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

Yup, there is the disclaimer.  

I guess in my sarcastic mode,  I was thinking of something more explicit like "Beware, PowerPoint 2013 is known to exhibit erratic behavior resulting in hours of lost work for some users"

In my case the file with the lost images is significantly smaller than the original file (980 Mb vs 292 Mb) so I suspect that the images are actually deleted, not just a lost pointer or xml tag.

OK, I'll throw out a couple of ideas.

From the message, it sounds like PPT is "losing track" of the image file. I can think of a couple of reasons for this happening:

• There is the obvious "brute force" approach where PPT actually deleted the image file for some unknown reason.
• The other possibility is that PPT is simply getting confused. The image file is still part of the file structure, but PPT has lost track of it somehow.

This it sounds VAGUELY like the XML "End Tag" problem in Word.  When people use the Word "Equation Editor" to make changes to an equation that was previously entered, Word gets stupid and misplaces an XML End Tag. That makes the file unreadable.  I am wondering if PPT is simply "losing track" of the image file.

I was going to suggest trying to match the image file name to the entry in the slide XML file.  Too bad it isn't that simple. I just looked at a (good) presentation.  Slide one displays an image file with the name "Image15.jpeg".  Too bad I can't find that in the slide XML file.  Can anyone tell me / us how the image file is related to the slide xml file?  I can't even identify any XML tags that appear related to image display.

Here is the XML for the slide that displays "IMAGE15.JPEG"

Slide1.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<p:sld xmlns:a="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/main" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main"><p:cSld><p:spTree><p:nvGrpSpPr><p:cNvPr id="1" name=""/><p:cNvGrpSpPr/><p:nvPr/></p:nvGrpSpPr><p:grpSpPr><a:xfrm><a:off x="0" y="0"/><a:ext cx="0" cy="0"/><a:chOff x="0" y="0"/><a:chExt cx="0" cy="0"/></a:xfrm></p:grpSpPr><p:sp><p:nvSpPr><p:cNvPr id="2" name="Title 1"/><p:cNvSpPr><a:spLocks noGrp="1"/></p:cNvSpPr><p:nvPr><p:ph type="ctrTitle"/></p:nvPr></p:nvSpPr><p:spPr/><p:txBody><a:bodyPr/><a:lstStyle/><a:p><a:r><a:rPr lang="en-US" dirty="0" smtClean="0"/><a:t>The Story of the Ribbon</a:t></a:r><a:endParaRPr lang="en-US" dirty="0"/></a:p></p:txBody></p:sp><p:sp><p:nvSpPr><p:cNvPr id="3" name="Subtitle 2"/><p:cNvSpPr><a:spLocks noGrp="1"/></p:cNvSpPr><p:nvPr><p:ph type="subTitle" idx="1"/></p:nvPr></p:nvSpPr><p:spPr><a:xfrm><a:off x="905740" y="2562731"/><a:ext cx="6463247" cy="1514417"/></a:xfrm></p:spPr><p:txBody><a:bodyPr/><a:lstStyle/><a:p><a:r><a:rPr lang="en-US" dirty="0" smtClean="0"/><a:t>Jensen Harris</a:t></a:r></a:p><a:p><a:r><a:rPr lang="en-US" dirty="0" smtClean="0"/><a:t>Principal Group Program Mgr.</a:t></a:r></a:p><a:p><a:r><a:rPr lang="en-US" dirty="0" smtClean="0"/><a:t>Office User Experience Team</a:t></a:r><a:endParaRPr lang="en-US" dirty="0"/></a:p></p:txBody></p:sp></p:spTree></p:cSld><p:clrMapOvr><a:masterClrMapping/></p:clrMapOvr><p:transition/><p:timing><p:tnLst><p:par><p:cTn id="1" dur="indefinite" restart="never" nodeType="tmRoot"/></p:par></p:tnLst></p:timing></p:sld>

Until then I would like to see a "caveat emptor" stamp on the Office 2013 advertising.

Greg, you want a caveat emptor, well it is right there in the MS License terms

<snip>

RETAIL LIMITED WARRANTY

Does Microsoft provide a LIMITED WARRANTY for the software? Yes, other than for trial software, which is licensed “as-is” and without express warranties, guarantees and conditions.  Microsoft warrants that properly licensed software will perform substantially as described in any Microsoft materials that accompany the software.  This limited warranty does not cover problems that you cause, or that arise when you fail to follow our instructions, or that are caused by events beyond Microsoft’s reasonable control.

</snip>

Here is the part I particularly love <sarcasm>

<snip>

What if Microsoft breaches any part of this agreement? IF YOU HAVE ANY BASIS FOR RECOVERING DAMAGES FROM MICROSOFT, **YOU CAN RECOVER ONLY DIRECT DAMAGES UP TO THE AMOUNT THAT YOU PAID FOR THE SOFTWARE.**YOU MAY NOT RECOVER ANY OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING CONSEQUENTIAL, LOST PROFITS, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES. The damage exclusions and limitations in this agreement apply even if repair, replacement or a refund for the software does not fully compensate you for any losses or if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages.

</snip

So they say, if Office doesn't perform as advertised, the most they think you can recover is the purchase price of the product. ... <sigh>