Rescue a corrupted file?

[oushie]

Hi there, reaching out to someone in staff to see if they can rescue a corrupted file. I lost a few hours of work. This has happened several times and I'm usually a good sport about it, but this time I thought I'd reach out to see if they can make heads or tails about the file. I saved 30 mins ago, and the save "took" (I know bc I closed the document and re-opened it), but when I finished working on it, and tried to save it, I lost the entire file and can't even get back to the last save. I get the "this file type is not supported" error message. The file of family pictures and I'd rather not upload to the "public" server if that's ok?

 

Please please help. Thanks  

[Pšenda]

6 hours ago, oushie said:

This has happened several times

Do you use an external drive or cloud folder for your work files?

[deeds]

I'm not sure you should continue using a program that treats you and your works, and treasured memories, in this manner.

Don't put up with it, start finding alternatives, I suggest. This isn't acceptable when there are more stable alternatives.  You shouldn't have to utilise versioning and backup systems for this kind of frequency of software issues. You deserve better!

 

[NathanC]

Hi @oushie,

Could you upload your file to the below private dropbox link? I'll see if the file can be recovered by any standard methods.

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/request/O9CfYjQLRVYQfgisApz5

 Additionally, could you provide me with the below information: 

1. Which OS are you using? 
2. What type of drive was the file saved to? E.G Local disk, Network drive, USB drive, Cloud Drive. 

Many thanks!

[oushie]

8 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Do you use an external drive or cloud folder for your work files?

Never. I always save to desktop and then archive in external drive. 

[oushie]

3 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @oushie,

Could you upload your file to the below private dropbox link? I'll see if the file can be recovered by any standard methods.

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/request/O9CfYjQLRVYQfgisApz5

 Additionally, could you provide me with the below information: 

1. Which OS are you using? 
2. What type of drive was the file saved to? E.G Local disk, Network drive, USB drive, Cloud Drive. 

Many thanks!

Thanks Nathan! It's so discouraging but the once 60+ MB file is now 405 KB which leaves me to think it's unrecoverable  Do you think there's hope? 

I am using Big Sur. 

It's saved to my hard drive. I'm uploading it now. 

[oushie]

8 hours ago, deeds said:

I'm not sure you should continue using a program that treats you and your works, and treasured memories, in this manner.

Don't put up with it, start finding alternatives, I suggest. This isn't acceptable when there are more stable alternatives.  You shouldn't have to utilise versioning and backup systems for this kind of frequency of software issues. You deserve better!

 

Haha, yes it is indeed frustrating. Thanks for understanding. I do believe that Serif offers a lot for what you pay. True, it isn't perfect. Corrupted files have left me in tears of losing precious hours of work, on a regular basis. But as a SAHM in a one income family, I appreciate what they offer. 

[Pšenda]

13 minutes ago, oushie said:

Never. I always save to desktop and then archive in external drive. 

Interestingly, file corruption mostly occurs with external/network/cloud drives, when the connection to the drive can be lost. With the local disk, I only registered it here once - when disk damage was subsequently detected.
How about backup/Time machine (or whatever it's called)? How about trying to restore the deleted files - due to the significantly smaller file size, the new one could be placed in a different place on the disk, and the original area would not have to be overwritten yet.

P.S. you don't have to pay attention to some users and their constant complaining 🙂

[NathanC]

My apologies @oushie it doesn't look like the file is recoverable by and standard methods (Note: it is always worth using the document > add pages from file function in Publisher as this can sometimes result in files fully on in-part being recoverable) I'll get the file logged with the developers for further investigation, though based on the fact that you mentioned the file size was cut down to 478KB from 60MB+ I don't imagine it's contents are recoverable unfortunately.

As @Pšenda mentioned, you could look at trying to restore the file via local snapshots in Time Machine if this was configured, I've linked apple's help guide below for more info on this.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204015

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh11422/11.0/mac/11.0

 

[deeds]

2 hours ago, oushie said:

Haha, yes it is indeed frustrating. Thanks for understanding. I do believe that Serif offers a lot for what you pay. True, it isn't perfect. Corrupted files have left me in tears of losing precious hours of work, on a regular basis. But as a SAHM in a one income family, I appreciate what they offer. 

Then you DEFINITELY deserve better, the best, in fact.

I'm not sure what that is in terms of the compromises between performance, stability and features in the desktop publishing space of today, but what you're experiencing sounds horrendous. You really do deserve to not worry about the sanctity of your creativity with media of memories.

 

I don't trust iPhoto, or Lightroom,  having had similarly bizarre experiences with both of them on a Mac, so can't recommend either of them as a backbone for your memories prior to creative endeavours with them. Though I do love the productivity of working with Lightroom, I don't trust its archiving. 

As for layout software... Keynote and Pages, both free for Mac, are far more powerful than people generally think of them to be, but also tedious in the extreme, and it's a bit hacky to use them beyond their intended purposes. 

Was the older version of Affinity Publisher more stable for you?

[oushie]

5 hours ago, NathanC said:

My apologies @oushie it doesn't look like the file is recoverable by and standard methods (Note: it is always worth using the document > add pages from file function in Publisher as this can sometimes result in files fully on in-part being recoverable) I'll get the file logged with the developers for further investigation, though based on the fact that you mentioned the file size was cut down to 478KB from 60MB+ I don't imagine it's contents are recoverable unfortunately.

As @Pšenda mentioned, you could look at trying to restore the file via local snapshots in Time Machine if this was configured, I've linked apple's help guide below for more info on this.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204015

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh11422/11.0/mac/11.0

 

Thanks for trying Nathan. Can you clarify what what you meant "by add pages from file function?" Do you mean as opposed to clicking on the "add pages icon" on the pages panel, (which is what I always do). 

I know you guys are doing your best and appreciate your speedy reply in any case. 

[NathanC]

10 hours ago, oushie said:

Thanks for trying Nathan. Can you clarify what what you meant "by add pages from file function?" Do you mean as opposed to clicking on the "add pages icon" on the pages panel, (which is what I always do). 

I know you guys are doing your best and appreciate your speedy reply in any case. 

Under the 'Document' menu there is an 'Add pages from File' feature which will allow you to combine merge multiple .afpub files together, as opposed to the standard 'add pages' function within the pages panel which will only add brand new pages. Sometimes by creating a new blank document this function can be used to fully or partially recover an AF file which is being reported as corrupted when it's opened normally by merging the file with a new blank document, though as was the case with your file it's not always guaranteed to work dependant on the state of the corrupted file.

[kaffeeundsalz]

On 4/25/2023 at 8:03 AM, deeds said:

You shouldn't have to utilise versioning and backup systems for this kind of frequency of software issues.

So you're saying if software didn't corrupt your files, you wouldn't need a backup? That's … bold.

[deeds]

23 minutes ago, kaffeeundsalz said:

So you're saying if software didn't corrupt your files, you wouldn't need a backup? That's … bold.

No, I'm saying that this kind of frequency of software issues shouldn't occur, ever, and if it does you should consider moving on to more reliable software. Especially for the things this lady is working on.

 

For unexpected hardware failures and the infrequent but common crashes of software, one should backup. But the frequency with which one might consider backups for these kinds of concerns is more like daily than the "every time I save" that the OP was/is heading towards, because of the frequencies of issues she's having with the software.

 

But I think you knew that.

[kaffeeundsalz]

31 minutes ago, deeds said:

No, I'm saying that this kind of frequency of software issues shouldn't occur, ever

I think what we can agree on is that Affinity Publisher's tendency to corrupt files is conspicious an that Serif should really focus on fixing this asap.

31 minutes ago, deeds said:

For unexpected hardware failures and the infrequent but common crashes of software, one should backup. But the frequency with which one might consider backups for these kinds of concerns is more like daily than the "every time I save" that the OP was/is heading towards, because of the frequencies of issues she's having with the software.

Notwithstanding, a proper backup might have saved the day in this case. Time Machine keeps hourly backups for the past 24h. If the file corruption is noticed within a day, at most one hour of work is lost.