Corrupt file Emergency.

[bionary]

Hello,

 

I just spend 2.5 hours working on a file during a collaborative zoom session.  I was saving this Affinity Designer file periodically about every 5 minutes.   Affinity crashed and now this file is not able to be opened.  I am beyond angry.  Is there something you guys can do to help me open the file or retrieve any of the text inside it?

Full disclosure, it's mostly the text I need back.  My small team spent 2.5 hours re-wording the text copy on a product packaging design.  Even if I just got back only the text, that would be a victory.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Robocat]

Which Designer version? Try to open the file in Beta (2.5.) or older version?

You should always make a backup, for example to another folder/hard disk/cloud, in case the program crashes. Make a copy of the file every hour or so... 

If you can open the file, use Save As... and give the file a different name. And take a backup of the file.

[bionary]

I'm using 2.4.2

I don't know anybody who would make hourly backups based on the failure of software doing its job.  That advice is unrealistic in the real world.   I do have automated daily off-site backups however, which is why I would be happy retrieving even only the text.   I could use yesterday's backed up Aff Designer's file with today's text changes and be fine.

[Robocat]

2 minutes ago, bionary said:

I'm using 2.4.2

I don't know anybody who would make hourly backups based on the failure of software doing its job.  That advice is unrealistic in the real world.   I do have automated daily off-site backups however, which is why I would be happy retrieving even only the text.   I could use yesterday's backed up Aff Designer's file with today's text changes and be fine.

Well, everyone has their own way of doing backups but once a day is not enough for me.  Maybe not every hour, but more than once a day. 🙂

If you have 2.4.2, then download Beta 2.5. version of Designer and try to open the file.

[Bit Disappointed]

I have NEVER heard of a program that so diligently and frequently destroys its own files as Affinity. Even when you have a good backup regime established, you apparently need to back up non-stop. Every five minutes? What level of paranoia ensures safety?

There is something fundamentally wrong with Affinity, and no amount of reports from customers whose data is destroyed seems to be enough to make any significant changes.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, Bit Disappointed said:

There is something fundamentally wrong with Affinity, and no amount of reports from customers whose data is destroyed seems to be enough to make any significant changes.

In fairness, they made substantial changes in V2, and some more in the subsequent V2 releases. 

So they are trying. But clearly more is needed.

[Robocat]

I remember when InDesign 1 was released ages ago and it crashed really often and corrupted files.
Then Adobe improved the "crash protection" apparently so that the ID creates a locked copy of the file when opening the file(?)

For example, a file like this: ~hm 4-23 n~r3ce6l.idlk 

[bionary]

Okay, I setup automated backups every 10 seconds to help me run Affinity programs!
Now my computer barely runs.
(just kidding)
 

All of my business partners on the call DO want to know what software I was using so they could steer clear of it.  This was one of these high impact moments that will probably have an extremely negative ripple affect for Affinity's reputation.  There's nothing quite like having an experience like this publicly with a bunch of people.

 

[bionary]

I installed the Designer 2.5 Beta and it did not help opening the file that Designer 2.0 destroyed.

Is there a way I can view the contents as plain text and somehow extract the text portions of the file?

I opened the file in BB Edit and it's all gibberish.

 

[Robocat]

Maybe you could try this (it might not help...)?:
Rename the file and move the linked file to another location where Designer cannot find the linked files.
Then try opening the file.

Of course if the files are embedded this will not help.

[Callum]

Hi Bionary,

I'm sorry to hear your file has become corrupt if possible could you upload a copy of the file to the following DropBox link so I can see if it can be repaired?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/cZ7F1GTPX7ExluvPHYvs

Thanks
C

[bionary]

@Callum

File uploaded.  Thank you for looking into this.

[Callum]

1 hour ago, bionary said:

@Callum

File uploaded.  Thank you for looking into this.

Unfortunately this file is outside of the scope of what I can repair, I will pass it along to our dev team who may be able to fix it but I can't guarantee anything. If the file is time sensitive my best advice would be to start again from scratch but I understand that this is less than ideal. I'll update this thread once I have more info from our dev team.

Thanks
C

[bionary]

@Callum

Uhg, thank you for trying.

I'll be happy with just the text.  I already have my previous 24 hour backup of the original design file.
Surely the source code could be scanned for some key phrases  that I know are in the paragraphs that I need?

I did try to recreate the text-copy and I couldn't...because the text we lost was the back of a package design that was the result of 2.5 hours of collaborative effort.

[GarryP]

15 hours ago, bionary said:

the result of 2.5 hours of collaborative effort

You have twice mentioned that this work was being done collaboratively.

Just out of interest, how many people have been working with (editing, etc.) the Affinity document and, if more than one, how have they been doing so?

[bionary]

On 4/30/2024 at 2:40 PM, bionary said:

collaborative zoom session

@GarryP I'm the one editing.

[GarryP]

Ah, okay, so it's just one person editing the document throughout the whole collaborative session?

[Komatös]

3 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Ah, okay, so it's just one person editing the document throughout the whole collaborative session?

I think by collaborative zoom session @bionary means the video conferencing software ZOOM.

[GarryP]

The OP mentioned Zoom but I’ve never used Zoom so I don’t know how it works or what’s possible with that, and I don’t know what the system set-ups are that the OP, and other people collaborating, are using.

It used to be possible (and probably still is) for multiple people to remotely control a single machine (I can’t remember the software we used back in the day) so I didn’t know if that was what was happening, or something else.

[Affinity Rat]

Sad to say but, developing software layered on top of developing 3rd party software, connected by the internet, what could possibly go wrong!

Maybe better to hash out the wording in notepad or message app at least it would be saved in readable format.

I feel you are luck Affinity staff assisting in some form of recovery, but I suspect this task would be very challenging given the number of layers between 2 connected devices.

[Komatös]

BackToToppic please!

[Affinity Rat]

Apparently graphic software doesnt use transactions like financial software, ie no rollback.

Seems like the old Affinity V1 software on PC did have rollback capability, ie to paraphrase “Your file is corrupt want to load the last known good?” 

I rarely use V2, especially on the PC, does it still have rollback?

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

Seems like the old Affinity V1 software on PC did have rollback capability, ie to paraphrase “Your file is corrupt want to load the last known good?

No, it didn't.

[Affinity Rat]

35 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

No, it didn't.

Ok, maybe not technically a rollback, but on PC it did do recovery on some corrupted files.

The term rollback in relation to a transaction, is a basic database concept. While not exactly applicable to a graphic app the concept is still valid ie prevent corruption by isolating the original from subsequent corruption and edits, and why this concept is so commonly used with financial “transactions”.

 

[walt.farrell]

36 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

maybe not technically a rollback, but on PC it did do recovery on some corrupted files.

No. The only recovery was after an application or system crash, using the periodic autosaved recovery file. 

And that function still exists in V2, and it's in both macOS and Windows.