PowerPoint 2013: Images in presentation disappear - and are replaced with 'The image part with relationship ID rId2 was not found in the file'

I wonder if there is a common set of third party add-in code (e.g. Send to Bluetooth, NitroPro, etc.) that those of us who are afflicted by this problem may have running.

This got me thinking about what else might be in common, which got me thinking about the files on which I have the problem.  I've only ever had the problem on two files - the first one (F1) when open alone, and the other only when a cousin (CO) of the first one was open in the background.  By a cousin I mean another presentation with very similar characteristics that was started with the same templates.  So, here's a list of some unique characteristics of the files I'm calling F1 and CO - does anyone here have any corroboration of these characteristics on the problematic files they're working on?  Maybe it's something to do with 365 not liking the files themselves.

--They have a large number of embedded "master templates" visible when you look at the 'layout options' (16-18).

--The templates themselves are legacy and probably date back to files created on much older versions of PowerPoint, at least back to MS Office 97, maybe further.

--The templates are created in some way to maintain 'corporate standards' - they're done by large clients running enterprise-level MS products

--The files themselves are created from taking old decks, deleting the slides, and starting again with new slides - this carries forward the templates and maybe explains why there are so many - admittedly, I don't fully understand this aspect of PowerPoint.

--The files have now (CO) or have had in the past (F1) large quantities of text in the 'comments' field of many of the slides.

Here are some things that are NOT unique about them, relative to other files where I'm not having problems

--Being graphics intensive.

--Being large file sizes.  F1 is at mid 4 MB when saves as .ppt, 1.8M as pptx.  CO at 7MB as pptx.  I have plenty of other .pptx's in the 2MB range

--Having lots of animation

Maybe 'we the people' can help sort this out ourselves and then tell MS the answer. 

Hi EdddieM

Wow, thanks for all your detail. Any information you can provide the folks at Microsoft (just a note, I'm not a Microsoft employee) will be very helpful.

One thing that caught my eye above is legacy templates and old slides I've had it happen on templates and slides I've created, so we can cross those off the list.

Keep the info coming.

Sandy

I wonder if there is a common set of third party add-in code (e.g. Send to Bluetooth, NitroPro, etc.) that those of us who are afflicted by this problem may have running.

This got me thinking about what else might be in common, which got me thinking about the files on which I have the problem.  I've only ever had the problem on two files - the first one (F1) when open alone, and the other only when a cousin (CO) of the first one was open in the background.  By a cousin I mean another presentation with very similar characteristics that was started with the same templates.  So, here's a list of some unique characteristics of the files I'm calling F1 and CO - does anyone here have any corroboration of these characteristics on the problematic files they're working on?  Maybe it's something to do with 365 not liking the files themselves.

--They have a large number of embedded "master templates" visible when you look at the 'layout options' (16-18).

--The templates themselves are legacy and probably date back to files created on much older versions of PowerPoint, at least back to MS Office 97, maybe further.

--The templates are created in some way to maintain 'corporate standards' - they're done by large clients running enterprise-level MS products

--The files themselves are created from taking old decks, deleting the slides, and starting again with new slides - this carries forward the templates and maybe explains why there are so many - admittedly, I don't fully understand this aspect of PowerPoint.

--The files have now (CO) or have had in the past (F1) large quantities of text in the 'comments' field of many of the slides.

Here are some things that are NOT unique about them, relative to other files where I'm not having problems

--Being graphics intensive.

--Being large file sizes.  F1 is at mid 4 MB when saves as .ppt, 1.8M as pptx.  CO at 7MB as pptx.  I have plenty of other .pptx's in the 2MB range

--Having lots of animation

Maybe 'we the people' can help sort this out ourselves and then tell MS the answer. 

Can address a couple of these:

-- I've had this happen on decks that I built from the ground up. No Templates involved at all other than what I put in the slide masters.

-- This has happened to decks with nothing in the comment or notes section.

-- One time the crash occurred immediately after a file save and the only thing I changed in the file was one of the notes where I deleted some text.

Mickey Mills

www.presentationwow.com

I just got my first Red X's. Fortunately I had just saved it as a prior version. The first error I received was that the file would not save. I did a 'Save As', it worked for a few minutes then the Red X appeared. I managed to save it by changing the template design, although I did lose two slides. After that, I did another 'Save As' and has been working since. 

This is horrific. I am now having to save the file with a 'Save As' after every new slide. I cannot believe Microsoft has known about this since June and it has not been solved yet. Office 365 enticed me to leave LibreOffice, if this is not fixed I may have to go back.

I've actually gotten my recovery time in the couple of minutes range.

I keep my save fairly current. I don't do the "Save As" each time. I've found if I can get it to save with the save function, I have the most current version saved. Then, if it doesn't save, I do the Save As and then open up the last save and the new "save as" file and get the slide up to date with the most current items on the Save As. If I have an images missing on that slide, I just do a "Change Image" on the Red-X box replacing the image that was there.

At that point I am back current.

At this point it's purely a nuisance, but at least the issue is not costing me tons of time any more.

It also seems to happen more often when I have had PPT open for awhile and have done many changes so I usually close and restart PowerPoint after an event.

Good luck with it. I do wish Microsoft would work this out. I'm about "   " this close to moving to Keynote on the Mac for future work.

MM