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Question

100's of .fla file will will not open anymore... HELP! "An error occurred opening file..."

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
December 20, 2021
6 replies
9057 views

I have hundreds of .fla files containg projects from previous versions of Animate/ Flash that no longer will open. I get an error message that the file(s) cannot be opened. I can understand perhaps 1 or 2 files being corrupt or damaged but not hundreds. I have even tried backup of the files for which I keep 2 sets. My guess is that at some point some .fla file were not compatible with new program updates. My question is, Is there a way to get access to an older version of Animate/flash so that I may open these files and retrieve my work? Any help would be appreciated.

The message I get is "An error occurred opening file..."

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marcs61886613Author

Known Participant

I finally found that the solution to opening the files that I could not open was to download an older version of adobe animate. I believe it was the 2020 version that allowed me then to open those files that were not able to be open using the current version. You may have to go back and use an older version, depending upon when those files were created. Hopefully this helps.

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Aiden27308675oqlc

Participating Frequently

Hi All - I have the similar issue. I have been working on a .fla file in Adobe Animate. After making a recent update, the file is now greyed out when I try to open it in Animate. When I try to copy the file from a flash drive I get an error that says "One or more items in "SpongeBob Animate.fla" can't be changed because they are in use". The file size is 25.2 MB so there is data in the file. Can someone help me fix this issue? Greatly appreciated!

kglad

Community Expert

restart your computer and then copy the fla. or move the flash drive to another computer and retry opening.

if both those fail, try and fix the fla on the flash drive. first, see if you can rename the fla to a rar.

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Aiden27308675oqlc

Participating Frequently

Hi - Thank you. I tried restarting my computer but that didn't solve anything. I then opened the flash drive with another computer (Chromebook rather than my Mac) and I was able to copy the file off the flash drive. I copied it as a .fla file and was also able to rename it to a .rar file as well. What's next. Thank you so much for your help! I am a college student have been working on this animation for months this semester. If this fails I have to complete start over from scratch

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Preetha2319

Participant

when ever light is gone my system automatically turns off..at that time after the current back I tried to open the same file again it is showing like this my total work is gone...usually I will save versions but some times in work busy i forgot..then it happens...so I am searching for this sollution can you help on this pls

kglad

Community Expert

set a timer to remind yourself to save your fla's (with increasing version number appended).

_keyframer

Community Expert

I recently tried opening very old files from an external hard drive with same error so I installed the oldest version of Animate offered and they all opened up fine and I was able to save them.

Animator and content creator for Animate CC

Mohanaraj

Adobe Employee

Hi - Are you on Mac and these files are of from pre CS5 version of Flash having binary file format (not the xfl file format)?

Thanks!

Mohan

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marcs61886613Author

Known Participant

These are older files. Not sure about cs3. I am using on a Mac. I was able to open these files a late as 2019 in whatever version of the newest Animate was at that time.

Here is a link of a file that I get an error message with. One that would;d open previously.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/embmzn9ne70mwr5/AlanV5.fla?dl=0

M

marcs61886613Author

Known Participant

ANd another link too another couple of files. Just in case.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f8no1syh9nib6mw/Ted_anims.fla?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3l0kbdppdzxmc58/Props_food.fla?dl=0

kglad

Community Expert

with animate 2022 (v22.0.2) i just opened a fla from 2007 without problem (on a win 10 computer though, of course, animate no longer supports actionscript 2, or 1), so the problem's not an issue of animate compatibility.

are any other files corrupted in the directory(ies) where the flas are located?

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marcs61886613Author

Known Participant

As I said in my post I could see 1 or 2 files being corupt but not hundreds.

As to your question my files reside on an external drive not in the same directory as Animate CC. Does that matter when opening files?

No there are no other corupt files in the directories where I keep the .fla files. as well.

I've attached a file that has always worked for me in the past yet now I get an error message. Will the attached file open for you? Thanks.

kglad

Community Expert

first, note @Mohanaraj 's message and please respond.

second, nothing was attached and there is no way to attach files to these forums. upload to a file server (like dropbox) and post a link and i'll test for you.

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