File damaged - work lost?

[Fondreche]

Hello all,

this morning I was working on a file, saved and closed it normally. A while later I wanted to reopen it, but couldn't: File seems to be damaged. The autosave folder is empty. What can I do?

Thanks,

Michael

Preisliste.afpub

[R C-R]

I tried the trick of opening a new APub document & using the Add Pages from File menu choice to see if anything could be recovered that way but unfortunately I still get the file corrupted failure error.

What this file saved locally or on a network server, the cloud , or to some other location? Affinity does not work well with anything oter than locally stored files, so unless you have a backup somewhere, it may well be lost.

[Fondreche]

Thanks so  much for you kind reply! I already tried that, as it was one of the remedies over users with the same problem have suggested in this forum. It didn't work unfortunately. The file was stored in Affinity's own folder as suggested by the app, which is in iCloud.

I would be glad to learn about other possibilities of restoring the file. Publisher apparently also doesn't autosave versions (the autosave folder is empty) nor is there any versioning to my knowledge, so I can't even revert to a previous version of my document. 

Edited May 4 by Fondreche
Forgot one detail

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Fondreche said:

The file was stored in Affinity's own folder as suggested by the app, which is in iCloud.

The app does not suggest any particular folder or location for file saves. It will default to the last one used, but that is not the same thing. So for example, if you create a new document & save it to the local desktop, that's what it will default to for the next save location. Likewise if you save to an iCloud folder, that is what it will default to.

[Fondreche]

Okay, good to know. But I don't think that was the problem nur does ist help to recover the file, unfortunately. Is that a problem of the actual version or a more general Affinity problem? Ort is there a way someone for Affinity can try to restore my file?

[wonderings]

Are you on a Mac by chance? If so do you have a Time Machine backup going? You could go "back in time" with that to when he file was not corrupted. You would lose some work but not everything. If not that do you have any backup system in place? This is something that is super valuable and important for times like these. 

 

[Fondreche]

I'm on a Mac - but no time machine ans no backups unfortunately other for my even more work files, which are on my server... Could you open the file? Are there other apps that can open afpub files?

[wonderings]

I thought Affinity staff here sometimes would look at corrupted files and were able to do something...sometimes. I might be wrong about that. They won't open in anything but Affinity apps, unless something has changed recently. I tried here and I get the same corrupted message. 

[GarryP]

21 minutes ago, wonderings said:

I thought Affinity staff here sometimes would look at corrupted files and were able to do something...sometimes. I might be wrong about that.

The Serif staff will usually try and recover a corrupted document, when one has been supplied, but this thread was started on the Friday before a Bank Holiday (three day) weekend in the UK, so there have probably been a lot fewer staff at work than normal since the thread was created.

Normal service will probably be resumed tomorrow.

[Fondreche]

I'm looking forward to a reply by Serif! I also didn't understand how I can establish automatic backups of my file. Is three a way?

[GarryP]

To get automatic backups you will need to implement a backup regime with some software which will do that for you, for example Time Machine.

The Affinity software will not do that for you.

You can search the web for time machine backups to get more information about Time Machine.

Other backup software/services are available but you will need to select the correct one for your needs and learn how to use it.

[Fondreche]

Oh okay, thanks! What about the autosave feature? The folder is empty with me...

[R C-R]

24 minutes ago, Fondreche said:

What about the autosave feature?

That only applies to when the app crashes. It is not a substitute for a real backup plan.

[GarryP]

27 minutes ago, Fondreche said:

What about the autosave feature?

The Autosave feature is a way for the software to keep a recovery version of a document in case something goes wrong so that the document might be able to be recovered under some circumstances.

It’s not a way for the user to make the software save the document in case of problems, like it is in some other software.

[NathanC]

Hi @Fondreche,

Unfortunately, the file is not recoverable by any standard methods available, so it will need logging with the developers for further investigation into what's caused this issue. It's possible that the team may be able to recover your file, but this isn't guaranteed or something we're able to provide a timeframe for, so we do recommend reverting to a backup is possible. If you could answer the questions in the FAQ below to the best of your knowledge we can then get this logged:

 

Many thanks

[wonderings]

a real good reason why having incremental backups is so important. I am sure your work is far more valuable than the cost of a backup hard drive. Hopefully not something too painful to recreate from scratch again. 

[Fondreche]

Thanks so much for your reply! 

Here the answers:

1. Version 2.6.2
2. MAcOS Sequoia 15.4.1 
3. "File seems to be damaged", see screenshot (in German though)
4. I'm saving to my Mac's iCloud drive
5. Yes, iCloud
6. No
7. It was an existing document on which I was working since 2 weeks
8. Yes, no problems whatsoever
9. Not really, I was editing text frames and aligning them
10. Unfortunately not.

Thanks for helping, I would be really glad it you manage to save my work!