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michnik1
michnik1
Participant
January 20, 2022
Question

Illustrator Can Only Partially Read This File

  • January 20, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 636 views

Hi everyone,

 

Lately I have ran into problem with one of the AI files. When I try to open it, suddenly, Illustrator prompts a message "Illustrator can only partially open this file". When I was working on it just a few days before error occurs - there ws no problem, everything worked ok. When I open file now (with the error) I have just 1 of 30 artboards!

 

I was trying solutions found on the web: installing older version of Illustrator, trying to open file via PDF. Nothing worked. Unfortunately, Adobe Support also couldnt retreive any data from the fila. the thing is that when I click on it - the preview shows all artboards, so its hard to believe that there is no data to recover (file size iss 1.9 GB).

 

Has anyone run into similar problem and maybe found a solution? Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Loosing this file unfortunately costs me a money, and re-doing it from scratch will take days!

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 20, 2022

When you open the file in Arobat, are all the artboards there? In that case, you can atleast retrieve some stuff. You could create a new file in Illustrator and then import the problem file. If you can recover the artwork from the PDF part, it still won't give you fully editable art unfortunately. 

 

Where did you save the file? It's not recommended to directly save to networks in Illustrator: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/illustrator-support-networks-removable-media.html

 

But also the preferences can interfere. Try and turn off "Save in Background" in the preferences. It is known to interfere with some people.

 

Also: I would check my harddisk.

 

Did you contact the Illustrator team to recover your file? Or general Adobe Customer Care? Perhaps @Anshul_Saini can still help?

 

This is how Illustrator files work: https://youtu.be/IpDh8Y7q8yE

michnik1
michnik1Author
Participant
January 20, 2022

Hi Monika,

Many thanks for your reply. Appreciate it. 

 

When I open the file in Acrobat - yes all artboards are there. I tried to save this PDF file, and then open it on Illustrator, however unfortunately there is a pop-up error "Could not open this file". (Opening other pdf files on Illustrator works normally).

 

I am aware that it is not recommended to save AI files on network drives or removable media, which is why I have it on my local hard drive. 

 

What do you mean by saying that you would check hard disk? you mean scan it in some antivirus software? 

 

And yes - I did contact support team. Basically what they told me to do is to open corrupted file, click "OK' on the error message (so file opened with just one artboard visible, instead of 30), then create a package and share this package with them. That`s what I have done. Problem is that once I created package - the file size reduced to 30Mb, while original one is over 1.9 GB. Also - when I click on the file on the Windows Explorer - I can see the preview with all of the artboards, so I believe that data is still there, somewhere. anyway - today I have shared original file with Adobe Support (without package) to see if they can work on that. 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 20, 2022
quote

And yes - I did contact support team. Basically what they told me to do is to open corrupted file, click "OK' on the error message (so file opened with just one artboard visible, instead of 30), then create a package and share this package with them.


By @michnik1

 

That was bad advice. Really bad. I hope you still have the large file and did not overwrite it (I also hope you didn't overwrite it by saving from Acrobat).

 

Please watch my video about files.

 

Does it work when you create a new file in Illustrator and then place the problem file? Not open it. Place it.

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