File Corrupted - Designer 2.4.0 - Urgent Help Needed

[Rafael_Morgan]

Hi everyone,

I was working on a project for a client in Affinity Designer 2.4.0, and suddenly, while I was testing different fonts for a logo, it crashed Windows 11 (blue screen of death). 

When I restarted the computer, Affinity Designer didn't open the file anymore, stating that it appeared to be corrupted. 

I'm a professional branding and packaging designer. I charge hourly, and I've already worked 15 hours on this project. 

In other words, this file is extremely important, and I need someone from the Affinity team to jump in and help me urgently.

I've attached the file to this message.

Please, anyone, help!

Thank you in advance. 

 

Tres Five logo.afdesign

[Rafael_Morgan]

Hi, anyone? This is urgent.

I've been using Affinity professionally for years, and this never happened to me.

The latest 2.0 versions have been a crash fest, and now this...

I'll lose considerable time and money if I have to start this project again from scratch. 

Please, help.

[firstdefence]

Just tried here and no go, if you are on mac and have time machine running you might try that.

If on windows, sometimes there are shadow copies that you might be able to open: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-recover-files-and-folders-using-shadow-volume-copies/

[Rafael_Morgan]

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I'm on Windows 11, and no, there are no shadow copies.

Honestly, I'm a bit desperate here. 

This has truly shaken my trust in Affinity. 

[walt.farrell]

You didn't mention anything in your description about having Saved the file during that session. If you were not Saving, I don't know how it could have become corrupted. However, the file you uploaded definitely looks corrupted to me. It ends with a huge chunk of binary zeros rather than the data I would expect.

Going back to a backup copy is probably all you'll be able to do, unfortunately.

[Rafael_Morgan]

Hi Walt. 

Yes, the file was saved, but it didn't crash during the saving process if that's what you're asking.

It crashed while I was scrolling through different fonts on a text box. This kind of crash is new to me, by the way. It usually crashes mostly when I send files from Designer to Photo, or vice-versa. 

I don't have a backup. I back up my files weekly, not on an hourly basis. 

Affinity crashes all the time but it never ended with a corrupted file before. If I lose this file, I lose the 15 hours I've worked on it and at least 5 more hours to redesign it from scratch. 

 

 

[firstdefence]

One of the Mods might be able to pass it to a dev to take a look, can't promise anything nor a timescale @Dan C

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

I don't have a backup. I back up my files weekly, not on an hourly basis. 

Affinity crashes all the time but it never ended with a corrupted file before. If I lose this file, I lose the 15 hours I've worked on it and at least 5 more hours to redesign it from scratch.

You need to urgently revise your backup schedule. Once a week is clearly not frequent enough if you can lose as much as 20 hours’ work.

Save your work after any major change, whether that’s after an hour or after only ten minutes. To avoid the risk of overwriting a good file with a bad one, use ‘Save As…’ instead of ‘Save’. Back up to an external drive and/or cloud storage to protect yourself against the effects of a local hard drive crash.

[PaoloT]

1 hour ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

I don't have a backup. I back up my files weekly, not on an hourly basis.

To avoid further incidents in the future, I would suggest you to immediately install an hourly backup system, equivalent to Time Machine on the Mac. Losing one hour of work is not the same as losing one week. And, unfortunately, accidents happen (you only have to ask when, not if).

Paolo

 

[RichardMH]

FWIW I use SyncBackFree which is free and easy to use. Back up my working SSD drive at 1am every morning. Free version has enough functionality for my use.

https://www.2brightsparks.com/welcome/compare-sp.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwMqvBhCtARIsAIXsZpbRL6GHwxzE3loiuOBwXzriUI94y8FkfKI6kmgnqCMzGJPzgB4t9IMaApthEALw_wcB

Its not perfect as it backs up what I've saved so if that's corrupt there's a problem. So I use Save As regularly on important files so I have versions. 

The paid versions of syncback seem to have versioning.

[Dan C]

Hi @Rafael_Morgan,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with this document.

Firstly, I understand this is an important issue to you - but please do not post a thread on the forums, email the support team and directly DM a moderator simultaneously when requiring support.

This can mean multiple members of the support team are trying to solve your issue across different methods (often without being aware of the others efforts) and can actually decrease the speed at which we're able to assist. Thanks for your understanding here.

15 hours ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

while I was testing different fonts for a logo, it crashed Windows 11 (blue screen of death). 

Secondly, the Affinity apps aren't able to cause a 'Blue Screen of Death' in Windows, as they are user-mode applications. Only kernel-mode applications (i.e. drivers) are capable of this. 

Applications, including Affinity, make use of these drivers which is why it appears some "applications cause BSOD", but in reality the application itself is unable to cause this, but might have been the trigger.

15 hours ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

When I restarted the computer, Affinity Designer didn't open the file anymore, stating that it appeared to be corrupted. 

Inspecting your document within a HEX editor, I can see that a large amount of the data within the file is missing, indicated by a '00' HEX value:

It's likely due to this BSOD that the file was not written successfully and the data corruption occurred - unfortunately our team are unable to recover completely missing data, as it simply is no longer present in the file, our apologies.

As above, we recommend creating regular backups of any documents you are working on, as unexpected issues may occur and are unfortunately out of our control.

I would also recommend checking the Event Viewer / System logs on your PC regarding the BSOD that occurred, as this can indicate driver / Windows corruption or in worst case scenarios can be an indication of failing hardware.

I hope this clears things up and our apologies once again we can't assist further here with your file.

[Rafael_Morgan]

Hi Dan,

Thank you for your reply.

Currently, the only software causing constant crashes in my PC is Affinity. I use many different design software, so if it's a driver issue as you say, Affinity is directly causing it. 

About the corrupted file, I thought you had a system in place to prevent such things. When Affinity crashes, which happens regularly, it always offers to open a "recovery version". Isn't this "recovery version" backed up somewhere? 

[mopperle]

Another idea: some applications can be configured to make backups every few minutes, but most dont have such a feature. That'S why I save important files/work very frequently under a different name to overcome such issues.

[mopperle]

3 minutes ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

Currently, the only software causing constant crashes in my PC is Affinity. I use many different design software, so if it's a driver issue as you say, Affinity is directly causing it. 

When it happens so often, some more details would be welcome, eg. the Affinity crashlog, entry in Windows Eventviewer at the time of the crash, details about your OS (which build), which graphic card with which driver version, a screenshot of BSOD....

[Dan C]

14 minutes ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

Currently, the only software causing constant crashes in my PC is Affinity. I use many different design software, so if it's a driver issue as you say, Affinity is directly causing it. 

Again, Affinity may be the trigger of this issue - but certainly isn't the cause. As above you can find out further information on your system as to the cause of this crash at kernel level.

15 minutes ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

About the corrupted file, I thought you had a system in place to prevent such things. When Affinity crashes, which happens regularly, it always offers to open a "recovery version". Isn't this "recovery version" backed up somewhere? 

If the PC has crashed to a BSOD, all active data is lost.
This is unfortunately not something Affinity can control or change.

Affinity does include an Autosave file recovery system for if the application has crashed and not the OS - though this should not be relied upon as a backup method.

The app will have been unable to create or retain an 'autosave' file when the BSOD occurred, as these are temporary files which are removed when the PC restarts, in order to not retain unwanted space on your drive.

[Alfred]

15 minutes ago, Rafael_Morgan said:

About the corrupted file, I thought you had a system in place to prevent such things. When Affinity crashes, which happens regularly, it always offers to open a "recovery version". Isn't this "recovery version" backed up somewhere? 

A recovery version is, by its very nature, a temporary file. Once you’ve opened it successfully, it’s deemed to be no longer necessary, and it’s up to you to treat the version in memory as a new document. Once you’ve worked on it, a new temporary file will be created in accordance with your autosave settings, but you’ll have greater control over the whole process if you save it manually to a location of your choice.

[thomaso]

54 minutes ago, Alfred said:

A recovery version is, by its very nature, a temporary file.

..., and possibly more relevant, these .autosave files save incrementally only and may not contain the entire layout document but recent steps only. If those loose their 'connection' to the actual Affinity document (saved by the user) these .autosave files may not work for recovering, too.