• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Can't open .indd file suddenly!

Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I have a large file that has been opening just fine for weeks. It's 300 pages and an .indd file. I have tried to open back-ups of this file and none with the same file name will open. I tried opening the file on another computer and it still would not open. 

I have opened other earlier versions of the file (different file  name) and other unrelated files with no problem. I opened larger files with no problem. I'm  thinking some how this file is corrupted.  i get a message when i try to open it that says: indesign can't open ***.indd." I just did some revisions that will take a huge amount of time to redo so I'd like to get this file opened somehow. I have a recent .pdf, possibly I could import that?  If not is there anyway to at least print a copy without actually opening it.

This all happened when i decided to create a Book file into which I would bring this file and then add a TOC, other front pages Glossary and index. I've been avoiding this step but thought it would facilitate bringing in everything together without creating one huge file.

Before taking the following step I  saved a copy of the original file on another hard drive.  Then I set up the Book and when I tried to bring my original file into the book it failed. After that I could not open any of my saved recent back-ups with the same name on other hard drives. I have three.

What if I try changing the name of the file before opening it, because I'm thinking it all has something to do with trying to bring it into the book file? Possibly try changing the file designation to .indd to .indb?

One odd thing, When I look at the file that won't open on the hard drive, it seems to have recorded the last time i tried to open the file as if I had actually opened it even though indesign gave me the "can't open" message.

Any  suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jim

TOPICS
Performance

Views

65.0K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Jan 28, 2010 Jan 28, 2010

Basically, you got lucky.

The lock file is generated automatically by InDesign and cannot be bypassed or deleted while the file is open. It's there to prevent two users from having the same file open at the same time. Under normal circumsstances it is automatically deleted when the associated file is closed.

I once saw this same error with a file stored on a network sahre and was able to recover it the same way. Basically, your original is probably in some way corrupt and now useless. It's possibl

...

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Well changing the name of the file or file type doesn't help.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Advocate ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

A few things to try:

  1. Have you restarted InDesign since the problem started?
  2. Have you restarted your computer since the problem started?
  3. Have you reset your InDesign preferences since the problem started?

-mt

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I have restarted the computer, tried another computer, restarted idesign on both computers.  I  have other files that open  with no problem.

I have looked at the preferences but not sure what could have changed or what to change.

thanks

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Advocate ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Restore all preferences and default settings

When InDesign is behaving erratically, deleting preferences (also referred to as “trashing preferences” or “removing preferences”) often solves the problem.

Do one of the following:
  • (Windows) Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.

  • (Mac OS) While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I'm willing to try dumping  the preferences, but I  have tried to open  this file from two different computers running separate copies of InDesign.

I tried something that might have some possibilities.  I tried placing the file into a new InDesign file.  When I checked "Show Import Options" and "Replace Selected Item."   When the options screen came up I could see all the pages in the file, and select a range of pages to place.

I placed them on top of the master pages in the new document file, one at a time, it  wouldn't flow.

So I know the file is there.  Is there some way to recover the file?

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

This doesn't really sound like a preferences problem, but one way to check would be to try a new user account. You also can try the manual method here: Replace Your Preferences whcih will allow you to back up and restore the prefs so you don't unnecessarily lose customizations.

Is there any more to the error message?

Where are these other hard drives? this sounds a lot like a network glitch duing a file write.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

This not a network setup. I have two hard drives in the G4 Mac and some external drives daisy chained.  Also a MacBook Pro with an external drive. Neither one can open this particular file.  All other files open just fine.

Thanks,

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

External drives can show similar write error problems.

If you can copy the file to a differnt internal drive and it still won't open odds are good it's been corrupted. Best bet may be Markzware.com. They offer a service where they will try sending your file through their converter on a round tip to Quark and back to ID. If it works, you pay, if not you don't.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I tried dumping preferences but it didn't help.  may try Markzware.com  I guess I could try placing over 300 pages and then use them as a guide to make corrections to a backup copy from a couple weeks ago.

thanks to everyone for the advice.

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Is your time worth more than $100?


Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

It sure is!  I've gone to their web site, left a message. We'll see.

I'm sure there is some glitch that happened when I tried to do the "Book" file. Never again.

thanks for the suggestion.

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

While books aren't my main business, I do use them occasionally, along with a LOT of other users. I've never seen a report like this associated specically to making a book.

I know you're worried about it, but the likelihood that it's associated with the book is even smaller given that other files withthe same name are affected (I presume these are not part of the book). Play safe, though. If the file is recovered, make a backup copy and burn it to disk, then make sure it will open. Now add the file (not the burned copy) to a new book and see what happens. If you get another disater you might be right in you r fears, or it might just mean you haven't found and corrected the underlying problem -- work from an internal hard drive, for example, rather than an external.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Advocate ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I cannot imagine what could corrupt all the backups you made prior to using the book feature.  I am more inclined to believe the issue happened immediately before you made the duplicates... which would rule out the book feature as the culprit. This is also implied by the other computers' inability to open the archived documents.

I've used the book feature successfully on many occasions. Only once, however, did I try it with a large existing file.  Even then, I broke the document up into its component chapters prior to loading them into the book.

I believe you may be laying the blame where it doesn't belong. Not that it helps.

-mt

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I agree. Probably not trying  to set up the Book function. I've tried it awhile back  with CS3 I think didn't get very far with trying to move individual chapters into the book.

I mentioned before that I can see the file is fine because I tried "placing" into a new document. I can actually Place it but it seems like it's a picture of the page rather then text and pictures.

For now I'll start working on the last best saved version and use a recent print out or "placed" chapters to start.

One thing I think might be happening is when I try to open the file from the internal hard drive it seems to register that the file has been opened not only on the internal hard drive copy but also on the external drive back-up. Is this possible or have just had a bad day and now I'm seeing things.

Thanks again, I appreciate the feedback.

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The file isn't "fine." if it were it would open. That you can place it is a good sign and gives hope thatit can be recovered.

Like anything else you Place in ID, a placed ID file is not editable directly in the document. You would need to make changes inthe original file, which you cannot open.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Sorry, I have to ask one more question if anyone is around. I tried to open the file by creating a new Book, and  then adding the file. I got a new message.

(file.indd) ...can't be added because it is in use or you don't have permission."

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Close InDesign. Look for a file with .idlk extension in the same folder with the file. Delete it.

This sounds like the program crashed when the file was open, or you shut down before the lock file was deleted. Do you see that message when you try to open the file directly?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

By the way, I did ask about the rest of the error message quite a while ago. If you've been seeing that error and you see a lock file, this all could have been solved a long time ago.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thanks, did not try to bring it into a Book so I never saw that

message until now. Only one I saw was "can't open file," will try

your suggestion in the other post.

Thanks again.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I took a copy of the file I had on an external hard drive that I used to try and open the file on my laptop, brought it back and put it on my primary Mac Drive. I never had a copy of it there before, it was on the second Mac internal drive.  I then changed the name of the file completely. I reopened InDesign and after some meditation I brought it up and it opened! Somehow we have recovered the file after 12 hours! Now, after I save it a few places, I'm going to have a glass of wine or too.

I think there may have been some mention of this before and i tried it but not on the primary drive; somehow everyone's help got me to this point, so much thanks to both of you.

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 25, 2010 Jan 25, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Could not find any file with the .idlk in the same folder or anywhere. Could it be hidden?   Did a Mac find search too of all the drives thinking there might be a special crash recovery library file somewhere.

I also checked permissions on  that file and they are all good. Puzzling, only answer is that the file got corrupted somehow. Thanks again for your time.

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 28, 2010 Jan 28, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

This is a follow-up.  My question has been answered in that  did get to open the file as follows:

By trial and error (based on responses)  basically I was able to open the file as a copy from inside InDesign. There are three options in the lower left had corner of the window, I picked copy after trying the other two. Up until this time I could not find any idlk file.

Once I opened the file I backed it up and made another copy that I opened.  I went back to the original file and tried to open it from finder. It would not open. Still no sign of the idlk file.  But when I went back to open the work copy it opened but now the idlk file popped up in the finder  and it continues to do so every time I open any file associated.    This idlk file comes up with an icon that says "Locked"

My only question now: Is there a way to unlock this file from whatever it is linking to? Does it make any difference at this point?

I have learned this is a temp file of sorts that prevents changes to the original file. I would like to unlock the file so that it not connected to anything.

I have moved or deleted all files that it might be linking to.  I have shut down other computers and hard drives using the same network. The idlk file come up every time. It goes away when I close the file.  I have also deleted it while the file is open. I deleted all attempts at creating Book files. I'v been through preferences and checked Assignments. It seems like once you make a copy of a file, the original is always looking for the copy? Or the copy for the original?

So I'm working and making separate files for each chapter so that I can set up a book and have back-up and maybe create a whole new Book file that isn't linked to anything else but maybe that's not necessary.

I've been working with InDesign for a long time and never encountered this phenomenon before.

Thanks again for your responses.

Jim

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 28, 2010 Jan 28, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Basically, you got lucky.

The lock file is generated automatically by InDesign and cannot be bypassed or deleted while the file is open. It's there to prevent two users from having the same file open at the same time. Under normal circumsstances it is automatically deleted when the associated file is closed.

I once saw this same error with a file stored on a network sahre and was able to recover it the same way. Basically, your original is probably in some way corrupt and now useless. It's possible, even likely since you can't find a lock file, that it isn't a lock file probelm at all. There is no connection between the original and the copy once you save the copy, and no connection between the lock files of different document files. You should be able to work with the copy safely, but I strongly recommend that you keep it local while working and only move it to a network after saving, if network storage is desired.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 28, 2010 Jan 28, 2010

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thanks. Sounds like a plan.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines