Access to the document file was lost while performing the initial loading

[PocketTim]

Hi,

I am in big big trouble right now. I have been working on our latest magazine all day everyday for three weeks. This morning I opened my publisher file to be greeted with a warning:

Quote

Failed to load document: document name, Access to the document file was lost while performing initial loading. The document must now be closed.

 

After allowing publisher to close the document, reopening it tells me that the document is corrupted.

I am working on macOS Monterey with the latest version of Publisher purchased via the AppStore on an M1 Pro. Stupidly I only have a backup from the 17th of March in Time Machine. I am working on files purely local, there is no cloud or network drive access involved.

My deadline is Sunday...what can I do? I migrated the project over to my Windows desktop and managed to open the file there. However after making a small change, then saving it, re-opening it produced the same error.

I really need some urgent help with this. I've been using Publisher for a year now and have never come across anything like this.

[Dan C]

Hi @PocketTim,

We’re sorry to hear that your Affinity document is no longer opening for you. I'd like to request a copy of the file and we’ll take a further look to see if we can recover any of its contents.

Please upload the file to the below link for me, then respond here to let me know once this has been uploaded -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/PMwsckSqSc0q6dyH761m

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, as well as uploading your file, please can you also tell us the following:

1. Which Operating System are you using?
macOS Monterey

2. Which version of Affinity did the file last get saved in?
1.10.5

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.

[PocketTim]

@Dan C

Many thanks. I have uploaded the file. I have managed to recover it in a fashion but am slightly nervous about continuing to use it until I know if there was root cause in case I lose it again (I did this by migrating it over to my Windows Installation, opening it, then doing a save as, I then brought that version back over to MacOS and then relinked and resaved. Does seem to be ok but as you can imagine I am terrified it might break again, I'm doing hourly back ups now but it still doesn't fill me with a huge amount of confidence). Interestingly, moving it over to windows, making a small modification and then saving directly rather than a save as produced the exact same error that occurred on Mac suggesting it's a document issue. 

To answer your questions:

 

1. Which Operating System are you using?
macOS Monterey 12.3

2. Which version of Affinity did the file last get saved in?
1.10.5

3. What drive type was the file last saved to (select more than one if needed)?
Local disk
 

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

I did notice that when I was relinking the elements in the "recovered" version that maybe 2-3 images were actually pointing to my dropbox folder where I had messed up and failed to copy them locally (probably when tired). However that Dropbox location is fully accessible and I wouldn't expect 2-3 files causing the whole document to go down...but might be relevant.

 

Thanks.

 

[Dan C]

Many thanks for your file provided and I'm glad to hear you've been able to recover the document yourself.

I have tried opening this file locally, however I am shown the 'This document is corrupted and must be closed' message on my Windows machine.

I can however create a new file, then in the Pages Studio select 'Add pages from file' and select your document - however this can lead to an unwanted change in document colour space or spread size if they do not match the original document.

We have previously seen 'links' to external files be the cause of documents becoming 'corrupted', and previously our team have used a very similar method of saving the file on a different operating system/computer than the file was originally created to 'break' the links and recover the document - which sounds to be the steps you have inadvertently taken and likely why the file is working correctly now.

1 hour ago, PocketTim said:

I did notice that when I was relinking the elements in the "recovered" version that maybe 2-3 images were actually pointing to my dropbox folder where I had messed up and failed to copy them locally (probably when tired). However that Dropbox location is fully accessible and I wouldn't expect 2-3 files causing the whole document to go down...but might be relevant.

This is certainly a possible cause of the issue, as we don't recommend linking files from network locations, as background 'backups' of linked files can interact in an unwanted manner with the Affinity apps and has caused corruption previously. I'd absolutely recommend linking your files locally, and I would hope this should stop the app from corrupting the file in the future.

Linking files to network locations is logged with our developers to hopefully be improved in a future update

In the meantime, I would recommend using 'Save As' regularly, to create multiple backups of your file in the unlikely event that something goes wrong again, but as above I certainly hope this issue should not continue with your linked file locations locally!

[PocketTim]

@Dan C Thanks for such a rapid response and taking the time to look. Some of our older issues I worked entirely out of iCloud Drive and that was a nightmare and so have been so careful since to try and move all of our teams files to local, I guess just missing those one or two files has been the culprit.

At the moment the relinked copy seems to be doing ok. I've sorted out my Time Machine drive and will be making backups of my backups from now on. Fingers crossed all is ok.

 

[PocketTim]

@Dan C afraid to report that all is not well. While working on this document Affinity either just randomly crashes and quits with no warning, or it doesn't allow me to save saying there isn't permission to save the document.

A save as works but is about 10 changes behind what I last did.

 

Attached is the crash log which just happened again after writing this post.

CrashLog.rtf

[Pauls]

that crash is related to Metal acceleration - you could try switching to OpenGL in preferences/performance

[PocketTim]

@Pauls @Dan C

So it got the point whereby I could not do anything, even moving an image 1 pixel in the project without Publisher crashing but seem to have resolved it.

I trashed Publisher and reinstalled it from the AppStore. Upon launching the project I was having trouble with, interestingly it asked for disk permission access for two files that were in the document (both PDF's linked locally). I gave Publisher full permissions access to my entire drive and since then it has been absolutely problem free.

I have no idea quite why permissions were lost in this way, my drive is only encrypted with FileVault, nothing unusual or out of the ordinary (this MacBook is only a month old). Those two PDF's are in the same location as every other file in the document as well so it's not as if I had them stashed somewhere root is needed.

Anyway, all seems well now, perhaps the above might be useful in some way.

[Dan C]

Many thanks for letting us know and for trying this resolution - I'm certainly glad to hear the app is no longer crashing for you, though this is absolutely strange behaviour being reported!

I'll be sure to pass this information through to our team internally for further testing, to see if we can try and understand how permissions for these files may have been lost.

Please do let us know if you have any further troubles with this file