Why are some virtual slides missing?

When you upload a presentation into Slidebank it puts a special hidden tracking code into the file and also into every slide. These are used to identify slides when they are uploaded back into Slidebank after editing. When making slide edits, it therefore becomes important to download the presentation from Slidebank first, then edit the original slide’s content directly inside PowerPoint, before uploading back into Slidebank to finish the update. This will ensure that every virtual slide that depends on a master slide will show the updated content, even if master slides have changed their positions in the master deck.

However, to preserve the tracking codes, when you update slides in PowerPoint do not simply insert a new/fresh slide or copy one from a different deck and expect any dependent virtual slides to be updated. That cannot happen because the vital tracking code used by virtual slides will be missing, so they won't be able to find 'mother' - the virtual slides will have become detatched from the master and are now 'orphans'.

In this example, any virtual slides with newly-missing 'mothers' (master slides) will be replaced by a placeholder thumbnail saying 'The original of this slide has been deleted' (or similar) and, when the virtual deck is downloaded, that virtual slide will simply not be included in the download.

To prevent virtual slides being 'orphaned', make sure you edit the original slide's content, rather than replacing the whole slide with a brand new, empty one or one from a different deck. That way, the slide tracking codes remain present and any dependent virtual slides will be updated correctly.

So, if a user reports that some virtual slides are missing, it usually means that one or more master slides have been deleted and replaced with brand new slides or slides from another deck; instead of modifying the content of the existing slide.

Incidentally, you cannot simply add a new slide in PowerPoint during an edit and expect it to be automatically added into a related virtual deck. That doesn't happen because Slidebank cannot know who does or who doesn't have permission to see the new material.

When you upload an updated presentation into the same folder, it must keep the same name as the original presentation for the update to work.

Lastly, when the ‘Checkout and Download for Editing’ option is used, a hidden tracking ID is also placed in the presentation file itself, so that file is the only one authorised to update the checked out presentation. This provides an extra level of protection against mismatching the updated slides, in case an uploaded presentation happens to have the same name.

Download the file from Slidebank

Make slide changes to the original slides using PowerPoint

Upload the file again.