I can’t open any version (I save every iteration) (split)

[Robin gotha]

I’ve been working on my graphic novel in AP for nearly two years, and a lot more than that elsewhere before. Suddenly as of yesterday I can’t open any version (I save every iteration) and everything I’ve tried, even opening it in Adobe, fails. The message on AP is the file format is not supported. I’m quite desperate and can’t figure out what’s happened. Help please before my publisher gives up on me. 
 

imac M1 sonoma 14.0 The file is over 2GB.

[MikeTO]

51 minutes ago, Robin gotha said:

I’ve been working on my graphic novel in AP for nearly two years, and a lot more than that elsewhere before. Suddenly as of yesterday I can’t open any version (I save every iteration) and everything I’ve tried, even opening it in Adobe, fails. The message on AP is the file format is not supported. I’m quite desperate and can’t figure out what’s happened. Help please before my publisher gives up on me. 
 

imac M1 sonoma 14.0 The file is over 2GB.

Hi Robin. I assume you mean you're using Affinity Publisher and not Photo (AP is the abbreviation on this forum for Photo). Is that correct?

Did anything change on your computer between the last time you opened it and this time? Did you update macOS or Publisher in the meantime?

Are you able to create, save, and re-open a new document to the same folder without difficulty?

You could try restarting the application while holding down Ctrl (press Ctrl immediately after clicking the icon to avoid opening the context menu). Just click Clear when the Clear User Data screen appears. You'll lose your shortcuts, studio setup and other defaults.

Your file is a bit large, but you say you can't open previous iterations which obviously you have been able to open in the past so if they are equally large that shouldn't be a problem. However for the future it's best to avoid creating files this large. All of the graphics should be linked instead of embedded which would make the Publisher file itself quite tiny.

Good luck!

[walt.farrell]

Sorry to hear that, Robin.

First, can you confirm which application you're using? AP means Affinity Photo, as you can see by hovering over that abbreviation in your post or mine. I suspect you mean Affinity Publisher (APub or APu are common abbreviations for that).

I presume you're saving your files as .afpub files, and in that case no applications but the Affinity suite would be able to read them.

Where do you save them? Local disk, network-attached (NAS) disk, somewhere in the Cloud (where)?

If they're in the Cloud, have you tried forcing them to be migrated to your local storage via Finder?

Did anything change yesterday? Like an update to the OS, or to Affinity Publisher?

Can you create new documents, and Save them, and reOpen them?

Do you have a sample that won't Open that you can upload publicly here for us to look at? (If not, the Serif staff can provide a private upload link when they get to this topic.)

 

[Pšenda]

13 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I presume you're saving your files as .afpub files

Then I wouldn't understand the information about trying to open the file in Adobe.

1 hour ago, Robin gotha said:

even opening it in Adobe, fails

Since you obviously can't open Affinity files in Adobe,
and if it's not just a typo, the files are apparently saved/exported to a different format/PSD?

 

1 hour ago, Robin gotha said:

I save every iteration

How do you store/backup said iterations?

[Robin gotha]

Thanks very much for your kind replies. Mike TO, yes APub indeed. Yes, I upgraded (?) to Sonoma and to APub to 2.21. Yes I created, saved and reopened a new file on the same volume. I couldn’t get that Clear User Screen up, sheer clumsiness I expect. Yes the file is 2.13GB I realise from your remarks being due to embedding; next time I’ll link! Why it won’t open in APub (see, I’ve got it right, Hurrah!) gives me sleepless nights. 

Walt, thanks, yes always saved as .AFP’s, on iCloud and on an NAS. And upgrades and new files as above. The file is an erotic graphic novel in French; I don’t know how you would feel about that. Probably more for the Serif team I guess! My last book. I’m 93 so about time I stopped everyone tells me.

 

I once transferred a Quark file to inDesign; in desperation I wondered whether I could perform the same trick with APub. I couldn’t of course

 

Thanks for your kind attention gentlemen! Any further suggestions gladly accepted. Robin

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, Robin gotha said:

I couldn’t get that Clear User Screen up, sheer clumsiness I expect. Yes the file is 2.13GB I realise from your remarks being due to embedding; next time I’ll link! Why it won’t open in APub (see, I’ve got it right, Hurrah!) gives me sleepless nights.

Walt, thanks, yes always saved as .AFP’s, on iCloud and on an NAS. And upgrades and new files as above.

Another way to get to Clear User Data is to open the app from the context menu. Press and hold Ctrl and click the app icon in the dock or Applications folder (not the Launchpad) to view the context menu but do not release Ctrl. While still holding it down, click Open in the context menu. You can release Ctrl when the Clear User Data window appears.

I really don't think syncing a 2GB+ file to iCloud is a good idea, I once spent dozens of hours on the phone with Apple to fix an issue with Safari. The cause was a 1GB file that got stuck syncing to iCloud. I no longer have any files that large in folders synced to iCloud. Once you get this opened I suggest you use the Resource Manager to change all the images to linked.

Good luck.

[thomaso]

5 hours ago, Robin gotha said:

next time I’ll link!

There are a few reports about issues with large documents that got solved by changing their placed resources from "embedded" to "linked". You can do this at any time (once you are able to open one of the .afpub files) in the Resource Manager by selecting all entries + pressing the "Make Linked…" button. If they have been embedded as external resources, their file paths are still stored with their embedded status and will be used when linking.

[NathanC]

Hi @Robin gotha,

If you could upload the .afpub file to the private upload link below we can then confirm if it can be recovered/opened by any standard means, and failing that we can get it logged with the developers for further investigation into what caused the corruption.

Upload link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/QzHOsBvHJnLw7b66Teuj

Many thanks

[Robin gotha]

Thanks for all the help, folks. After three days of growing horror I found a file from two hours before the disaster… and it opened. Phew! It was .3GB smaller. I reckon the failed file was too big, a lesson I will take to heart and thank you for the insight to Mike TO. You suggested embedded files were the problem and as soon as the HOORAY file opened I changed all to embedded. Bless you, your baseball cap, beautiful beard and elegant glasses. Don’t embed if it’s a large project, link! Maybe 2GB is the safe limit. Maybe the Aff team should emphasise it. Thanks chaps.

 

.

[MikeTO]

It's actually a peaked cap. 🙂