Publisher file (cookbook with images) will not open

[Steve KJ]

Hi

I have a publisher file for a cook book will multiple images and it will not open.

I have been working on this for 6 months and it was fine.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. I do not (stupidly) have a back up

[carl123]

Best you can do is upload it to the forum and see if someone can sell you a backup program recover it for you

Sometimes you get lucky

 

[thomaso]

You can try to import the affected document: Create a new document (same page size & colour setting) -> choose menu Dokument > Add Pages From File. Sometimes this works to recreate a corrupted document.

[Steve KJ]

I have tried the file on another (more modern Mac) and it opens perfectly. So file not corrupted.

I have reinstalled the Publisher software 3 times and the file still will not open on this Mac (mid 2019) now with added memory from 16 to 32 Gb and still will not open. It just stays here: " Loading 1 document " and stays there, for hours until I FORCE QUIT.

Any suggestions short of buying a new Mac?

 

[thomaso]

17 minutes ago, Steve KJ said:

I have tried the file on another (more modern Mac) and it opens perfectly. So file not corrupted.

Did you try on the successful mac to "Save As…" with a new file name + then use this new .afpub on the affected mac?

20 minutes ago, Steve KJ said:

I have reinstalled the Publisher software 3 times and the file still will not open on this Mac (mid 2019)

Reinstalling does not necessarily remove / replace all related system files, (e.g. your custom settings incl. temp & autosave in your user library APub folder, the folder "com.seriflabs.affinitypublisher.savedState", the file "com.seriflabs.affinitypublisher.appinfo", …)

27 minutes ago, Steve KJ said:

now with added memory from 16 to 32 Gb and still will not open.

Do other files open successfully after you "added memory"? Since we can't add physical RAM on a mac: Do you refer to the performance preference setting in APub? Does this setting correspond with the installed RAM?

[Steve KJ]

I added extra memory to this iMac (2019) from 16 to 32.

Other projects DO open correctly, its just this one

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, thomaso said:

Since we can't add physical RAM on a mac...

You can add RAM to some older models, my 27" 2020 iMac among them. (There is an access door in the back, below where the hinge is attached to the stand.) More about adding memory to iMacs here.

[MikeTO]

Does the document have linked images or other resources? Images that aren't embedded but linked to an external file? If so, rename the folder containing the images and then open the document. If prompted, decline to relink them or open the resource manager. If the document opens now it was a problem with one of the linked images. This will give you an opportunity to try deleting and re-placing the images.

Problems like this typically occur with complex linked resources such as PDFs, .afdesign, and .afphoto files, so start with those. JPGs and TIFFs rarely cause issues. If you find that it's .afphoto or .afdesign files that are causing the problem, you may wish to export them as SVG and JPG/TIFF, respectively, to avoid the issue.

Good luck.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

You can add RAM to some older models

Sorry, yes – I kind of assumed a MacBook, not an iMac.

[carl123]

9 hours ago, Steve KJ said:

I have tried the file on another (more modern Mac) and it opens perfectly. So file not corrupted.

If iCloud is involved disable it.

Copy the document to a local (non-synched drive) and try to open it there

 

[Steve KJ]

Update

Update

Reading through all your support. I tried two things at the same time. I removed the app which was downloaded from the affinity website and reinstalled it from the Apple store. I also edited the file name and took out any gaps. The file now opens.

 so I’m not sure whether it was the file name or the source of the app or both but the cookbook is now open and six months worth of work has been saved. Thank you for all your help and support. It is really really appreciated. And obviously I’ve made a back up .