How to recover corrupt afpub-File?

[Cavaradossi]

Hi there,

I'm right now working on a time critical work (annual school report, 128-page-book) on Affinity Publisher as I did several times (my machine is a M1 Macbook Pro 16 GB, using the latest MacOS Monterey and the latest Publisher version).

This time, after having saved the latest changes (and done a lot of work) to my file, Affinity Publisher crashed when saving, leaving the file (obviously) corrupted. Trying to reopen it leads to an immediate crash of Publisher, I don't even get an error message. Trying to open the same file in Designer or Photo ends up (at least) in an error message that the file is corrupted.

I wouldn't be so desperate if my available backups would be usable. The one I can access is just a copy of the corrupt file (didn't see time machine cannot access the NAS-Volume for some days due to configuration changes).

So my question is: Are there any chances that the corrupt file can be rescued (partially)? The file size is actual 1,5 GB, macOS preview is not working either. Any hints? Thanks a lot in advance!

Kind regards,

Christoph

[Cavaradossi]

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Edited July 5, 2022 by Cavaradossi

[Cavaradossi]

Hi there,

just could access the corrupt file via "add content from file" in an empty afpub file, following a recommandation I found on the forum. Hope this may help other desperate people, too. But anyway things like that shouldn't happen that often, considering all the postings I have read meanwhile about this phenomenon. Saving files in various (backup) versions should serve as a workaround. I will do so in the future unless the software engineers find the reason for this bad software behavior when saving files.

Kind regards,

Christoph

[walt.farrell]

It's certainly annoying when a file becomes corrupted, and it seems to happen too often. Until it's fixed, you might consider adjusting your workflow to avoid it. Here's an approach that should allow you to verify that your backup copies are good:

1. Make sure you're saving to a local disk, not something on the network nor attached via USB.

2. Save periodically (every hour, or whatever makes you comfortable). When you save: 

2a. Use Save As, not Save. Use version numbering, e.g. project-1.afpub, project-2.afpub, etc. and increment the number each time you make a backup.

2b. Save As twice each time. For example, Save As to project-3.afpub, then immediately Save As to project-temp.afpub. (You can reuse project-temp.afpub at each stage.) You will now be working on project-temp. Keep it open, and also Open project-3.afpub to make sure it saved correctly.

2c. If it doesn't Open, stop. You can try saving again from the tab that now has project-temp open. If that falls again, then you can revert to project-2.afpub and redo the last hour of work.

2d. If project-3.afpub Opened properly, you can Close the tab with project-temp in it, and keep working on project-3. When it's time to save again, start at step 2b and increment the version number to project-4.

Periodically you can delete older backup versions.

Again, this kind of approach should not be needed, but if you have critical work it may help protect it.

[Alfred]

7 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Save periodically (every hour, or whatever makes you comfortable).

Instead of saving periodically, save (or rather, ‘Save As…’) after every major change, regardless of whether that’s three minutes or thirty minutes after the previous save.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

Instead of saving periodically, save (or rather, ‘Save As…’) after every major change, regardless of whether that’s three minutes or thirty minutes after the previous save.

Yes, that's another approach that can be useful, and saves more rework.

But unless you Save As twice, and reopen the first one, you don't know that the Save As really succeeded. 

[Alfred]

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

But unless you Save As twice, and reopen the first one, you don't know that the Save As really succeeded.

Yes, that’s an important safeguarding step.