Agreed - check box default to ‘on’, please!

@VincentVE, Good point. I'd be okay with the check box defaulting to "on". I generally have all my links in one place, but I can see a use for using it the way you describe.

It not being fully automatic is good. It could be the default for sure but being able to easily turn it off has helped me. I had a situation where I was doing a lot of re-linking (don't ask) and it was a lot of images per file. And having it on was causing quite a delay as it would try and check each time whilst I knew it would find noting. Turning it off just let me quickly run through them.

So that checkbox, keep it, its good :) But the default could be 'on', thats what's probably more useful to most users most of the time.

@Jacqueline Christensen, I don't know if it's a feature in Premier Pro, but in Illustrator, it's not automatic (I wish it were, Adobe). You have to check the box that says "Search for Missing Links in This Folder." I've attached a screenshot. Note that it's grayed out because I don't have any missing links in that AI file. It works well, and is a big help.

I have V28.7.1 and the auto-relink feature does not work. I still have to go into the exact same folder over and over again to link files instead of it sensing that they're there. This is a feature in Adobe Premiere Pro?

Marc, please provide an example of a folder structure and the changes made that lead to a failure when relinking files back like this.
I made several test to try to make it saved and was not able to make it loose links. I tried several nested folders, renaming all or few, to move the source file... unless you completely change the relative order of links, Ai was able to pickup all — for me.

As for the Relink to Folder option, similar to the one InDesign has (can’t say I recall Blender having it, but sure it can), like the attached screenshot shows, — it feels like a separate request I encourage you to make.
Th situation with identical names... I struggle to imagine files with identical names within a single folder :) if you mean different folders within a parent one — why should these be mixed, if their relative paths are different?
Perhaps you need to give more examples to justify and elaborate this.

Thank you. That works, but sometimes links are broken up into multiple folders and "Search for missing links in this folder" won't do the trick.

I'd love an option to point to a folder before having to choose a replacement for a particular link. That way I could point Illustrator to a top level folder to search for all missing links within. If there are multiple files with the same name within the folder structure, we could be prompted to choose the file to which we intended on linking.

I think Blender might have an example of this functionality.

Marc, it requires you to enable the option at the bottom of the dialog, 'Search for missing Links in This Folder', like the attached screenshot shows.
Please try and see if it helps.

And sure I agree with the last sentence — somewhat.
Serif does not implement all the stuff users ask of them, including things Ai has been having for decades.
However, AD users wait less time for these, compared to Ai users and some other basic needs. I really envy some things they made, but can’t imagine not having others. So... https://xkcd.com/927/

How is this supposed to work? I just tried on Illustrator 28.6 on Mac Sonoma 14.5.

Added a bunch of links to document.
Saved.
Changed location of links. (links are now missing)
Located one link.
All remaining missing links in that same folder, remain missing.

Am I missing something?

Also I agree with you for the most part, Egor. Affinity is young, but implementing stable functionality requested by users. Adobe is implementing AI functionality to replace the user while ignoring 15 year old issues that users struggle with every day.

Wow, it’s been ten years since AD launched, indeed! Quite a journey.
They certainly were able to pull it further than Ai was able in its first ten years. Timelines are incomparable, since Ai started way earlier, and had to invent all these things AD now adapts rapidly (and invent some new ones!)
It’s a long way ahead for both. AD has to learn plugins and scripts, blends, proper patterns, etc. Ai has yet to learn to listen to us and hurry up with changes like this.

great, now we've moved onto affinity...ten years a little late. I refuse to ever rent adobe again.

It is absurd that this still does not work on MacOS. On Windows this has been working fine for a decade now.... In Windows you can just select the first image and the rest will be automatically applied.

I have a file with over 100 links, the only way to automatically link this is if I remove my whole folder structure and move EVERY file to a Links folder. I work with Windows and MacOS and it is really absurd that I have to link every file manually when I go work in MacOS... HOW is this still not a thing after a whole decade??

This sucks a lot, there is literally a function in the beta that says Automatically link files within the folder. But that still does NOT work with subfolders, so there is literally no way to add organize files?? I am stuck on a links folder??

Please fix this utter ***sh*t... It is the most useless broken software ever...

In addition, Please include the broken link name to appear to copy, paste the missing link name in the search field to quickly find the image and where it is located.

Seems close to how it should function. Testing on mac. Full release 28.1.
1. It only finds additional links when the file is opening. If the file is already open and you try and relink it does not UNLESS the folder is renamed to "Links".
2. Relinking file dialog should be more descriptive of what you're relinking. ID falls short here too, normally a file path/name gets truncated, but in the Illustrator dialog, no file name shows up at all.
3. Create an alert like InDesign has that says "Searched this relink directory, and found and relinked # missing links."

Amazing that in 2023, this feature is still missing. Working with links in Illustrator is a huge pain in general, but this would help a lot.

This is incredibly important, as someone who spends a lot of time in illustrator this costs me minutes each day and adds up over time. It's such a pain point that it's caused me to serious look at other alternatives.

I am extremely disappointed and frustrated with the current state of Adobe Illustrator when it comes to dealing with "Missing links/files".
I would like to request a feature for Adobe Illustrator regarding the issue of "Missing links/files". Unlike other Adobe applications such as After Effects or Premiere Pro, Illustrator lacks the capability to automatically locate missing files based on their location.

This can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially when dealing with numerous files while on a tight DEADLINES. Implementing a similar feature in Illustrator would greatly enhance productivity and alleviate the annoyance and frustration associated with manually searching for each individual file. I kindly request that Adobe consider implementing this feature to improve the user experience. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

This is a critical feature for business productivity and Illustrator functionality.

To put it simply, just enhance ID with Ai's vector drawing tools and eliminate Illustrator from your software. It makes holes everywhere anyway.

Agreed. The UI should be far more harmonised than it is. The Swatch palette is terrible, too. Why do we have to select Global to allow us to live edit colours in a project? ALL colours should be editable, the same way they work in ID.