How to restore corrupted Publisher file

[Dan C]

Thanks for your confirmation!

I have had to use some of the more aggressive repair options that we have for your document -though using these I've been able to generate 2 files.

The first has all images removed, but should contain all other content from your file, this file ends with '_f.afpub'

The second was exported to PDF, and then re-imported into Affinity - as I didn't' have all of the fonts in use for your file, these were replaced with Arial, however the embedded images (and thumbnail versions of the linked images) remain. This ends '_f2.afpub'

I will be sending both of these files via dropbox to your email address associated with your Affinity Forum account now, and hopefully you are able to continue working on your file using one or both of these.

Going forward, our developers recommend always saving and working from a local file, only using Cloud services (such as Dropbox) for backup, as this has been known to cause corruptions in the past.

I hope this helps

[FM JW]

@Dan Cthank you so much, this is a massive help! Really, really appreciated

 

[davidh44]

Hello,

I can't open my Affinity Publisher file anymore.
Can you help me?
Can you send me a link?

Thank you very much for your help.

David
 

[Dan C]

Hi @davidh44,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with this file, can you please upload this to the below link for me -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/PyW6Pl6ztUDF93gDQ2CF

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know. Many thanks in advance!

[davidh44]

Hi Dan,

I just uploaded the file.
I thank you in advance for your help.
I have been working on this project for 3 weeks 😞

Thank you!

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing that for me!

I've tried to recover this file using the tools available to me and unfortunately I'm yet to resolve the corrupted error message when opening, therefore I will be logging this file with our developers now to further investigate your file.

We would obviously also like some additional information to see if we can work out the cause of the problem and stop it happening in future. To assist this process, please can you confirm the following:

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?

We suggest that you check to see if you have any backups of the document available in case we’re unable to recover the file. The investigation process can take some time, but we’ll be back in contact with our findings.

[davidh44]

Thanks Dan,

1- I am on Mac OS Monterey 12.4
2- The version of Publisher is 1.10.5
3- The file was saved to my local drive and synced with Google drive.
4- I replaced some images with the resource management tool, then I saved the document and the software stopped.

Unfortunately I don't have another copy of the file...

Thanks for your help.

David
 

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that for me, I'll be sure to pass this information along with your file to our developers now.

12 minutes ago, davidh44 said:

synced with Google drive

We recommend saving to a local location which is not synced with a cloud service, as this can cause corruption in Affinity documents. The best practice is to save the files locally, then create a copy of the saved file to be uploaded/moved to a synced folder. Working on files syncing with cloud services may cause this issue to occur again.

I will be sure to reply here asap, should we be able to recover this file, however it cannot be guaranteed - my sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused.

[davidh44]

OK Dan, thanks for your recommendation.

 

[carl123]

25 minutes ago, davidh44 said:

Unfortunately I don't have another copy of the file...

Try the MAC time machine, some people have found it was switched on without them realising it was

[davidh44]

No, unfortunately, it is not activated...

[kaluzikr]

Hi, I have the same problem and it starts to be really annoying. 😔

I am using macOS 12.5.1 and AP 1.10.5

I was saving it to external SSD everything was working perfectly and boom now it won't open...

I am experiencing this ONE YEAR with multiple different files. Now I have a new MacBook Pro with M1 and I thought it will help, that maybe it was problem with the old RAMs or something but still happening...I try to save incremental files but I would need to create 40 files for this project if I wanted to save after every page and that's just crazy...

I love Affinity but I don't understand why this isn't fixed yet. It is really long time and it seems many people have problem with this.

I hope someone will be able to help me. 🙂

 

Thanks

 

 

2022_podzim_09_21.afpub

[kaluzikr]

Well thanks for the advice. I will try next time but just to let you know. It was happening even when I was saving to local disk sooo 🤷‍♂️

I would just really appreciate if someone could try to restore it. Its hours of work...

Thanks

Edited September 22, 2022 by kaluzikr

[kaluzikr]

Yeah I I did upload the file in my first comment so hopefully it will be possible to recover  and no I wasn't saving the file to folders controlled by cloud servise...but that's ok

20 minutes ago, kaluzikr said:

2022_podzim_09_21.afpub 470.27 MB · 1 download

 

[Dan C]

Hi @kaluzikr,

I have been able to recover this document, however due to the methods used I cannot guarantee that all content is still here, so please be sure to check the document carefully:

2022_podzim_09_21_f.afpub

I hope this helps

[kaluzikr]

Hi @Dan C thank you so much! everything is there. You are a life saver  

[CohProg]

I just started using Affinity Photo. I worked a couple of hours, doing tests, on my first photo and saved it several time. Then I closed the software and when I tried to open again the photo, I got the corruption error message. I installed the tiral version of Publisher and I couldn't open the ".afphoto" file either (same error). Then I tried the "add pages from file" and it worked. I saved it into a new Publisher file that I opened in Photo without problem.

It's scarry that it happened right away on the first photo I worked on. I won't have a trial version of Publisher forever to "fix" such problems. Is there any other alternative? Maybe you should plan releasing a "repair" utility if you can't fix the corruption problem from happening in the first place...

Before you ask, yes, I was working on a network drive from an entreprise class server using RAID. Answering that we shouldn't store files over the network is not acceptable. Please, consider that the server is using registered ECC ram. The RAID controler also has error corrections and battery backuped buffer. Both workstation and server are using 10Gb Mellanox nic connected to an entreprise class switch. This is the first time ever that a file was supposedly "corrupted" because it was accessed over the network. That's very doubtful. And that doesn't explain why doing an "add pages from file" from Publisher worked without any error.

Imho, you should first make absolutely sure that such problems are not caused by the software when saving files to your format. That seems the most plausible cause  because a corrputed files would most certainly result in some data lose even if you can open it with another method. Here, I don't see anything missing or corrputed from the file opened with the "add page" method. If you are really sure there isn't a bug in the way the software save the photos, and you think it really happen only when working over the network, maybe you should consider saving into a temporary local file before copying it back to the original location...

 

by the way, I dunno if that could help you, but the original .afphoto was based on a raw photo (a Sony .arw). In the new file that was created by saving in Publisher format, opening it into Photo and saving it into a new .afphoto, I can't "develop" anymore the photo. I get : "Please select an RGB pixel layer before entering Develop". So something happened with the RAW photo...

[roxana]

Hello,

Unfortunately my affinity publisher file became corrupted yesterday and I can't find a way to restore it. Would be great if somone could help me with this.. I am using Windows 10 Pro and the file was saved last time with the version 1.9.2.1035 of Affinity Publisher on an USB disk (now I know this could have caused the problem).

Here is the corrupted file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e86x227308zjbet/zeszyt.afpub?dl=0

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

[Dan C]

Hi @roxana,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums & sorry to hear you're having trouble with this file!

I have attempted to repair the document, however I have been unfortunately unable to - as there is a large 'chunk' of the file which is missing, shown in the HEX data from the file below -

Unfortunately with this much data missing from the file, our dev team would also be unable to recover the document, my sincerest apologies.

On 1/3/2023 at 6:03 PM, roxana said:

I am using Windows 10 Pro and the file was saved last time with the version 1.9.2.1035 of Affinity Publisher on an USB disk (now I know this could have caused the problem).

May I ask, why are you using V1.9.2 over V1.10.6 (the latest V1 update)? As we only officially recommend running the latest updates for either V1 or V2, to ensure you have the latest stability updates and bug fixes to avoid such issues.

As you've also mentioned, unfortunately our team don't recommend saving/loading directly to an external USB drive, due to the way Affinity loads documents and handles memory, if an external device is disconnected for even a moment whilst the file is loaded, it can cause issues with a document saved directly to it.

I will be sure to log this file with our developers as we keep a track of any corruptions for statistics and monitoring purposes, but I would not expect the file to be reparable due to the missing data mentioned above. Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused due to this.

If you have any backups of this file, I would recommend restoring this to continue your work, where possible.

[roxana]

Hi @Dan C,

thank you so much for trying to repair my file! At least now I know that there is no other way than redoing what I lost. I really appreciate you tried. 

Normally I use V1.10.6, but I had to switch to another computer just for one day and I had there the old version and since I don't use this computer quite often I didn't download the update.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, again our sincerest apologies that we were unable to recover your file in this instance.

1 hour ago, roxana said:

Normally I use V1.10.6, but I had to switch to another computer just for one day and I had there the old version and since I don't use this computer quite often I didn't download the update.

Thanks for confirming that for me, I just wanted to ensure you were aware that a newer version was available - I absolutely understand

[nicolleen]

Hi,

I have the same problem. 

Suddenly instead of opening I get a message: The file appears to be corrupted.

I can't open it, also the way of "Add pages from file..." didn't help.

Can I send the file, so that one of you can have a look, whether it can be fixed at all?

Many thanks, nico

[Dan C]

Hi @nicolleen,

I'm certainly sorry to hear you're having trouble - I'd be happy to investigate this further to see if your document can be recovered.

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

https://www.dropbox.com/request/ZBFozC02XZ3slSQAX1gW

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

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?
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

[nicolleen]

4 hours ago, Dan C said:

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

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?
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, thank you very much! I have just uploaded the file.

I have Windows 10, Affinity Designer 1.10.6.1665, SSD Drive. 

I have modified the file, exported a pdf, a png and a jpg, resized it once I think to A4 or from A4 to A3, then closed it. Next time I wanted to open it, I got this error message.
Thank you for your help!

best regards from Vienna, Nico

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing that for me and the further information above, this is certainly helpful.

I have tried repairing your file using the internal tools available to me and unfortunately I have thus far been unable. Checking your file in a HEX editor, I can see there is a considerable 'chunk' of lost data, which would explain the errors you're seeing -

Therefore I will be logging this file with our developers now for further investigation & to see if we can reduce the chances of this occurring in the future.

We suggest that you check to see if you have any backups of the document available in case we’re unable to recover the file. The investigation process can take some time, but we’ll be back in contact with our findings should we be able to recover this.

Our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused due to this.