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mgb-bob
mgb-bob
Participant
October 7, 2019
Question

Open an alias in Illustrator without the original

  • October 7, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 646 views

My home along with my computer burned down last November (2018) in the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA.  I got out with two removable hard drives with backups on them (and the clothes on my back).  From the backups, when I try to open any of my Illustrator files they are aliases.  Since I do not have the originals, is there anyway  to open the aliases without the originals?  When I select the files in the Finder and press the space bar, I do get the file to appear but cannot open it.  In Illustrator. I get the message: "Can't open the illustration.  The file is locked or in use.  ID-54".  I have unlocked the files in the Finder but get the same message when I retry to open the files after unlocking.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

rcraighead
rcraighead
Legend
October 8, 2019

If the alias is showing you a preview I believe the file is there somewhere. Try right-clicking the alias and choose "Show Original". Maybe you can locate it that way and see if there is something you can do to make it open. 

 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 7, 2019

Are you sure that they are aliases?

You can try if you can recover at least part of the files. Try if they open in Acrobat.

 

But if they are really just aliases, then there's nothing you can do.

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