Mac OSX 10.7.3 (Lion) and Mac OX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard. Before this we were using CS3 on Snow Leopard only with no problem.

We work off a server and it's not feasible for us to work locally.

It's only been happening for a week (4 times) and we have been using Indesign 5.5 for about a month. Nothing crashes it just turns into an alias. No crash report info generated.

If anyone has an alias at the moment could they please post the file size of the alias: is it still a large file – ie: the same size as the Indesign file that it was before? Or is it small file (which is typical of an alias).

We have been trying to replicate the problem, but no luck replicating it yet.

Thanks
Lisa

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

20. McommGroupDesign,

Mar 22, 2012 9:21 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Hi,
We also had this problem pop up this morning. Well actually since upgrading to Lion at the end of last month on two of our design stations running Indesign 5.5 and Lion we started seeing crashes. My machine would have this problem when it would go to sleep. When I woke it up the server connection was lost and Indesign crashed. I would also get error messages of possible file corruption. That never happend until this morning when the file showed up as an alias. The file still retained the 46.8Mb size. I tried copying it to my desktop and it retained the alias icon. So as a workaround I discoverd that if I sent it to myself through yousendit. it would remove the Alias icon and I was able to open the file. I don't know how to fix the main problem, but I hope this helps to not loose a file.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

21. wiitho,

Apr 16, 2012 12:55 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

We still have this error from time to time, however there is a new development that is making me think that this migth be an OS problem.
The OS in question is Mac OS 10.6.

The new variant of the problem is that a folder now have turned into an alias, and this can of course not have anything to do with InDesign.
Does anyone have any input?

As this seems to not nessecarily be related to InDesign anymore I will keep searching elsewhere as well.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

22. TBIOz,

Apr 16, 2012 1:03 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Hi Wiitho,

Which version of CS are you using? It seems strange that we never had this problem on the Mac we use operating OS 10.6 when using CS3 but when we upgraded to CS5.5 files randomly turned into alias. Technically they are not alias files as they are not small KB files, they retain the same amount of information as the original Indesign files, so I wonder if there is an easier way to change them back rather than emailing them (which is a great fix though when in need). Will ask my IT guy again and see if he has any other deductions. Thanks for the update!

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

23. John Hawkinson,

Apr 16, 2012 1:20 PM in reply to TBIOz

Report

Technically they are not alias files as they are not small KB files, they retain the same amount of information as the original Indesign files, so I wonder if there is an easier way to change them back rather than emailing them (which is a great fix though when in need). Will ask my IT guy again and see if he has any other deductions. Thanks for the update!
This is weird. Perhaps you could post the technical details.
Output of "ls -l", "file", and "xattr" on these files? Maybe other tools too.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

24. dlssas,

Apr 20, 2012 7:48 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

Add us to the list. We just upgraded to Lion (10.7.3) and CS5.5 and are now experiencing the same "InDesign file appears as alias" problem. These are not the result of crashes. Still gathering data, but in one case at least, File>Open did still work while double-clicking the document does not (since it can't resolve the "alias").

Looking at the "alias" in Finder shows no "Original" path to the real file, but "Kind" claims to be "Alias".

% ls -l 90582_SessionSurvey.indd
-rwx------@ 1 strees CARYNT\Domain Users 5439488 Apr 18 15:34 90582_SessionSurvey.indd

% xattr -l 90582_SessionSurvey.indd
com.apple.FinderInfo: IDd2InDn????? N?????????????
com.apple.ResourceFork:
00000000 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1E |................|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000000F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000100 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1E |................|
00000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1C 00 1E FF FF |..............|
0000011e

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

25. John Hawkinson,

Apr 20, 2012 9:29 AM in reply to dlssas

Report

% xattr -l 90582_SessionSurvey.indd
com.apple.FinderInfo: IDd2InDn????? N?????????????
Well, that's pretty weird since normally an alias should be alis/MACS and not IDd2/InDn.
What about GetFileInfo on it (assuming you have the developer tools installed)?

Was this on a network filesystem?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

26. dlssas,

Apr 20, 2012 11:09 AM in reply to John Hawkinson

Report

% GetFileInfo 90582_SessionSurvey.indd
file: "/Volumes/ActiveJobs/OpenJobs/SIM/90582_SessionSurvey_RUGS_at_SGF/doc uments/90582_SessionSurvey.indd"
type: "IDd2"
creator: "InDn"
attributes: AvbstcliNMEDZ
created: 04/10/2012 16:43:14
modified: 04/18/2012 15:34:41

Yeah, these files aren't really aliases, they're just pretending ;-) But according to GetFileInfo, they do have an alias attribute.

As an experiment, I ran "xattr -c" to clear all extended attributes and that seemed to fix the problem. I don't know the full implications of blowing away the extended attributes, but it seemed to me the resulting file would be analogous to an InDesign document written from a Windows machine. (Exercise proper caution if you try this "solution" on your own files!)

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

27. dlssas,

Apr 20, 2012 11:12 AM in reply to John Hawkinson

Report

Further technical details ...

Our file server is a "NetApp" network appliance (dual-protocol NTFS/NFS) file server. It has worked very well with our Macs for over 5 years, until now.

We mount all server shares as smb:// mounts.

|
Mark as:
5,514 posts
Jun 25, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

28. John Hawkinson,

Apr 20, 2012 1:35 PM in reply to dlssas

Report

Well, it seems to be something that only happens with InDesign and NetApp machines...
I would probably start by trying to turn on some debugging or protocol tracing on the server side and try to confirm whether the file type was being changed by the client or not.
And then trying to figure out what process on the client was doing so...

I don't think there are any problems clearing the attributes on the InDesign files, for exactly the reason you specify -- they're platform-independent.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

29. waderX24,

Aug 13, 2012 12:11 PM in reply to wiitho

Report

Had this same issue today with a "press today" job.

My quick fix for this corrupted file was to rename the extention to ".indd", emailed the file to myself, then open the attachment in InDesign.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

30. mikleydiley,

Aug 14, 2012 1:38 AM in reply to waderX24

Report

I just started having similar issue of InDesign documents turning into Aliases. Am on a Mac connecting to a Windows server, newly upgraded to Lion, and it appears my Mac in our department only one affected. The only thing I can put this down to so far is an extension called Q2ID (as my Mac only one with that extension), but haven't fully tested yet. My fix, and I couldn't see whether this was mentioned above so forgive me if so, was to backup the Alias (just in case), and open the alias from within InDesign. so far has worked fine, hope this can get sorted somehow!

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

31. dlssas,

Aug 14, 2012 6:54 AM in reply to mikleydiley

Report

We continue to have this problem. We're still using CS5.5. Are folks also experiencing this now with CS6 as well? So far, the workaround of opening it directly in InDesign via File>Open is working for us.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

32. waderX24,

Aug 14, 2012 7:26 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

We also work on Macs that connect to a Windows server (via SMB://), and as with mikleydiley above, this appears to be isolated to one machine. (CS5.5 running under MacOS 10.6.8)

I was not able to open the "alias" from within InDesign. My original plan was to open the "alias" through HexEdit and change the file "kind" from alias to InDesign® CS5.5 Document, but I could not get HexEdit to open the file.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

33. Movad,

Nov 14, 2012 7:31 AM in reply to waderX24

Report

We had the same issue today - My solution was to view the same file on a PC - Make a Copy of the file - on a PC - the newly created file was no longer an alias when I view it on the Mac.

First time this happened to us - and we too are using a networked folder via SMB.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

34. dr. boss,

Nov 30, 2012 8:14 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

I am also having this issue though with Adobe Illustrator CS5 (15.0.2) on Mac OS X 10.7.5. I did a quick search for the issue on the Illustrator forum but didn't find anything there.
My art-department also saves files directly to a Windows Server via SMB. No others in my department have reported this issue other than me, but I am also the only station running OSX Lion (others are on Leopard or Snow Leopard). The files retain the correct file-size but still appear as an Alias on other stations and cannot be opened.

My workaround to access the file-data is much like others; I move the "Aliased" document to my Dropbox folder, allow enough time for it to upload to dropbox.com, and then download the file through the browser.

I hope this helps and that Adobe or Apple can resolve this problem. It occurs randomly and usually at the most inopportune times.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

35. SuperMacGuy,

Jan 17, 2013 11:57 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

I did this terminal command to "fix" some files that we had turn into aliases (and ours are colorized orange not red).
xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo (then your file path here)
-d deletes an attribute and I saw our files had 2, com.apple.FinderInfo and com.apple.ResourceFork
We are using an SMB windows files server to house our files, and this app "DPS AdTracker" handles the file opening. It does some "shuffling" around because files are not opened directly from the server, they are copied to our local drive first and then opened from there.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

36. simonleong,

Jan 21, 2013 5:43 PM in reply to McommGroupDesign

Report

I've had 2 different Indesign 6 files turn into an alias on a PC server in the last 2 days. The first one I had IT recover from backup. The second one I tried emailing to myself and then downloading to the desktop and it reverted back to its Indesign format so I could open.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

37. PSuuraho,

Jan 24, 2013 12:01 AM in reply to simonleong

Report

We have had this same problem occured also with Photoshop. We are using Windows Server 2008 and Samba shares with Mac 10.6.8 and 10.7.1 Our solution was to open the corrupted PSD file on PC and save it again with Photoshop to different name. Hopefully this gets resolved.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

38. Mark Harrington,

Mar 6, 2013 4:52 AM in reply to wiitho

Report

We are experienceing the same issue with InDesign CS6 8.0.1 and Acrobat PDFs. Using OSX 10.8.2 (Dual Quad Core) & OSX 10.6.8 work stations connected to a PC Server running Windows Server 2008. Now it has also converted some folders containing files into alias files. This seems to be more of a communication error between computers. Has anyone found a way to undo this?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

39. dlssas,

Mar 6, 2013 7:11 AM in reply to Mark Harrington

Report

My workaround these days is to use the "SetFile" command line tool from the Apple Developer tools:

SetFile –a a filename

will clear the erroneous "alias bit" that makes OS X believe the file is an alias.

|
Mark as: