Affinity Designer file is corrupted suddenly

[Alix]

Help! My Publisher file has just corrupted too.  After experiencing a number of crashes, I'd been saving ridiculously frequently and, I think, it was during one of these saves that my file just said it appeared to be corrupted and needed to close.  Absolutely gutted to have lost hours and hours of work.  I'm working on a local drive on a mac. 

Can anyone help at all please?

I can't attach it here as it's over 9GB (which I'm very confused by too... yes, it is all photos - but they're all 'linked' so I thought that was supposed to keep file sizes down...?)

[Dan C]

Hi @Alix,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums & we're certainly sorry to hear you're having trouble, your .afpub file can be uploaded to the below link -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/RlIvRmWaLmTBpkl2lcFI

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know - can you also please confirm for me:

• Are you using Publisher V1, or V2?
• What version of macOS are you running?
• What file format are your linked images?

Many thanks in advance!

[Alix]

Hi! Thank you so much for getting back to me - (only just spotted your reply 🙈) - I'm just uploading the file using your link (57mins remaining...)

I'm using Publisher V1 on macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 and the linked images are all jpgs. 

Thank you!!! Got all my fingers crossed🤞

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, Alix said:

only just spotted your reply

It is advisable to set up post tracking so that you receive an email notification when your post is responded to. This can be set automatically for all your new posts in the forum settings.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, many thanks for providing that for me!

I've tried to repair this file using the tools available to me, however thus far I have been unable, my apologies.

Inspecting your file in a HEX editor, it appears as though the file header may be missing or corrupted, causing this issue -

Therefore I'm going to need to log this file with our developers for further investigation, to see if it can be repaired, though unfortunately this cannot be guaranteed. 

I'll be sure to update you here asap, our sincerest apologies once again for any inconveniences caused due to this.

[Nickmas]

Hi Dan, one of my .afdesign files "appears to be corrupted", hoping you can help fix it? I can upload to your dropbox just let me know the link, and some other possibly helpful info is below, let me know if you need anything else.

Affinity Designer version 2.0.0.1640

Microsoft Windows 11 Pro version 10.0.22000

I don't believe any images are linked, all imbedded but I'm not 100% sure on that.

The file was on a server while working on it and while open I accidentally clicked to open it again, nothing happened aside from the taskbar icon lighting up. Then I decided to close and reopen Designer and when I tried to load the file I got the "Failed to open document...file appears to be corrupted." error. I have backup set to every 300 seconds and the file was open for a long time but upon reopening Designer I was not prompted for any recover files. 

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, Nickmas said:

The file was on a server while working on it...

This is a known potential cause of Affinity file corruption. Serif recommends that file be worked on only on local drives & if necessary copied to servers after being saved & closed in the app.

There really should be a warning about this built into the apps.

[Nickmas]

18 minutes ago, R C-R said:

This is a known potential cause of Affinity file corruption. Serif recommends that file be worked on only on local drives & if necessary copied to servers after being saved & closed in the app.

There really should be a warning about this built into the apps.

I've been working this way since Photo and Designer V1 launched without issue, I guess my luck ran out.

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble also @Nickmas & thanks for the further information provided here.

Can you please upload the file to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/dGxck0tvlsDLwBPV2ajM

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know

[Nickmas]

24 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Sorry to hear you're having trouble also @Nickmas & thanks for the further information provided here.

Can you please upload the file to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/dGxck0tvlsDLwBPV2ajM

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know

Thanks, it is uploaded. The purpose of this file is unusual as it's not an art project but rather more of an information and timeline ordering board. Hopefully it's salvageable, I'll definitely be making my own periodic backups of it from now on.

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing that for me - again I've tried with the tools available to me, however I'm unable to recover this document at this time, my apologies.

Checking the file in a HEX editor, I can see that considerable 'chunks' of the file are missing -

Which would certainly cause this corrupted error. Unfortunately with so much data missing, it may be difficult, if not impossible for our team to recover this file - but I will be sure to log it with our developers such that we can try everything we can.

I will update you here with any further results from our developers, and once again our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused due to this.

[Nickmas]

4 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Many thanks for providing that for me - again I've tried with the tools available to me, however I'm unable to recover this document at this time, my apologies.

Checking the file in a HEX editor, I can see that considerable 'chunks' of the file are missing -

Which would certainly cause this corrupted error. Unfortunately with so much data missing, it may be difficult, if not impossible for our team to recover this file - but I will be sure to log it with our developers such that we can try everything we can.

I will update you here with any further results from our developers, and once again our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused due to this.

Ok thanks for trying.

[Pšenda]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

There really should be a warning about this built into the apps.

I definitely agree.

 

[Ryuuga]

I just had an Affinity Publisher file corrupt on me. Honestly I've been having quite frequent random crashes on this program and today, after one of the crash, I tried to reopen the program and restore the file, I got the corrupt file error (usually after the crash, it restores the file perfectly fine)

I'm on Windows 10
Affinity Publisher v2
Error appears when trying to open the file.
Saved to Local Drive

can I upload to the dropbox for you to have a look see please?

EDIT: Nevermind, I managed to find a workaround by opening a new document and using Document> Add Pages from file
Selecting my "corrupted file" I managed to open it, save it as another name and now it works fine.

After some research, turns out this is not the first time this has happened and it has been happening since version 1. Therefore, I still would like to lodge a report on this issue. Having a file randomly "corrupt" on me after hours of working on it is VERY demotivating and it's very hard for me to have confidence in using Affinity Publisher. From now on, there will always be anxiety on the back of my mind that the program might crash at any moment and possibly corrupt hours of my work. That is not a nice feeling to have while trying to work creatively, you know?

[Dan C]

Thanks for letting me know @Ryuuga, I'm certainly glad to hear you've been able to recover this document and our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused due to this!

Unfortunately it would be difficult, if not impossible, to confirm the exact cause of your file becoming corrupted retroactively - I could inspect it within a Hex editor, which would likely provide some further context as to the data that is missing in the file (ie from the file header, or from the main section of this file itself) - however if you were able to recover the file using this method then it's entirely possible that none of the Hex data was missing and instead there was corrupted Pixel data somewhere in your file.

I certainly understand your hesitations, though these issues can occur in any creative application so we'd recommend saving copies of your file as often as possible - though of course I would hope this issue does not return for you.

[DC9V]

Hello, 

a general advice to avoid data corruption:

• Avoid Cloud Sync if possible. 
• Before every update, create a backup of your project files manually.
• When Affinity is installed on a secondary drive, make sure that the application is whitelisted in Windows Defender's 'Data Execution Prevention'. 
• Reactivate your DRAM's XMP after every BIOS-update. Also double-check that the sticks are installed in the correct dimm slots. (See motherboard manual.)

[hollytuen]

Hello,

my publisher file is also corrupted. may I send this over for recovery too?

is there any way to recover this by ourselves later on? and are there particular reasons that would cause such corruption which we could avoid? 

prompt reply would be highly appreciated.

best, cherry

[Dan C]

Hi @hollytuen,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with your Publisher file, please upload a copy of this to the below link for me:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/biguIgkWTyraQbdkXcGK

Alongside a copy of your file, can you please confirm for me:

1. Which Operating System are you using?
2. Which version of Affinity did the file last get saved in?
3. What drive type was the file last saved to (select more than one if needed)?
   Local disk
   USB disk/Flash disk
   Google Drive folder
   OneDrive folder
   iCloud folder
   Dropbox folder
   Network location
   Other (please specify)

4. Any other information you think would help us try to find the problem?

Many thanks in advance!

[hollytuen]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

Hi @hollytuen,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with your Publisher file, please upload a copy of this to the below link for me:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/biguIgkWTyraQbdkXcGK

Alongside a copy of your file, can you please confirm for me:

1. Which Operating System are you using? WINDOWS
2. Which version of Affinity did the file last get saved in? Publisher 2.0.0
3. What drive type was the file last saved to (select more than one if needed)? Network location 
   Local disk
   USB disk/Flash disk
   Google Drive folder
   OneDrive folder
   iCloud folder
   Dropbox folder
   Network location
   Other (please specify)

4. Any other information you think would help us try to find the problem?

Many thanks in advance!

Hi Dan, 

see my reply above. the file is already uploaded. thank you!

 

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing that for me!
I have been able to recover your file, and I'll be returning this to your email through Dropbox now

2 hours ago, hollytuen said:

are there particular reasons that would cause such corruption which we could avoid? 

As mentioned by LondonSquirrel above, our team recommend saving and working on files locally, then uploading copies to Network Locations for backup purposes etc, as working directly from network locations can occasionally cause these issues with Affinity files.

I hope this helps!

[Dan C]

For any users experiencing a corrupted file error, please create a new thread, providing answers to the below:

1. Which Operating System are you using?
2. Which version of Affinity did the file last get saved in?
3. What drive type was the file last saved to (select more than one if needed)?
   Local disk
   USB disk/Flash disk
   Google Drive folder
   OneDrive folder
   iCloud folder
   Dropbox folder
   Network location
   Other (please specify)

4. Any other information you think would help us try to find the problem?

Our team will be sure to respond as soon as possible and we offer our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused in the meantime.
Many thanks in advance!