Indesign File damaged and won't open

[tarap26623679]

I have several copies of Indesign files that will not open. I'm told they are damaged and cannot be fixed. This is in the 2024 Indesign version. I have redownloaded an older version and can open one of the files but it will not let me save it. I also can not export it as a pdf or idml file without it crashing. Any thoughts? Many thanks!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Mac and Sonoma? 

InDesign isn't supported / compatible. 

Otherwise - we are not mind readers and need more info about your machine / OS. 

[Steve Werner]

Some users on Mac computers are running into problems with files if they are running Sonoma (it's not compatible yet with InDesign 2024). Or if you're using an old version of Ventura (you should upgrade to Ventura 13.6.2, the current version).

Please tell us what operating system (exactly) you're running. Please tell us (exactly) what InDesign version you're using.

[tarap26623679]

Apologies. Windows 11 Pro is what I am using. InDesign 2024 (19.0.1) would not open any of the documents so I redownloaded InDesign 2023 (18.1) and it would open only one of the documents but will not allow me to save it or export it into other formats. All messages that files are damaged.

[Manan Joshi]

Seems like file corruption. For the file that is opening, try copying pages to another document and if that does not work then longer way would be to copy pageitems to a new documnent. For other documents that are not opening, you can email a copy of the document at idfile@adobe.com for the Adobe engineers to try and salvage the file for you. If the file is more than 10mb in size, upload it to a cloud service like dropbox and email the public access URL. There is no specified timeframe within which you can expect a revert from Adobe guys, so if time is of the essence and you won't mind a paid solution, try the following
https://markzware.com/products/file-recovery-service/
-Manan

[tarap26623679]

Thank you Manan. So far this seems to be working. Copying pages to another document 🙂

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Here is a script that opens INDD files silently then export them to IDML:

https://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/foren/gforum.cgi?do=post_editlog;post=475991; 

[tarap26623679]

Thank you Robert!