Files Won't Open

[StudentGuy]

I've been working on a school project ahead of time and animated a decent amount of the project, but then Animate crashed and I was unable to reopen the file. I was unable to salvage the file using WinRAR. I started from scratch and got to the same place I was at the point where the program crashed. I had made several backups along the way. I decided to take a break, and I closed animate. Later, the file wouldn't open. I checked all of my backup files and they wouldn't open either. Adobe's automatic recovery files were a no go as well. I'm using a Windows computer. I'm using Animate 2022.  I've been using a lot of the paintbrush tool and I've heard that can crash files. I would appreciate it if anyone could help me out. 

[kglad · Accepted solution]

you'll need to track down what is corrupting your files.  typically, that's av, antimalware, cleaner, defragger etc.

you can start by creating something and saving it with an appended version number. eg, test_v000.fla.  after saving, restart your computer and check that you can open test_v000.fla.  if you can reopen, continue to edit and then save as test_v001.fla etc and each day, check that you can open the last saved version.

if after a few days, all goes well, start work on your project and continue to use version numbers appended to your work.  eg, project1_v000.fla, project1_v001.fla etc.

every few computer restarts, check that your project1 files are uncorrupted.

[Dean_Utian · Accepted solution]

Just reinforcing the good advice kglad. It is good practice for any project to save multiple versions. This is not only to deal wih a corrupt file but for a range of other things that my result in the need to go back to a previous version. In addiion to saving different versions, keep a reccord of what has been done in each version. That will help you in managing the files and going back to earlier versions.

[Nicktendo28]

I totally agree with both StudentGuy and kglad. Always save multiple versions. I know that doesn't help. Look for recovery files. see if animate auto saved.