It's been SIX YEARS since this question was asked.
How has this feature not been implemented yet?

<looks at watch>

So, this feature comes when?

Auto RELINK missing files just like the feature on After Effects, Once you locate the right path then it will automatically find the rest, SO IT WILL BE A TIME SAVER especially if you moved files and have BROKEN MISSING files of 150 images plus..

VERY FRUSTRATING TO LOCATE ONE BY ONE MISSING LINKS in ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darleen, no it doesn't!
Ran a test to show how AI doesn't relink. See attached video.

I try and avoid using Illustrator for this reason, but unfortunately it's the only Adobe vector based program that plays nice with After Effects and Animate.. if I could get away with using InDesign in conjunction with both of these, I'd do it in a heart beat.

But AI does this already.......

Provide Illustrator with a 'Search For All Missing Links In This Folder' checkbox (when re-linking images) in the same way that InDesign does.

@Linus, this is not for the AI team to implement :) This forums is a third-party tool, maintained by a separate company. If you have a request for branching comments — you better ask them to do it in their own Userevoice’s Uservoice — https://feedback.uservoice.com/forums/1-general-feedback/suggestions/733624-threaded-comments-for-replying-to-specific-comment

But honestly, I don’t feel it's crucial.

so annoying this was first posted in 2017 and they still don't have this obvious feature!! especially in cases where the same file is used multiple times in one document, having to individually relink everything is infuriating

Also, please make it so you can react to and answer comments here in the forum. Should be a basic function at this point!

It's mindblowing to me how this is not fixed yet!

I agree with with many previous comments. For the sake of workflow this should be a top priority before starting working on new features.

Please fix this.

There actually is a work-around for this. If you move your .AI document to the same folder as your links and open it from there the links will be relinked to the file.

Illustrator doesn't even relink multiple instances of the same file automatically (screenshot attached)

+1 : Illustrator should search folder for missing links when relinking like InDesign

This should be priority over every single new feature. Please don't do anything else until you fix this.

Basic workflow inefficiency that I lose hours to every time a project folder gets reorganized or renamed.
Already present in InDesign, AE and Premiere pro, why not illustrator?

This feature is ESSENTIAL.
Indesign, AE, Premiere have had this for years.

I lose hours of time manually relinking image individually when something gets moved or relabelled.

Hi,

After working with the corel application for many years, I switched to Adobe Ecosystem with a radical change. I can encounter many problems that my friends, who have been using Adobe products for many years, approve and see as justified. So I decided to send you these things that I see missing.

The first thing I will convey is this: For example, when I want to package an illustrator file that I am working on on Windows and continue working in the illustrator program on the mac operating system, it asks me for the links in the file one by one. However, if he scans the folder and finds it himself, as in indesign, the job will become more practical.

It's driving me crazy because some of my files have 30+ links. I'm up to date with the latest software version. Help!

Please give option to "Search for Missing Links in This Folder" like in InDesign.

Illustrator requires you to manually replace each file separately, one by one! It's a massive waste of time when this could be automated and an easy win?

Even just a year ago, Illustrator (Photoshop, After Effects) had a semi-automatic function, where, if you had unlikned files, linked the first manually, and Adobe saw that the file structure the link was in was the same as before, it'd look for the other files by name, inform you it found them, and asked if you wanted them replaced.

I used to use this to re-color assets for animation (copy the folder of assets, change their color, delete the original folder) -and the programs would "find" every single other file if I "showed" the program where the first correct file was located

For the love of everything, bring this function back, it's made it impossible to work with files older than a month (as now *every* link older than a month needs to be manually replaced) -which means I can barely use my existing projects.

Now, for example, I need to translate a manual (which, being a manual is long and has lots and lot of pictures) -but I cannot, because, even tho I never moved the file or its assets, Illustrator has un-linked them, won't refresh them, nor will it automatically detect them.

So now I have to translate in Acrobat!!!!!???!?! (at least the Acrobat files don't disintigrate over time -yet).

In Acrobat.
When I'm paying full price for Illustrator.
Why would I keep doing that!?

The major issue with Adobe Illustrator's Links is that the saved path is built “from the bottom" for example Username/Pictures/Job Folder/File, rather than, "from the top" like InDesign, for ex. File/Job Folder/Pictures/Username. It means that with InDesign files, I can move the entire Job Folder to a different location without losing links, whilst if I do it with Illustrator, I need to re-link everything. Packaging is not a solution, if you work on huge projects where linked files need to stay in their designated folders.