Since it is hard to control how your designers create their files, I think would go the route @Karmalakas suggested and you implemented above. By creating your own fresh file and merging all layers into the new empty document, you have full control over the results. I would run a few tests to make sure the metadata doesn’t also get copied over but I think this will help you account for the issue we have been discussing along with other possible edge cases that haven’t popped up yet. Cheers!