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

[#1]

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

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

Please Help.

[#2]

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

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

Please Help.

[#3]

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

[#4]

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

[#5]

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!

[#6]

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

[#7]

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.

[#8]

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?

[#9]

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 ?

[#10]

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.

[#11]

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.

[#12]

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

[#13]

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?

[#14]

As I wrote 'not saved elsewhere'

[#15]

In that case you might be out of luck.

Here are some advices:

http://helpx.adobe.com/de/illustrator/kb/enable-content-recovery-mode-illustrator.html
http://helpx.adobe.com/de/illustrator/kb/copy-paste-artwork-slow-or.html
http://helpx.adobe.com/de/illustrator/kb/opening-illustrator-file-get-error.html
http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/preference-file-location-illustrator.html
http://daxxter.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/how-to-recover-a-corrupted-illustrator-ai-file/

On top of that try and create a new file and place the corrupt file in it.

Embed. Will only work if you saved with PDF compatibility.

Always make backups.

[#16]

Many thanks for taking the time to try and help.

[#17]

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.

[#18 · Accepted solution]

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

[#19]

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.

[#20]

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

[#21]

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?

[#22]

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

[#23]

This really worked for me. Thanks!

[#24]

This works! You saves my day

[#25]

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

[#26]

but it didn't work for me... what is exactly the code that i have to copy ?

endstream endobj 7 0 obj [6 0 R] endobj 24 0 obj <</CreationDate(D:20200812163429+08'00')/Creator(Adobe Illustrator CC 22.1 \(Windows\))/ModDate(D:20200812163429+07'00')/Producer(Adobe PDF library 15.00)/Title(kotak)>> endobj xref
0 25
0000000000 65535 f
0000000016 00000 n
0000000144 00000 n
0000036854 00000 n
0000000000 00000 f
0000036911 00000 n
0000037845 00000 n
0000283957 00000 n
0000037286 00000 n
0000283794 00000 n
0000040828 00000 n
0000038144 00000 n
0000038031 00000 n
0000037679 00000 n
0000037915 00000 n
0000037946 00000 n
0000038179 00000 n
0000040902 00000 n
0000041142 00000 n
0000042493 00000 n
0000045445 00000 n
0000111034 00000 n
0000176623 00000 n
0000242212 00000 n
0000283980 00000 n
trailer
<</Size 25/Root 1 0 R/Info 24 0 R/ID[<F60DCDD033D8624F9F670CA1C435E065><826100176014484ABF9E95560C9EEE01>]>>
startxref
284166
%%EOF

that is the last code i found on my new file 

[#27]

The trailer code i added after ....0000n lines was gotten from a new/empty ai file i created. Please confirm yours as well is from a new ai file.

Else your code structure looks same as what i did and it should work.

Meanwhile reason for my corrupt file was my system abruptly shutdown during the file save.

Regards.

[#28]

1. Yes, even for me the solution you said is not working. I did make a new/empty ai file.
2. And then followed all the steps you said.
3. Also i faced the same issue, that my laptop got shut down abrubtly, and when i restarted it, i couldn't open it because of this error.

PLEASE HELP, IT IS ON AN URGENT BASIS

[#29]

Can I send you my file and could you plz try to open up the file in Ai.? I have tried every possible solution including yours, but got no luck. File got corrupted because of the same sudden shutdown

[#30]

Hi Pixvoice, yes you can i can do exactly what I did to mine.

Email officialwoodeagle@gmail.com

Regards.

[#31]

Hello @Manasi5D09,

I am not techy with this and only described what I had to do to open the corrupt file.

If you have followed all the steps and confirmed there are no NULL tags in your file. Then it might be beyond my knowledge. Im sorry. Let me know if I can help further.

Regards

[#32]

I have sent you an email with the Ai file attached with it. Please try if it is possible to restore.

Thanks a million.

[#33]

Hello Ijust had the same error with a file and did the copy/paste code from a new file to my corrupted file but it didn't work for me, can anyone help me, I had an important work on this file so I'm really desesperate. If someone can help me I would reaaly appreciated

[#34]

Hi! I tried this but everytime i open file, the file I/o error has occured, this box appears! What to do?

[#35]

Thank you so much! You saved me. Thank you and guys, just use notepad++, don't use notepad. I tried notepad and I couldn't fix that but when I tried notepad++, it worked. Help you guys can fix that problem.

[#36]

I had this problem when I put my computer to sleep before the file finished saving.

my fix was:

right click on file

hit 'properties' 

'previous versions' 

There you should be able to open a previous save and then "save as" under a different name.

I lost a little bit of work, but not too bad since I save frequently.

[#37]

"right click on file

hit 'properties'

'previous versions'"

That will only work if you saved to a Cloud, such as OneDrive.

[#38]

I do save my work at regular intervals, but lately my laptop got shut down abrubty, after restarting it when i tried to open my adobe illustrator file, it showed this error.

This was a quite important file for me. It included lot of important content. I tried searching for all possibe solutions on the net, including converting the file into other extensions like psd, jpeg, pdf etc but nothing worked. I even tried to move it into other disks yet no solution to this problem.

Please help me, it is quite urgent!

A great humble request

[#39]

Do you have a backup?

If the computer crashed while saving your file, then it might be gone for good.

Time Machine running perhaps?