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The file is damaged and could not be repaired in illustrator - How to fix it

Community Beginner ,
Oct 15, 2014 Oct 15, 2014

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Hi,

I am using CS6 and I saved many Artworks. Suddenly when i check the file today I can not open the file. Some file says "the file is damaged and could not be repaired in illustrator" and some says "The file "Profile.ai" is in an unknown format and cannot be opened". I open these files in Illustrator.

I tried with some software, Since I don't have the original version , SO I couldn't fix the problem.

The files are very important, I worked for several days.

PLEASE HELP SOMEONE....

the file is damaged and could not be repaired in illustrator

damged.jpg

The file "Profile.ai" is in an unknown format and cannot be opened

file-cannot-open.jpg

Please Help.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Adobe Employee , Nov 09, 2016 Nov 09, 2016

Please send such files to ShareWithAi@adobe.com for investigation.

It would be helpful if you can provide details such as

  1. Whether the file is open from network location / saved to network location
  2. Which version .ai file was saved originally
  3. Are there any backup utility / time machine running on your machine.
  4. We have seen this problem reported particularly with placed images, if you have used images are these images placed from local drive or network drive?
  5. List of steps you did just before last save

-R

...

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Enthusiast ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Try this.

If you have Adobe Acrobat / Pro.

Open Adobe Acrobat, navigate to your Ai file to open, save as a new pdf, then open that pdf using Illustrator, not sure how much of the editing features will remain, but may you some time in recreating your artwork.

Someone else may have another solution.

Good luck

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Thank you for the response. unfortunately I couldn't open the both files.Is there any other way?

acrobat1.jpg

acrobat2.jpg

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Enthusiast ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Not sure if the flollowing will be of use, but worth a try?…

Try changing the .ai to .eps or .pdf to see if anything happens to see if it makes a difference to importing or exporting as a pdf?

If you have Indesign, try importing the file into Indesign then saving that file as a pdf or/and export as a Indesign eps file.

Sorry I cannot be of any more assistance.

Good luck!

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Thanks again giving the tips. but I am getting the same error. Is there any other solutions??????

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Community Expert ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Where have the files been saved?

Try restarting Illustrator.

Reset the prefs to try if it's maybe Illustrators fault (especially the error opening the document preset is strange)

And try and set up a new user on your computer and see if it works.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Thank you.

I saved in a different hard disk. (Not in C://). After reset same error. Also, I tried in different pc, lap, but same results.

Any other way to open the file?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Did you save over the network?

How did you transfer the files to the other PC?

Your file may be corrupt.

Especially since this happens on other machines as well it's a sign that the file might be damaged.

So it might be time to search for the backup.

In case you don't have a backup, see the options in Jacobs post here:

How to recover an Illustrator CS2 file that crashed, with Illustrator CS5.5 ?

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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I didn't transfer the file. In same machine the files is available. For testing purpose I tried to open with other machines. But I couldn't open.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 16, 2014 Oct 16, 2014

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Even for the testing purposes you needed to transfer the files to the other machine.

In some cases e.g. sending files by e-mail (without zipping them) damages them.

Saving files over a network might damage them.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 17, 2016 Jul 17, 2016

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As of today for the first ever time in 10 years of using Illustrator I have the same problem, I have just finished 2 weeks commissioned artwork - went to open to check things and message - could not open - file damaged and could not be repaired. I am using CS 6, it is a bought and paid for version registered to myself, never had any problems before. Artwork only ever done on this Pc, not saved elsewhere. And 'Contact us' tech support only extends to a phone call or this forum - which I am grateful for but hoped I might be able to email the damaged file to tech support and it be fixed for me somehow. Anyway tried all the above and like my friend same message every time - any help offered is appreciated

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Community Expert ,
Jul 17, 2016 Jul 17, 2016

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JohnMac1971 schrieb:

As of today for the first ever time in 10 years of using Illustrator I have the same problem, I have just finished 2 weeks commissioned artwork - went to open to check things and message - could not open - file damaged and could not be repaired. I am using CS 6, it is a bought and paid for version registered to myself, never had any problems before. Artwork only ever done on this Pc, not saved elsewhere. And 'Contact us' tech support only extends to a phone call or this forum - which I am grateful for but hoped I might be able to email the damaged file to tech support and it be fixed for me somehow. Anyway tried all the above and like my friend same message every time - any help offered is appreciated

Do you have a backup?

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 17, 2016 Jul 17, 2016

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As I wrote 'not saved elsewhere'

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Community Expert ,
Jul 17, 2016 Jul 17, 2016

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 18, 2016 Jul 18, 2016

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Many thanks for taking the time to try and help.

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New Here ,
Nov 09, 2016 Nov 09, 2016

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In my case, I moved only the illustrator file to somewhere else and could open, because corruption was not due to illustrator file but a pdf placed in.

In your case, it can be an eps, jpeg, pdf or whatever you used in your document linked. Try to move only the illustrator and open there by ignoring the dependencies.

hope, it helps.

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 09, 2016 Nov 09, 2016

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Please send such files to ShareWithAi@adobe.com for investigation.

It would be helpful if you can provide details such as

  1. Whether the file is open from network location / saved to network location
  2. Which version .ai file was saved originally
  3. Are there any backup utility / time machine running on your machine.
  4. We have seen this problem reported particularly with placed images, if you have used images are these images placed from local drive or network drive?
  5. List of steps you did just before last save

-Rama

Illustrator Team

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New Here ,
May 19, 2017 May 19, 2017

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Please try this one trick.

1. Create a new file in Illustrator with just a simple square and save this file.

2. Now open the file in Text Edit/Notepad.

3. Copy the last couple of lines from that file, as an example:

30 0 obj

<>

endobj

xref

0 31

0000000000 65535 f

0000000016 00000 n

0000000144 00000 n

0000060545 00000 n

0000000000 00000 f

0000061918 00000 n

0001014586 00000 n

0000060596 00000 n

0000060956 00000 n

0000452085 00000 n

0000062217 00000 n

0000062104 00000 n

0000061124 00000 n

0000061357 00000 n

0000061405 00000 n

0000061988 00000 n

0000062019 00000 n

0000062252 00000 n

0000452158 00000 n

0000452510 00000 n

0000453481 00000 n

0000456985 00000 n

0000489882 00000 n

0000555470 00000 n

0000621058 00000 n

0000686646 00000 n

0000752234 00000 n

0000817822 00000 n

0000883410 00000 n

0000948998 00000 n

0001014609 00000 n

trailer

<]>>

startxref

1014777

%%EOF

4. Now open your corrupted file in TextEdit or Notepad.

5. Paste the previous code that you had coppied to the end of your corrupted file and save it.

6. Change the extension of corrupted/damaged file to .ai and you should be able to open up your file in Adobe Illustrator.

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New Here ,
Aug 27, 2017 Aug 27, 2017

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I've Tried this trick and opened the file on Ps not on Ai and it's worked, Thank you.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 27, 2017 Aug 27, 2017

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asbedoo  schrieb

I've Tried this trick and opened the file on Ps not on Ai and it's worked, Thank you.

What did work?

You converted your file to raster. Which kind of problem would that solve?

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New Here ,
Jan 05, 2018 Jan 05, 2018

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this worked for me as well, but I did not have all assets of my artwork so I would have to recreate some pieces but overall the project file opened with this trick

I found another trick that recovered everything without having to lose anything was changing the file extension of the corrupted file to PDF and opening it, but this only works if you saved the file with PDF capability then after opening the file I brought it back into adobe illustrator and had everything as far as the essential piece of work but lost the extra layers that were not apart of the main piece, so any reference pictures i had to create my artwork was gone

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New Here ,
Oct 12, 2021 Oct 12, 2021

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I'm facing the same problem and I can't understand point no. 2 & 3. how can I do this. Can you please help me?

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New Here ,
Feb 21, 2018 Feb 21, 2018

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This really worked for me. Thanks!

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 12, 2018 Jul 12, 2018

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This works! You saves my day

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 05, 2020 Aug 05, 2020

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THANK YOU SO MUCH. I did it and the .ai opened. I used Notepad++ to open the file. The bottom part had a lot of NULL black markings, I deleted all NULL markings at the end of the document and added to the end:

 

trailer
<</Size 21/Root 1 0 R/Info 20 0 R/ID[<3F3FAD74B765F840B8F80597F6CF48A8><4CBDEC5D35C6E8449A1AB9D587B8553C>]>>
startxref
147237
%%EOF

 

Thanks genius. 

 

Best Regards

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