Hoping for a miracle. File recovery

Report · May 10, 2018

Hello,

I'll keep this brief as I've spent an hour on the phone with Adobe Support and nothing could be done, try my luck here as one final effort.

I've just completed work on a 176-page catalogue, I saved it as PDF ready for print and sent it on to the printers I'd then noticed a few small errors so made the changes to 6 pages or so, PDF'd these pages separately and pass them onto the printer. After finally being happy with the document I then wanted to get the catalogue ready for web view so started looking through it again and noticed a lot of my tables, content and images are completely missing.

As if it's been deleted, my first thought was to check the PDF as I'd sent it to print and it looks fine, tables were where they should be etc.

I know your first thought is, "He has deleted the objects" but to do that on 100+ pages without realising i'm doing it, incredibly unlikely and only on specific objects like tables rather whole pages...

I'm stumped, I've obviously saved the InDesign without noticing these errors and now i can't seem to revert back.

It was literally in the space of 2 hours from the document being 100% perfect to how it looks now, i just need to go back in time to a previous save.

Hoping someone has a miracle up their sleeve but understand this is unlikely.

Things i've tried so far;

Checked if the layer was hidden

Checked if I'd saved a previous version

Right clicked file > Properties > Previous Version...Nothing.

Adobe created an IDML file (Not sure why)

Report · May 10, 2018

Were these tables, content and images anchored within text frames? If so, do these text frames still exist? If they do try opening them up to see if somehow they overflowed out of the frames. It's a long shot I know but I have seen similar things happen. Also, are your images still showing in your links panel? If so, what happens when you click on the "Go to Link" icon on the bottom of the Links Panel?

Report · May 10, 2018

Hi Bill,

Thanks for getting back to me, they were not anchored to a text frame, though one of the tables had an image placed within it and the image remains on the page. I've since done testing and if I add an image to a table then delete the table the image is removed as well so I don't know what that's about!

Images are still showing up in the links panel and are not missing from the folder or need updating, "Go to link" does the below (see image). A weird orange line down the centre between both pages, I hover over the middle bit and mouse changes to a resize arrow but can't do anything to it. It also doesn't appear to be a frame just a line. Double-clicking does nothing either

if I try to move it using the arrow keys I get this message " This value would cause one or more objects to leave the pasteboard."

The red area is where this weird line appears, Blue is where the image should be

Report · May 10, 2018

With the reference point icon in the control panel set to the center point and the orange line you mention selected try Object Menu>Fitting>Center Content. If the image appears then see what scale it is reading in the Control Panel. If it is giving you a very large percentage then try putting in 100%.

Report · May 10, 2018

Images are not appearing with the above step, furthermore, it's not in the layers either!

Report · May 10, 2018

Hi Charles:

Do you want to share a few relevant pages of the file on dropbox so that we can take a look? Add the link in your reply.

~Barb

Report · May 11, 2018

Hi Barb,

Just about to do this for you, i decided to move the pages to a new document and as I'd done that

the invisible image appeared on the new page and the text boxes re-appears but my tables are still missing

Also, the weird line in the centre page is on the new document too.

My document:

Document for you:

But as mentioned the Tables are still missing, I'm going to send you the whole file without links & the PDF that shows the tables

See WeTransfer Link below;

WeTransfer

Appreciate the help!

Report · May 11, 2018

Hi Charles:

When I use Edit > Select All on the spread, a tiny text frame appears on the spine. The content is still there, but needs to be placed back on the page. I can only assume some kind of file corruption occurred. I think you can piece it back together, but I don't see a quick fix.

Moving forward, consider saving your files on Dropbox, which gives you the ability to access previously saved versions:
File version history – Dropbox Help.

~Barb

Report · May 11, 2018

Hi Barb,

I followed your steps above but i get "Unable to set bounding box" and won't let me place the text.

Furthermore, it doesn't appear to be giving me the table either I may just need to go through and manually add these all back in...

Thanks for helping.

Report · May 11, 2018

There is a company called Markzware what can recover corrupt files—it may be worth reaching out to them.

https://markzware.com/products/file-recovery-service/

I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help.

~Barb

Report · May 11, 2018

It's very strange circumstances and even Adobe had said they've never received such an odd error before.

It's like it all there but not wanting to display! i may give them a try if i can get sign off from my M.D... £42 with no guarantee + a fee after

That being said the fee of me having to recreate everything would out weight that so, we shall see!

Thanks so much.

Report · May 11, 2018

You are very welcome, Charles.

~Barb