Empty Symbols Problem

[Gian05]

VERSION: Animate CC 2017

SYSTEM: Windows 10 64-bit

Hi! I've recently stumbled upon a problem that involves empty symbols on my .fla file.

I first came to the problem of "An error occured opening file..." where it seems my .fla file got corrupted, but thankfully, I was able to restore this file by following the steps in found in -- https://www.designcontest.com/forum/adobe-flash/63637-how-recover-damaged-corrupt-files-adobe-flash....

Every time I create a new animation, I always have a template file that comes prepared with the intro and outro scenes so I only have to the animation between once I create my symbols I need. Unfortunately, despite the file being restored, it only restored the timeline I had with individual layers of symbols--all were there, frame by frame, tweens, etc., but once I checked the library, all these symbols were present, but all of them didn't contain the "image"--they were all empty.

Weirdly, the symbols I had for my intro and outro remained, it was just the very symbols I created for my in-between animation that became empty.

Is there any way I can restore these symbols so they can re-appear again on my timeline? (Or at least, they are restored so I can re-input them with the animated frames already having been done)

Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks!

[kglad]

recreate them on the symbol timelines.

[Gian05]

If those lost symbols were just a few I'd be happy to recreate them, but unfortunately, hours and days of work when into them so having to re-do all those many symbols wouldn't be a great idea.

[kglad]

then you're left trying to recreate an uncorrupted fla. 

in addition to using winrar you can try using a decompiler on a working swf.

[Gian05]

How does that process work? I'm not familiar with decompilers that much or the process of these programs

[kglad]

check sothink's decompiler.

[Gian05]

Is there a link I can go to to download such?

[kglad]

you don't know how to use a search engine like google?? Sothink SWF Decompiler, Flash Decompiler, Flash to HTML5 Converter

[Gian05]

Sorry for the late response. What am I exactly going to do with this decompiler? It returns a result of "corrupted file" whenever I try it with my original corrupted .fla file (which I renamed into a .swf), the same with my rebuilt version which was "fixed" with WinRar.

[kglad]

read the directions.  you open a working swf with the decompiler.

[Gian05]

It seems to create more problems that it solves them. According to what I've searched, I'm going to need SWF Catcher as well. The SWF Decompiler is working well, but the SWF Catcher refuses to work, always displaying the error "Flash Player ActiveX control is not installed in your system...", despite that I've already uninstalled and reinstall Flash 29 from the Adobe website itself. Is there any solution for this?

[Gian05]

And a follow-up, I manage to get it fixed but having both the SWF Decompiler and Catcher had no help at all. So, that option is out.

I noticed that in the LIBRARY folder of my corrupted .fla file (in WinRar) still existed the folders II created that compiled all the newly-created symbols I had made which were the exact ones that became empty. However, the .xml files of these symbols are missing. Since I know their folders still exist, perhaps there is some directory that lies all the lost symbols? It could possibly have been saved somewhere, despite that Animate didn't notify me on its starup of a recover file.

[Gian05]

Perhaps there must be some way of recovering these symbols? It's weird that the other symbols remained but the exact ones I created where all the ones that were "erased" despite their folder still existing in Animate, as well as their names. What could be the cause of this?

[kglad]

i don't know.

you're fortunate to salvage any of your work.  learn to save your work with increasing version numbers so you never lose more than 15-30min of work.

[Colin Holgate · Accepted solution]

Aside from you remembering to save a backup copy now and then, there are automatic backup applications that are useful. On Mac I use Time Machine, and so I have 24 backups from the last day, 30 more backups from the last month, and 12 more backups from the last year. I am able to recover from the most recent of those that doesn't have the problem that I've just spotted.

I'm not sure what there is on Windows that is exactly the same, but a number of possible ones are discussed here:

backup - Does an equivalent of Time Machine exist for Windows? - Super User