When you are working in a drawing in a data shortcut project that is stored in Autodesk Docs and a project team member updates a file that is referenced by that drawing, you won't be notified that a reference in your drawing need to be updated. Instead, use the Check Reference Status command to check for updates.
- References such as xrefs and data shortcut references are checked and updated automatically whenever you open a drawing.
- References are not checked automatically when you are currently editing a drawing that is part of an Autodesk Docs project. To check for updates, use the Check Reference Status command.
You can display the following columns on the Autodesk Docs page of the Start tab to view reference status:
- Has references: Displays Yes or No depending on whether the document has references to another file such as an xref or a data shortcut.
- Date references refreshed: Displays the date and time that the files that are referenced by the document were last refreshed from Autodesk Docs by Desktop Connector.
To check for updates of referenced files
- In Civil 3D, ensure that the data shortcut synchronisation notifications are turned on.
- When notifications are turned on, the synchronisation icon appears as
at the bottom-right side of the application window.
- When notifications are turned off, the icon appears as
. Click this icon to turn on notifications.
For more information, see To Synchronize a Reference Object.
- When notifications are turned on, the synchronisation icon appears as
- Click Collaborate tab
Cloud Collaboration panel Check Reference Status 
.
A message dialog box is displayed to inform you whether updates were found and each referenced file that has been updated is listed.
- Click OK.
If the Check Reference Status command identified updates to data shortcuts or xrefs, you will be prompted to synchronise the references.
It might take several minutes before updates that have been made to referenced files are available. You may not be immediately prompted to update xrefs due to the default XNOTIFYTIME.
If updates are detected when you use the Check Reference Status command, a message will be displayed to alert you of new versions. To load new versions of referenced files, click the link in the message or you can close and re-open the host drawing.
Note: In most cases, it is not necessary to close and reopen a host drawing to update its references. But sometimes the reference files may not download and you will need to close and reopen the host drawing.