How to restore broken links after server migration in Indesign CS3???

Question

Hi All,
I have used my google skills to no avail and everything I have read here has been a dead end for me. I can't be the only person in this situation, so hopefully someone can help!
My marketing department has reached the storage limits of our shared network drive. Located on this drive is our (HUGE) image library which acts as a single central respository serving up our indesign links (read here: we don't package files - to conserve space). We have decided that in an effort to create a true archive and have more space for our image library we need to migrate the library to a new 16 terabit Drobo (yay!).
The problem is that every INDD file that links to the current library will now suffer from broken links. We literally have hundreds of INDD files and thousands of links. The good news is...the file structure isn't changing at all! Just the server location is changing. Is there any way to to a batch update of the links that tells INDD to look for the exact same file path on a different drive?
In short:
current image library (old server): marketing/image library/photos/products/multiple product folders
new image library (new server): drobo/image library/photos/products/multiple product folders
I want to point InDesign to the new server and have it pick up the file path without having to navigate to each and every file individually. Voila!
Is this even possible? Is there any 3rd party software to help? Other architechture solutions that might be suggested?
Thanks so much for the help!
Alex

Answer 1

I wrote several scripts to solve this problem, here is one of them.
// Change paths of links.jsx
// Script for InDesign CS3 and CS4 -- changes the path of each link in the active document.
// Version 1.0
// May 13 2010
// Written by Kasyan Servetsky
// http://www.kasyan.ho.com.ua
// e-mail: [email protected]
var gScriptName = "Change paths of links";
var gScriptVer = 1;
var gOsIsMac = (File.fs == "Macintosh") ? true : false;
var gSet = GetSettings();
if (app.documents.length == 0) {
     ErrorExit("No open document. Please open a document and try again.", true);
var gDoc = app.activeDocument;
var gLinks = gDoc.links;
var gCounter = 0;
if (gLinks.length == 0) {
     ErrorExit("This document doesn't contain any links.", true);
CreateDialog();
//======================= FUNCTIONS =============================
function CreateDialog() {
     var dialog = new Window("dialog", gScriptName);
     dialog.orientation = "column";
     dialog.alignChildren = "fill";
     var panel = dialog.add("panel", undefined, "Settings");
     panel.orientation = "column";
     panel.alignChildren = "right";
     var group1 = panel.add("group");
     group1.orientation = "row";
     var findWhatStTxt = group1.add("statictext", undefined, "Find what:");
     var findWhatEdTxt = group1.add("edittext", undefined, gSet.findWhatEdTxt);
     findWhatEdTxt.minimumSize.width = 300;
     var group2 = panel.add("group");
     group2.orientation = "row";
     var changeToStTxt = group2.add("statictext", undefined, "Change to:");
     var changeToEdTxt = group2.add("edittext", undefined, gSet.changeToEdTxt);
     changeToEdTxt.minimumSize.width = 300;
     var btnGroup = dialog.add("group");
     btnGroup.orientation = "row";
     btnGroup.alignment = "center";
     var okBtn = btnGroup.add("button", undefined, "Ok");
     var cancelBtn = btnGroup.add("button", undefined, "Cancel");
     var showDialog = dialog.show();
     if (showDialog== 1) {
          gSet.findWhatEdTxt = findWhatEdTxt.text;
          gSet.changeToEdTxt = changeToEdTxt.text;
          app.insertLabel("Kas_" + gScriptName + "_ver_" + gScriptVer, gSet.toSource());
          Main();
function Main() {
     WriteToFile("\r--------------------- Script started -- " + GetDate() + " ---------------------\n");
     for (var i = gLinks.length-1; i >= 0 ; i--) {
          var currentLink = gLinks[i];
          var oldPath = currentLink.filePath;
          oldPath = oldPath.replace(/:|\\/g, "\/");
          oldPath = oldPath.toLowerCase();
          gSet.findWhatEdTxt = gSet.findWhatEdTxt.replace(/:|\\/g, "\/");
          gSet.changeToEdTxt = gSet.changeToEdTxt.replace(/:|\\/g, "\/");
          gSet.findWhatEdTxt = gSet.findWhatEdTxt.replace(/([A-Z])(\/\/)/i, "/$1/");
          gSet.changeToEdTxt = gSet.changeToEdTxt.replace(/([A-Z])(\/\/)/i, "/$1/");
          gSet.findWhatEdTxt = gSet.findWhatEdTxt.toLowerCase();
          gSet.changeToEdTxt = gSet.changeToEdTxt.toLowerCase();
          if (File.fs == "Windows") oldPath = oldPath.replace(/([A-Z])(\/\/)/i, "/$1/");
          var newPath = oldPath.replace(gSet.findWhatEdTxt, gSet.changeToEdTxt);
          if (File.fs == "Windows") {
               newPath = newPath.replace(/([A-Z])(\/\/)/, "/$1/");
          else if (File.fs == "Macintosh") {
               newPath = "/Volumes/" + newPath;
          var newFile = new File(newPath);
          if (newFile.exists) {
               currentLink.relink(newFile);
               gCounter++;
               WriteToFile("Relinked \"" + newPath + "\"\n");
          else {
               WriteToFile("Can't relink \"" + newPath + "\" because the file doesn't exist\n");
     WriteToFile("\r--------------------- Script finished -- " + GetDate() + " ---------------------\r\r");
     if (gCounter == 1) {
          alert("One file has been relinked.", "Finished");
     else if  (gCounter > 1) {
          alert(gCounter + " files have been relinked.", "Finished");
     else {
          alert("Nothing has been relinked.", "Finished");
function GetSettings() {
     var settings = eval(app.extractLabel("Kas_" + gScriptName + "_ver_" + gScriptVer));
     if (settings == undefined) {
          if (gOsIsMac) {
               settings = { findWhatEdTxt:"//ServerName/ShareName/FolderName", changeToEdTxt:"ShareName:FolderName" };
          else {
               settings = { findWhatEdTxt:"ShareName:FolderName", changeToEdTxt:"//ServerName/ShareName/FolderName" };
     return settings;
function ErrorExit(myMessage, myIcon) {
     alert(myMessage, gScriptName, myIcon);
     exit();
function WriteToFile(myText) {
     var myFile = new File("~/Desktop/" + gScriptName + ".txt");
     if ( myFile.exists ) {
          myFile.open("e");
          myFile.seek(0, 2);
     else {
          myFile.open("w");
     myFile.write(myText);
     myFile.close();
function GetDate() {
     var myDate = new Date();
     if ((myDate.getYear() - 100) < 10) {
          var myYear = "0" + new String((myDate.getYear() - 100));
     } else {
          var myYear = new String ((myDate.getYear() - 100));
     var myDateString = (myDate.getMonth() + 1) + "/" + myDate.getDate() + "/" + myYear + " " + myDate.getHours() + ":" + myDate.getMinutes() + ":" + myDate.getSeconds();
     return myDateString;
You can specify a platform-specific path name, or a path in a  platform-independent format known as universal resource identifier (URI)  notation, or Mac OS 9 path name (for Mac).
For example any of the following notations are valid:
Windows
c:\dir\file (Windows path name)
/c/dir/file (URI path name)
//10.44.54.70/Test/images (uniform naming convention (UNC) path name of the form //servername/sharename)
//Apple/Test/images
\\10.44.54.70\Test\images (Windows path name)
\\Apple\Test\images (Windows path name)
where 10.44.54.70 IP  address of the server, Apple -- DNS name of the server, Test -- share name
Mac
The following examples assume that the startup volume is MacOSX, and that there is a mounted volume Remote.
/dir/file (Mac OS X path name)
/MacOSX/dir/file (URI path name)
MacOSX:dir:file (Mac OS 9 path name)
/Remote/dir/file (URI path name)
Remote:dir:file (Mac OS 9 path name)
Remote/dir/file (Mac OS X path name)
You can just copy a part of the path in Links panel and paste it to the script's dialog. In CS4, make sure to choose "Copy Platform Style Path" in context menu.
The case of the characters doesn’t matter: you can type both in upper and lowercase in the script's dialog. For example  — Test, test, TEST, TeSt — are all the same for the script.
Regards,
Kasyan