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

>> Surely, you are not suggesting that remembering to turn your safety-net back-up software on and off every time you work on a PowerPoint file or moving your files in and out of folders is a solution to this issue. This is simply a temporary and PIA work-around, right? Right?

Yes, right.  Of course.  

FWIW, I use a backup system that runs nightly via the Windows scheduler, at 3am or so when nobody's going to be working on the PC; this way there's nothing for PPT to stumble over during working hours.

For interim backups as I go, I'd rather trust my own judgement than software's.  If I've just opened a file to look at it, there's no need to back it up, but backup software won't understand that.  On the other hand, if I'm about to make major changes to a document, I want to first save a copy of it NOW, not wait until I've screwed it up and the backup software has synched my messes to the other places where the document is stored.  

At least this way any awful stuff that happens is of my own making and not PowerPoint's.  I can live with that. ;-)

>> Some of them solved it, yes. However, it is unbelievable, that turning off any software that actively watches files is considered a solution over such a long time period.

As others have mentioned, it's a workaround, not a fix.  If your tooth hurts and the dentist can't figure out why, you chew on the other side of your mouth.  Not because it's a great idea, but because it causes you less pain.  

>> I am aware that these are supposed to be temporary fixes, but it's time for a permanent fix, don't you think?

Of course.  So do we all, Microsoft included.  But sometimes what appears to be a simple problem isn't.  Out here in Real World, some people have had this problem regularly.  Others haven't seen it at all.  Without being able to reproduce it reliably at MS, there was nothing to put under the microscope and examine.  

And once they locate the problem, it's not always a simple matter of changing a few lines of code.  There might be major changes needed, and then lots of testing to make sure that a change to fix one problem doesn't cause other problems in a different part of the program, or for different users.

And I'd imagine that since the problem appears to be related to automatic backup software, they probably want to test with all of the different software they can.  It wouldn't make them very popular to release a fix that works with OneDrive but not Dropbox.  ;-)

>> Well, I don't think they are taking the problem serious enough.

We're all entitled to our opinions.

Believe me, I understand the frustration and anger.  I haven't (so far) had the problem bite me, but there are others that I run into constantly - I've been complaining to MS about one since Office 97 was first released.  I have no hope of it ever getting fixed.  This red-x thing though ... I think we'll see a fix, though obviously not as soon as any of us would LIKE to see it.

>>  I also tried the "hotfix" listed and got the same message as someone else on the thread saying "this fix doesn't apply to anything on your machine".... 

Thanks for the URL.  This brings up another continuing frustration:  MS itself doesn't seem to understand the differences between all of the various Office 2013 versions; it certainly hasn't been able to make the differences clear to the public.

One hint is that the KB article talks about PowerPoint 2013 but makes no mention of Anything 365.  That seems to be MS_BaffleSpeak for "This only applies to the enterprise versions of Office, not the consumer ones". 

Normally you'll get updates for Office 365 automatically if updates are turned on, or not at all if they're off.  But this does bring up an interesting question.  ARE there optional hotfixes for O365?  I'll see what I can find out about that.

Of course I am aware of the perceived vs. real difficulty of fixing problems in software, I'm a developer/computer scientist myself. I'm just frustrated, because the ratio of how much money they make with this product and how quickly they fix "red-Xs" (I like this description for "deal-breaking" bugs) seems to be way off. But of course, this might just be my personal impression, since I am personally affected and I have no insight into their development process whatsoever.

>> One hint is that the KB article talks about PowerPoint 2013 but makes no mention of Anything 365.  That seems to be MS_BaffleSpeak for "This only applies to the enterprise versions of Office, not the consumer ones". 

Isn't 365 just the name for the subscription type of office? When I download it onto my workstations, it still seems to be named "PowerPoint 2013".

What also confused me, was the description of the hotfix, it didn't seem to match the problem we encountered.

I have had this happen to me three times in the last month, and of course its the night before the presentation. 

The hardware is a Surface 2 Pro (8 GB) w/ factory image and Office Professional Plus 2013 (v15.0.455.1512)