Illustrator could partially read this file > Acrobat PDF File Format is having difficulties

[Julia31481531lbew]

I've encountered a serious problem with an Illustrator file containing a large amount of work that I cannot afford to lose. After my most recent save of the file, I'm no longer able to open it.

When I try to open the file, I get a message that  

"Illustrator could partially open this file. We recovered as much of the file as possible, but some content might be missing. Open to view the recovered file."

When I click "Open," I get a second message that says

"Acrobat PDF File Format is having difficulties. Object label badly formatted. Learn more"

I have tried the following solutions without success:

• Updating Illustrator (to Illustrator 27.7)
• Opening the file on both a Mac (MBP 2021, Apple M1 Pro Chip, 32 GB RAM) and a PC (ConceptD, i7 Intel Core processor, 16 GB RAM)
• Opening the .ai file in Acrobat (I get a message that "There was an error opening this document. There was a problem reading this document (109).")
• Changing the file extension to .pdf to try to open it in Acrobat
• Placing the problematic .ai file in a new .ai file
• Opening the .ai file in Affinity Designer 2

I emailed the affected file (~8.2MB) to file@adobe.com about two weeks ago but didn't receive a response... 😞

Is there anyone here that has encountered a similar issue and been able to get their file to open? Or are there any Adobe folks that can help?

Thanks in advance.

[Monika Gause]

@Anshul_Saini can you please take a look at this?

This is the reason why you always, ALWAYS should save multiple versions of a file. Keep back versions, because saving can go terribly wrong. If you are worrying about disk space: an additional harddisk is always cheaper than having to redo the work. You are using a Mac, turn on Time Machine.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hello @Julia31481531lbew,

I apologize for the trouble you're facing and the delayed response. It sounds like your Illustrator file might have become corrupted, and unfortunately, there isn't always a guaranteed solution for this issue.

In newer versions of Illustrator, there are built-in mechanisms to attempt to recover files automatically. However, if Illustrator is giving you messages about partial opening and PDF format issues, it indicates that the corruption might be severe.

I understand the importance of your work, and I'm sorry to hear about your situation. As a potential step, please share the direct download link to your problematic file. You can upload it to services like Google Drive or Adobe Creative Cloud and then provide the link either here or through direct message. This way, I can try to take a closer look at the file and see if there's any possible workaround or solution.

Thank you for your understanding, and I'll do my best to assist you further.

Best,
Anshul Saini