File Corrupted

[manikandan]

Hello, I have several Designer files that will not open; a dialog tells me they are corrupted and need to close. However, I can see the artwork on-screen when I try to open them, so I am hopeful there is some way to recover. Please note, these are client final con.afdesignfiles that cannot be shared on a public forum, so if there's a different way to share, that is preferred. I am running AF Designer  1.10.6.1665 

final con.afdesign

[v_kyr]

3 hours ago, manikandan said:

However, I can see the artwork on-screen when I try to open them, so I am hopeful there is some way to recover.

Well, what you see is probably a preview of the embedded PNG thumbs of that file. - To be more precise here, there are 40 PNG thumbs inside ...

... at least that's what my afthumbs tool tells ...

Quote

> afthumbs final\ con.afdesign                                                                                                                                                  
Selecting file...final con.afdesign                                                                                                                                             
Opening file: final con.afdesign                                                                                                                                                
File size: 298923935B                                                                                                                                                           
Try to find PNG signatures                                                                                                                                                      
Found PNG Signature #1 at 10977925                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #2 at 12070282                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #3 at 13528686                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #4 at 21994716                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #5 at 32210636                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #6 at 40737509                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #7 at 42438217                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #8 at 43978889                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #9 at 45229626                                                                                                                                              
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #10 at 46905300                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #11 at 47748757                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #12 at 48815167                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #13 at 58363509                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #14 at 59336140                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #15 at 60831514                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #16 at 61562184                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #17 at 62832081                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #18 at 64155506                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #19 at 65357307                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #20 at 66996718                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #21 at 67713665                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #22 at 69325300                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #23 at 70123862                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #24 at 71895274                                                                                                                                             
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #25 at 153453602                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #26 at 164178710                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #27 at 165100513                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #28 at 177150183                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #29 at 179973928                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #30 at 187869126                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #31 at 193775480                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #32 at 194298062                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #33 at 195264279                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #34 at 196724907                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #35 at 203108599                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #36 at 216283216                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #37 at 216616301                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #38 at 229697827                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #39 at 239946334                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                                                                                                                                                                           
Found PNG Signature #40 at 298916011                                                                                                                                            
Writing PNG to pngs/ directory                                                                                                                                                  
Done!                          

... and concluding from the huge size of those embedded PNGs (all in all 6.81 GByte) ...

... I don't wonder that that file gives problems when trying to reopen.

3 hours ago, manikandan said:

Please note, these are client files that cannot be shared on a public forum ...

Why did you attached the file then here at all in the forum?

 

[DWright]

I have checked this file and unfortunately it has missing file headers and it is not possible to recover the file.

[v_kyr]

I don't know if it would be of any help for you here to have at least the PNG bitmap files (which are huge in your case) then, if so you can reuse my afthumbs(GUI) Python3 scripts in order to extract and get those images from that ADe file. - See therefor ...

 

[manikandan]

OK. IT POSSIBLE TO RECOVERY THE FILE

[v_kyr]

4 hours ago, manikandan said:

OK. IT POSSIBLE TO RECOVERY THE FILE

No it seems you can't recover that ADe file, see what DWright wrote ...

18 hours ago, DWright said:

I have checked this file and unfortunately it has missing file headers and it is not possible to recover the file.

... but you can instead extract the thumb PNG bitmap images still out of it and then with those create/setup a new ADe file.

[manikandan]

3 hours ago, v_kyr said:

No it seems you can't recover that ADe file, see what DWright wrote ...

... but you can instead extract the thumb PNG bitmap images still out of it and then with those create/setup a new ADe file.

ok thanks 

 

[thomaso]

On 8/4/2023 at 2:01 PM, v_kyr said:

... at least that's what my afthumbs tool tells ...

What does the tool do apart from just purely extracting the content of the 285 MB .afdesign document?

Compare for instance the entries 219,  583 and 619:
In your list view each of them has 218.1 MB, while they show quite different content (details vs. white pixels). Do this "thumbnails" have different amounts of pixels? Are they preview images of the layout, – if yes, which massive compression (~ 4% of your extracted Ø png file size / lossless?) was applied by Affinity to such preview images in the saved .afdesign?

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

What does the tool do apart from just purely extracting the content of the 285 MB .afdesign document?

It doesn't extract the contents per se, just the embeded PNGs, as far as it can find some. You can just look into it's py code in order to see what it does!

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

Compare for instance the entries 219,  583 and 619: ... In your list view each of them has 218.1 MB, while they show quite different content (details vs. white pixels). Do this "thumbnails" have different amounts of pixels? ...

After doing a testrun of the OP's ADe file, in order to see if any thumb PNGs are inside (I've only done a quick preview of those), I deleted the whole stuff afterwards (the ADe file & PNGs) immediately, as it took overall too much diskspace on my already filled disk. Also the whole was otherwise (beside being extractable) pretty unintersting for me. - If you are interested in any further recherches, you can do that yourself, download the OP's file and the py script and make your own PNG file contents analyses.

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

Are they preview images of the layout, – if yes, which massive compression (~ 4% of your extracted Ø png file size / lossless?) was applied by Affinity to such preview images in the saved .afdesign?

Probably, as why should they otherwise be embedded as plain in code extractable & previewable PNG parts. - For the rest, I didn't had and have the desire to do any further testings of the OP's file or it's PNG contents, if you want more concrete answers check that yourself, or wait in the hope that some Affinity rep will tell you, how they deal internally with the integration of PNGs into their own proprietary file format.