PptxReadException "The Author with Name '...' and Initials '' Already Added" When Loading a PPTX File in Java

Aspose.Slides Product Family
,
1

Environment

  • Aspose.Slides for Java 26.4 (classifier: jdk16)
  • Java 16+, running on Linux (AWS Batch container)

Problem

When loading a specific PPTX file with new Presentation(...), a
PptxReadException is thrown during loading. The file opens without any
problem in Microsoft PowerPoint, but Aspose.Slides fails to read it.

The presentation appears to contain multiple comment authors that share the
same name and the same (empty) initials in ppt/commentAuthors.xml.
It looks like Aspose.Slides enforces uniqueness on the (name, initials) pair
in CommentAuthorCollection.addAuthor(...) and throws when a duplicate is
detected, which aborts the whole loading process.

Exception / Stack trace

class com.aspose.slides.PptxReadException: The author with name ‘…’ and initials ‘’ already added
—> class com.aspose.slides.PptxEditException: The author with name ‘…’ and initials ‘’ already added
com.aspose.slides.CommentAuthorCollection.addAuthor(Unknown Source)
com.aspose.slides.o0s.i6(Unknown Source)
com.aspose.slides.r6r.i6(Unknown Source)
com.aspose.slides.r6r.i6(Unknown Source)
com.aspose.slides.Presentation.p4(Unknown Source)
com.aspose.slides.Presentation.i6(Unknown Source)
com.aspose.slides.Presentation.i6(Unknown Source)
com.aspose.slides.Presentation.(Unknown Source)
…
— End of inner exception stack trace —

Code to reproduce

// Fails at the constructor call, before any editing/saving
Presentation presentation = new Presentation(inputFilePath, loadOptions);

Questions

  1. Is this a known issue with duplicate comment authors that share the same
    name and empty initials?
  2. Since PowerPoint opens the file without complaint, could Aspose.Slides
    tolerate such duplicated comment authors on load (e.g. skip or merge the
    duplicate) instead of throwing during loading?
  3. Is there a supported way to load or repair such a file with the current
    API (for example, a load option to ignore comments / comment authors), so
    that the presentation can still be converted to PDF?

Thank you.

2

@nisd,
Thank you for the detailed information.

We cannot confirm yet whether this is a known issue without reproducing the problem with the original presentation. If Microsoft PowerPoint can open the file successfully, Aspose.Slides should ideally handle the duplicated comment-author records gracefully rather than aborting the entire loading process. Once the issue is reproduced, we will investigate whether the duplicate authors can be skipped or merged during loading.

Currently, Aspose.Slides for Java does not provide a load option to ignore comments or comment authors. Since the exception is thrown while the Presentation object is being created, the duplicate authors also cannot be removed using the API after loading.

Could you please share the affected PPTX file so that we can reproduce the issue and investigate a possible solution or workaround? You may attach the file to your forum post or upload it to a file-sharing service and provide the download link.

3

@andrey.potapov
Thank you for your reply.
I understand that this problem is not a known issue and there is no clear solution at this point.
Unfortunately, because the affected file belongs to our customer, I can’t share that with you.
If this problem happends frequently, I contact with out customer to share that file to investigate.

Thanks.

4

@nisd,
Thank you for the update. We understand that the presentation contains confidential customer data and cannot be shared.

If the problem occurs again, please contact us. If possible, you may provide a simplified presentation with all confidential content removed while preserving the duplicated comment-author records that trigger the exception. Such a sample would also allow us to investigate the issue.