???"File is not readable"???

[nsyrax]

Me and my co-worker have been having this issue recently where we will create a file, save it, come in the next day, and we get an error saying "File is not readable", but if I try to open my file on my co-workers machine, it opens fine. It happens randomly but frequently. It happens when placing Photoshop files in Illustrator. We are currently running CS4 on WinXP machines running SP3. Both machines have 4gigs of RAM. Also, when we try to same some files, we get a message saying "The file may be read only, onother person may have the file open, or the file may be saved in another folder.", and when OK is pressed, Illustrator bombs. Any ideas???

[nsyrax]

Hello!!!!! ADOBE!!!!!!!!!

[Scott Falkner]

> Hello!!!!! ADOBE!!!!!!!!!

Read the name of this forum again. It's at the top of the page, underneath the Adobe logo.

[nsyrax]

I love when people don't actually contribute and just make a snide remark. So helpful. Adobe support does tend to look in the forums from time to time.

[Harron_K_Appleman]

>Adobe support does tend to look in the forums from time to time.

There is absolutely no guarantee of that, Nick.

If it is Adobe you wish to contact, why not call or e-mail them directly?

Shouting here just riles up the natives.

[_Jennet_Ko_]

Hi Nick

I'm having exactly the same problem. Have you figure it out what's going on? Any solution? Many thanks!

[Mylenium]

Well, given, that the original poster never provided more details, I'm afraid there can#t be a stock answer. What you should do, is as follows:

- check your folder permissions. All folders must be readable by the user and "System". If you want to save files, you also need write priveleges.

- check, whether the user account exists on both systems with identical name and password.

- check, whether the Group Policies and specific system wide security settings are identical on both.

- on Windows Vista, also check UAC, DEP and Internet Zone flagging.

- check for any additional security settings that may be related to network features such as share privileges and names of mapped drives/ shares.

- when you transfer files e.g. by ways of a mobile harddrive, make sure to always copy the permissions correctly (NTFS).

- check, whether virus scanners or software firewalls are interfering

Mylenium

[ElClaude]

Hello, I have the same problem. Thx for your tips but the problem appears so random that is highly unlikely that any of these solutions work.

Sometimes it can read the file, sometimes not. - I open the document, all good. But as soon as I want to copy paste a picture from within the doc it sais "file is not readable". Sometimes it works after restarting illustrator or saving the document... Whaaa getting nuts with that crazy program. I use it for 10 years and I am really sick of its instability.

To me it appears as one of the countless mysterious bugs of the program. I called the support endless times in the last years and they could never help me. When they don't know further they just blame the OS or so..

[MicahBurke]

Memory.

Simply put, this is a memory issue. I'm not positive as to the REASON this issue pops up, however after dealing with it every day for two years now, I've learned what to do.

When you have a memory intensive file on screen, say an advertisement with many placed objects, Illustrator uses a lot of RAM to render/illustrate the page and environment, so much so as to not allow the opening of another file or placing a graphic on the page, EVEN if the first file is closed. The only solution seems to be to close Illustrator and start back up.

There are several things you can do to mitigate the problem somewhat.

Make sure you have as much RAM as physically possible available for Illustrator to use. This means close down other applications that might be gobbling RAM. Next make sure your PC/Mac is pumped full of RAM, RAM is fairly inexpensive now days so splurge. In Illustrator you can turn off the full preview, or even use pixel preview to save RAM.

Regardless of these steps, however, you will encounter the error again, fortunately CS4 doesn't seem to screw the session over like CS3 did with no way to save.

My specs:

Intel CoreDuo2 6600, 2.4 GHz

4 Gig RAM

Windows 7, x64

[Christina_C__R_]

I was having this issue and it worked for me.

I closed Illustrator, and (I'm on a mac) opened Terminal and typed "purge" then hit enter. This frees up memory. Then I opened Illustrator and my file. Worked perfectly.

Thanks.

[MicahBurke]

Just an FYI - THE ORIGINAL POST IS FROM 2008

This case is closed, as with 64bit update of Illustrator, the memory issues are long gone.

[Christina_C__R_]

Afraid not... just happened to me today. I use Illustrator CC 2014.

In fact, this never happened to me before with with the CS version.

[danielam67972343]

Illustrator some time display, does not have enough memory to display your page, insufficient memory, in fact you do not indeed a bigger memory and disk space.

Do it as I do. Go to Preferences > Plug-ins & Scratch Disks, in the Scratch Disks  is set to one of your local disk, select another disk as secondary disk.

Restart illustrator. You will never face "file is not readable" .....Cool isn't it

[rwlkdsajfl]

mylenium dont try to fool others plz its biggggggggggggg bug of illustrator everybody knows even not fix in cs5, and you are talking networking related issues r u professional

[complexity]

I'm another user faced by this error. I'm going to try and complete the work in photoshops psb large format file format.

[duncan2ooo]

Hi All,

I have been experiencing big issues with Illustrator CS4 and placing images into a document.

Basically I will be working on say a packaging project and after about the 4th image being placed I will get the error message The file is not readable I select OK (the only option available)

RESULT: no file placed no where to go?

I then have to save the document, close Illustrator, re-open, open the document and then the image will usually place (not always first time though and sometimes I will have to reboot the whole system!) but then the 5th, 6th, 7th image after that I have to follow the same procedure!... The image files are fine, 300ppi, 20-30MB max, PSD, TIFF, JPG dose not matter all follow the same issue... but eventually after a lot of rebooting and loading the so called un-readable files will go into the document.

Also the image will place sometimes but the same error message will appear on attempting to embed the image!

All very annoying and massively time consuming!!!

To top it off since the above, random AI files when loading up will crash Illustrator out... again after a reboot the same file will open fine with no problems???

My system:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit)

Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (quad core)

RAM: 6GB

GRAPHICS: NVIDIA Quadro FX 570 (3GB) (Dual monitor)

DVD/CDR

PRIMARY: ATA 500MB

SECONDARY: ATA 1Tb

Sorry if this has no revalance to the above posts but im desperate to get this sorted... other wise its back to my old system... slow but reliable!!

Many Thanks!!

[MicahBurke]

I think your issues are exactly the same as those I've experienced. One user emailed me regarding this and had some notes, which I'll summarize for you:

>>

• Illustrator is a 32 bit application is not taking advantage of your 6 Gig of RAM, but only accesses 3 gigs. Nothing you can do will make Illustrator use the rest.
  
  
• When you place so many files into illustrator, it attempts to render them, using up your RAM.
  
  
• Make sure you're LINKING files, not PLACING them on the actual page.
  
  
• Reduce linked file's sizes to exact dimensions you need. (Don't use a 1200 dpi image if you're printing the file at 300dpi.)
  
  
• You can force Illustrator to display Document Raster Effects Settings to 72ppi, which will reduce some of the RAM requirements, until ready to output. Also turn of Anti-aliasing in the preferences while manipulating the document.
  
  
• Illustrator is not a page-layout application.  Learn to use InDesign for page layout rather than Illustrator (I'm still working on this myself.)
  
• Once a file gives the dreaded FILE IS NOT READABLE error, you're basically stuck. Your only recourse is to close the application and open it again. If you save a file, which gives the error on opening, the file is pretty much useless. I've found no way of getting in to a file that is "unreadable">
  
  
  Many thanks to Wade Zimmerman for these notes.

[CreatePersuasion]

This happened to me with a crucial projects.  If you're desperate to revive the file and there are any linked files in it, here's a psuedo solution:

Break the links to the file.  Move the files, rename them, whatever.  Start with one and see if gives you enough headroom to open the "unreadable" file.  If it doesn't give you enough room, break additional links until you can get room. I tried to downsample the linked files instead, and that may have worked if I had thought to change the "auto update" linked files preference.  (as opposed to AI leaving it as it is until you respond)

Once you've opened the file there are several ways to protect yourself that have already been mentioned, although linking files only helps in case of a meltdown like this.  It won't stop it from happening.  I believe you can also use the layers visibility toggle to protect yourself a little bit, just leave stuff invisible when you close, focusing on the blurs and large rasters etc.  If it doesn't have to get rendered at 100%+ then its not going to break the render stream for out of addresses issues.  Pixel preview being selected when closing might also help???

I have 1.5 gig of video memory so AI can't use that in the render que, so if I would have reduced that allocation in system prefs it might have given me enough headroom to open it.

I don't know about you guys but cs5 can't grace my 64 bit OS fast enough.

Anyway, I know the breaking links works if possible and perhaps those other ideas can help too.

[MicahBurke]

Great notes thanks!

[nice_Jubilee1587]

I tried breaking the links. I'm using CS5 on a 64-bit system and it worked like a charm.

Good thing I have all my linked files in one folder.

I only had to rename the folder to break the links then renaming it again to its original name after opening the file

and auto updating the links.

Thanks!

[MicahBurke]

I'll be out of the office until Thursday, Oct 28, 2010. If there is any emergency, please contact Cindy Pietro, or Marc Fey at 925-456-6400.

If you have my cell #, feel free to call only if absolutely needed.

Thanks!

Micah Burke

Mancini's Sleepworld

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[ilkatze]

THAAAAAANNNKK YOOUUU!!!

[sharedTEAMS]

Interesting twist for mine:

One instance of filename1.tif works just fine, but another instance of that same file is "not readable"

One image is placed in the document three times -- two of the links work, and the third is not readable. Seems quite random to me.

[bcmpro]

Possible solution: I don't claim to know why it happens, but I've experienced this problem too and found something that alleviates it: Make sure when you file>place images that you select "link" instead of "embed", then "Save as" your ai document and in the save as options uncheck "save pdf compatible file"

[Paul Rumens]

This issue is also happening in CS5:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2932512#2932512