Failed to open file; the file type is not supported error

[LivieLuCreaty]

Good morning,

I started using Affinity Designer about a year ago and have been issue free. But yesterday I tried to open a file I had worked on the previous day and received a "Failed to open file; the file type is not supported error" and found that the program will not open any of my designs (.afdesign) files with the same error. I should note that I am using Windows 11, and I have the files on an external hard drive, so I tried moving the folder containing them into One Drive, no go, and then also moved to my internal hard drive, also no go.

Now this morning, I uninstalled the program and re-installed it, still same issue.

I can create new designs and save them, and then re-open them, but I cannot access anything saved previous to yesterday.

Please help, how can I resolve this? I need to access these files of course, in a time crunch. And obviously don't want to lose anything I've done.

Thanks in advance.

[walt.farrell]

Can you share one of the failing files with us?

[LivieLuCreaty]

Sure...

PaperCoffeeCupSleevesTemplate.afdesign

[DWright]

The file contains null data which is why Designer is unable to open the file, in your OneDive is there any synchronise errors being reported for this file. 

[LivieLuCreaty]

I saw that file size was super small- wondering if something got corrupted. Can we try a different one? I don't even use One Drive. I thought that file location was My Documents. Here's another file that should be intact.

TumblerCareInstructions8.5x11x3.afdesign

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, LivieLuCreaty said:

Can we try a different one? I don't even use One Drive. I thought that file location was My Documents. Here's another file that should be intact.

That one is also completely filled with binary zeroes.

[LivieLuCreaty]

Any idea what could have happened and how to fix? I've attached another file, can you look at it?

Hocus Pocus Harry Potter Glass Jars Sub.afdesign

[walt.farrell]

24 minutes ago, LivieLuCreaty said:

Any idea what could have happened and how to fix? I've attached another file, can you look at it?

Hocus Pocus Harry Potter Glass Jars Sub.afdesign 11.63 MB · 0 downloads

That one has data, and opens successfully for me.

What could have happened: Faulty hardware?

[DWright]

When files are copied to OneDrive there can sometimes be a delay in syncing the file from you local drive to the OneDrive folder and if something interrupts this such as a Internet blip a empty file can be created and the icon for OneDrive will then show a red circle  with a white cross 

[LivieLuCreaty]

I don't use One Drive...

Before yesterday, I used an external hard drive exclusively to keep large files off my internal hard drive. Yesterday I transferred the folder where these documents reside on the external hard drive to my internal hard drive to see if that was the issue- the files I uploaded here today were all from my internal hard drive (transferred from the external). Now that I've gone back, I see all the files previous to 09/24/22 are opening from both my internal and external drives (I hadn't tried them because they weren't what I was needing to work on). So something happened to those files last saved after 09/22/22 and I don't know what or how to avoid it happening again. And from the sounds of it, no one else will have a definitive answer either. Thanks all for your help and time.

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, LivieLuCreaty said:

I don't use One Drive...

But earlier: 

3 hours ago, LivieLuCreaty said:

so I tried moving the folder containing them into One Drive,

That has perhaps caused some confusion here.

[LivieLuCreaty]

I misspoke and had an incomplete thought at the same time, sorry. I transferred a copy into the My Documents folder, which I thought was my internal drive, which somehow must have been One Drive, which I don't use. I then transferred a copy to my actual c drive documents folder. See print screen. When I attempted to open the documents from the topmost "Documents" folder, it said "one drive" in the filepath in the error.

Is that "documents" folder linked to One Drive somehow? I never set that up, so I don't see how it could be.

The lower "documents" folder is where I transferred them to the 2nd time...

[walt.farrell]

38 minutes ago, LivieLuCreaty said:

Is that "documents" folder linked to One Drive somehow? I never set that up, so I don't see how it could be.

I think that OneDrive is enabled by default on Windows 10/11, and I think that Documents might be (by default) one of the folders it manages. But you would have to look at the OneDrive setup for your computer to say for sure.

If you look at your Windows taskbar, on the right (by default) you'll have the System Tray, and you might see a cloud icon there. Here's what mine looks like (though mine is vertical, not horizontal, as I have my taskbar on the left not on the bottom of the screen):

If you right-click the cloud icon, you should be able to view/modify the OneDrive settings.