Inspiring

Answered

Damaged AI file can't open

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
May 19, 2025
3 replies
1103 views

Hi! I have been having trouble opening a file I made years ago. I guess I was excited about this project, and I put an exclaimation point in an AI file name (Learned my lesson there). Thats the only reason I can come up with as to why this file won't open. This file is from 2021, I have given up and retried many times to open it. I have:

- Made a copy, saved as any file type I can think of

- Taken all punctuation out, renamed files

- Tried to open in PS, acrobat, even distiller for EPS formats

- Tried to download a previous version of illustrator, they only offer the current and previous year.

Besides digging out my old laptop to see if I can get anything to work on it, I'm out of options. This is a personal project file so its not like anything is at risk as far as client/job info, I just really would like to finish this project without starting over! Also I cannot upload the file to this forum even, because the file type is not supported. I really have no idea how I managed to mess this up so bad- please help!

Any information is greatly appreciated 🙂

Correct answer Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Like i said, it appears to be a symbolic link file to a version of the file stored on an iCloud backup and in fact is NOT an Illustrator file at all. If you had ICloud backup tuned on to backup your Documents folder, and if you also had these files stored on dropbox, say, then the iCloud backup is also backing up your Dropbox sync folder, and apparently the two don't play nice with each other. This is why I suggested you see if the file exists in your iCloud account online. If so, you can try download it from there.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

The first three files are empty and have no content. However, the file "Alphabet logos!.ai", despite reading as 47.5 MB, appears to be an iCloud synchronization file, and is simply a link alias.

Check your iCloud account online at iClloud.com and see if the file is still there, and try download it again (and maybe rename it first).

camryna10528936Author

Inspiring

I tried that just now, When i rename it to something else it says

"Are you sure you want to change the extension from “.icloud” to “.ai”?"

and then when i press yes, it says this name can't be used and

"Try using a name with fewer characters, or with no punctuation marks." like it reverts itself to the old name? And now I'm just stuck in this loop.

I am trying to stick with the 47MB file, I know there's something in there! I'm not giving up yet

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Correct answer

Community Expert

Like i said, it appears to be a symbolic link file to a version of the file stored on an iCloud backup and in fact is NOT an Illustrator file at all. If you had ICloud backup tuned on to backup your Documents folder, and if you also had these files stored on dropbox, say, then the iCloud backup is also backing up your Dropbox sync folder, and apparently the two don't play nice with each other. This is why I suggested you see if the file exists in your iCloud account online. If so, you can try download it from there.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @camryna10528936,

I know how frustrating this must be, especially for a personal project you care about. Since opening the file hasn't worked, try placing it into a new Illustrator file using File > Place. Sometimes that helps recover content.

Also, try launching Illustrator, going to File > Open, and selecting the file with PDF Compatibility enabled if prompted.

If that doesn't work, as the expert suggested, feel free to upload the file to a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox and share the link here so that we can have a look at it.

Let me know how it goes.

Looking forward to your response.

Abhishek

camryna10528936Author

Inspiring

Hi,

I tried the place and open suggestions on illustrator, still didn't work 😕😕

Here's a dropbox link to several versions I've tried to open: https://www.dropbox.com/t/kxcQKmQX7evYcOdD

Let me know if anyone else has any luck, or if this project is lost forever I'll have to accept it.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

If you want to attach an Illustrator file, just rename the extension from .ai to .pdf

camryna10528936Author

Inspiring

Hi Ton,

This does not solve the problem I posed about how to open the file. However I did try to upload the file renamed as a pdf, and got this error:

Correct the highlighted errors and try again.

The attachment's alphabet logos copy 3.pdf content type (application/pdf) does not match its file extension and has been removed.

Let me know if anyone has a solution to opening this file, without being able to see it themselves because adobe wont let that happen

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

You may try some other sharing options like Dropbox or Google, but I am afraid that if renaming to .pdf does not work, it could be a very old file.

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