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

[A.24188605hc2k]

Hi,

I am using Adobe Illustrator 2019 and I have many artworks saved in it but, today when I was working on my latest project my laptop suddenly starts restarting and after that I can not open my project. It says "the file is damaged and could not be repaired" in illustrator. I have saved the file right before my laptop restart.

I tried with some software, but it didn't work , SO I couldn't fix the problem. I have also tried to open it through 3rd party online portals but it didn't work.

The file is very important, I worked for several days.

And one more thing. I have used some copied images direct from google which don't have saved location in my laptop (I didn't downloaded them just copied and pasted in my illistrator)

Can this type of issue be resolved ? Please.

PLEASE HELP SOMEONE....

[Monika Gause]

I have saved the file right before my laptop restart.

By @A.24188605hc2k

Crashes in the middle of a save operation are generally disastrous for your files. That's when your file is most vulnerable.

Do you have backups? It's an important project, you should make backups. Backups meaning: different versions of the file saved with a different name on different harddisks. A harddisk is not the place to save money. It's the best investment you can make.

Is perhaps Time machine running (or a comparable software on Windows)?

For what's left of your file, maybe @Anshul_Saini can help. But it's very likely that your file is gone for good.

[A.24188605hc2k]

I agree with you @Monika Gause the project is saved in my harddisk but in my case it's not opening the file was saved completely after that my laptop restarted. I can still see my project in last opened section of illustrator and its also saved in my folder but it's not opening. Thank you for sharing your time but is there any other solution???

[Monika Gause]

Your best chance is to let the Adobe engineers take a look at the file.

Please see answer by Anubhav

[Anubhav M]

Hello @A.24188605hc2k,

Sorry to hear about that. I agree with Monika that there is little to no chance of your file being recovered at this point as it was interrupted during a save operation.

Would it be possible for you to share the file here or via DM so that we can check the file on our system?

Note: File recovery can't be guaranteed with 100% success. We'll surely try our best.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[A.24188605hc2k]

Hi @Anubhav M ,

I'm sharing you the file right now via DM. I want to let you know one thing that the file was not interrupted during the saving process. I have saved the file completely and after few minutes (saving process ended) my laptop started restarting there was no issue caught during the saving process. That would be great if you can help me resolving this issue.

Thanks

Vinit

[Anubhav M]

Thank you for sharing the file. I’m afraid that we did our best, but were unable to recover your file. Our check indicated that the file was corrupted due to a partial save.

To try and prevent this in the future, I would suggest saving your work as an Illustrator Cloud Document.

Please feel free to reach out if you run into any other questions or issues in the future. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[A.24188605hc2k]

Thank you for sharing your time Anubhav.

[Anshul_Saini · Accepted solution]

Hi @A.24188605hc2k,

I tried to recover the file again with the help of an older version of Illustrator. I was able to recover it partially. I will send the partially recovered document via DM.

Also, I strongly agree with @Anubhav M. Cloud Documents will be an excellent option to avoid a situation like this. This way, you get the version history of your files which you can revert back to any time, files get automatically saved in the background, and it gets easier to collaborate with teammates. Thus, decreasing the chance of data loss & corruption of files exponentially.

Thanks & Regards,

Anshul Saini

[A.24188605hc2k]

Hi @Anshul_Saini,

Thank you so much Anshul for helping me in recovering this file. Next time I will deffinately be saving my projects in a Cloud Documents.

Thank you

Vinit

[Anshul_Saini]

We are glad to help. Please feel free to reach out if you run into any other questions or issues in the future. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks & Regards,

Anshul Saini