Missing Assets AGAIN!

This seems to be a huge issue. Even before the update that I did (today) Blocs keeps removing Assets.

We’re are you storing assets, are you aware they are not embedded in projects?

I’d be interested to know more about your workflow as missing assets seems to be something you have a problem with on a regular basis. The reports for missing assets are pretty rare now (with the exception of some ongoing issues with 2.4 beta which are completely unrelated).

Here are some things that will cause missing assets.

• Change file name outside of Blocs.
• Change asset files parent directory name outside of Blocs.
• Move asset to a new location on your HD outside of Blocs.
• Opening Blocs project on another computer when assets are not available.
• Storing assets on an external drive and then renaming this drive outside of Blocs.

Paths to assets in Blocs are absolute paths to the assets on your file system, so if these paths change at all outside of Blocs the assets will throw the missing alert.

Assets are not embedded into projects.

TIP: If you keep all of your assets in a directory on the same level as your Blocs project file, Blocs will always be able to connect images back when moving projects between Macs.

Are you getting the missing asset warning? Do you mind if I contact you directly so I can get to the bottom of this?

It was a painful road to learn this, believe me.
But I got it now.

Norm, unfortunately doing it this way means, that you may have hundreds of photos in one folder. And because of the way the asset manager is designed there is no way to organize your photos in subfolders etc.
This should be a major task for you to make it possible to organize all your assets in subfolders.

@norm My opinion is, would be better storing the photos and the extrernal files in the Blocs file itself.

This would make Blocs files a lot bigger, take up double space on HD and would also make updating assets outside of Blocs painful.

The current workflow is not perfect but embedding assets into project files will do more bad than good.

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I always keep originals in a separate folder. The assets I use are in a different folder. When I upload the assets into Blocs, it removes them from that folder, and stores them in the Blocs program and then they are stored in the img folder when exported.

When I use my FTP client, I now have to mirror the two folders to pull the assets back into the folder where the Blocs export exists.

And it still keeps removing them from the export folder.

I upload assets to the asset folder and I put them in the gallery. Embedded? It’s my understanding that they are embedded. But again, when I upload the exported files, Blocs is removing the assets from the img folder on my hard drive.

That’s how this software is designed to work. The assets are stored in the img folder when exported to for upload. When I upload those assets are removed from the img folder.

Then when I open up Blocs, all those assets are missing.

So you are importing images into your Blocs project from your actual export folder for that project??

That would cause images to go missing because every time you export, blocs overwrites that folder with a new one. Assets for a Blocs project should be no were near the folder you export too. Also when you ftp anything it should copy the files from your desktop not actually move them off your HD.

Assets are not embedded in Blocs projects, they are merely linked to on your file system, keep them separate.

So, as a rule of thumb don’t keep assets anywhere near where you export to, if you keep exporting over the same folder, but are refecing items from within this export folder in your Blocs project it will break every time, because Blocs is overwriting the entire export folder, and then when it goes to get the images they no longer exist.

Think of the export version of your site as completely separate to your Blocs project file.

Not sure if this helps any, but I create a project folder. It holds the Blocs file and has sub directories for the assets I intend to import in to the asset manager. OK, it can get disk space hungry having two sets of images, but usually the originals are full size raw and useless unless processed in Photoshop, so for me the disk hit is a must.

This is how you set it up.

I create an image and I put it in a separate local folder from the original.

I upload the images (assets) in my pages in the Blocs program. Blocs removes that image from the local folder and puts it in the Asset Manager. The image is moved into the Blocs Program and my Blocs Project.

I cannot use an asset without using the Asset Manager. Again the Asset Manager removes the image from the local folder and puts it into Blocs.

When I export, those images in the Asset Manager are exported to the img folder. Videos are exported to the vid folder.

Then they go missing. They just disappear from the Blocs Program. They are in the Assert Manager, I can see them, but Blocs doesn’t know where the file is. So I have to go searching to where the file is.

Where is that file located? In the exported img folder that is used to upload to the url.

Where am I supposed to store them?

I’m so confused.

For me adding to the asset manager doesn’t remove the image from the folder. I had thought that the asset manager linked to the original image only until the point of export when the image is sent and processed in to the project for upload. But even then the image still stays in the original folder. That said if your image disappears that explains what the asset manager isn’t finding anything.

Yes that’s right.

That makes too of us :triumph:

Adding assets to the asset manager doesn’t move them from thier original place on your HD, it just gets the local image path From your HD and adds a visual link to that asset. Nothing is moved or deleted when adding assets to a Blocs project.

Obviously this is not solving anything.

My Assets are missing. I use Blocs how it is set up and the assets are missing.

Are you by any chance moving the original folder you used to add the images in to the asset manager? If you do that will break the links in the asset manager and make them appear missing.

Reason for asking, is I slipped up on that one not long ago.

This is the folder where I place the images before uploading them into the Asset Manager.

As you can see the folder is empty. Blocs is removing the Asset from the local folder.

This is the folder on my SSD where I placed all my pictures before uploading to Asset Manager. They are gone. All those blank spots in the other screen capture were located in the folder in the screen shot here. They are gone.

I don’t move anything. I put the images in the local folder, I upload them into Asset Manager and they disappear from the local folder.

That has to be as frustrating as hell. I am now totally out of ideas, sorry.

Now all the pictures I moved into Asset Manager are not in Asset Manager. But as you can see, in the red screen capture, there use to be images.