InDesign - need a "Fix my Corrupted File" Upload Service

Report · Oct 18, 2007

There are frequently posts on the forum for people who have corrupted INDD files. This means lost work and frustrated InDesign users.

The Indesign team should offer a "Fix my File" upload link to its customers.

For each corrupted file, you will help a customer, and in the process, hopefully improve the overall stability of the product (which has issues) and benefit everyone...

Adobe: If you are afraid that you will be swamped with requests to "Fix my File", then you should probably just get out of the SW business now...

Report · Jan 13, 2009

URGENT, Please help.

I have an 80 page magazine made in Indesign CS2 that is due at the printers tomorrow, i saved it at 5 am this morning had a wee sleep and then came back to to find that the file is damaged and when it tries to recover it, it keeps crashing.

I NEED HELP ASAP.

Cheers
Mike

Report · Jan 14, 2009

Mike:

I'd like to take a look at your file. You can upload it to our customer support FTP server. Here are instructions uploading to our FTP server:
http://www.adobe.com/go/kb402038

When using the FTP site, please create a folder with distinguishing name, transfer your files to that folder, and then send me an email to let me know the files are there for me to take a look at: tomdonov@adobe.com.

Tommy Donovan
InDesign Development
Adobe Systems, Inc.

Report · Jan 17, 2009

Hi Tommy,

I'm having the same exact problem as Mike...

Unfortunately on Friday afternoon my file was corrupt so I stayed up all night last night and today redesigning. I saved the file on my desktop, closed InDesign and went to lunch; when I came back to work on the file and double clicked the file icon it crashed CS3??? I've tried just about everything: deleting preferences, renaming the file, zipping and unzipping, etc.

Can you help? My file is going to print on Monday!

Kortney
kortney.eckert@gmail.com

Report · Jan 29, 2009

I just experienced similar problems with an ID3 file. I can no longer open the file and when I try, I get a dialog box about the file being damaged beyond repair and classified as an Error Code 5.

I had it open this afternoon, closed it, tried opening it by double clicking, then directly through INDD CS3, and also restarted the computer and tried again.

This particular file is not that difficult to recreate - BUT - this makes me very - very nervous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Has anyone found a solution yet?

Thanx much- Joanne

Report · Jan 29, 2009

There's very little reason to be nervous. I've been using InDesign for production for the last seven years or so, and in that time I've lost perhaps one, possibly two files. When it happens, it's certainly a pain in the butt, but ID is far and away the most stable layout program I've ever used. Pagemaker would regularly self-destruct an entire newspaper at deadline, and Quark wasn't much better.

Good computing practice dictates that you should be backing up your data files at least once a day, and not just because you may occasionally have an ID file (on any other single file) go south on you. I've replaced at least three hard drives that failed in the last year, and believe me, a backup looks like cheap insurance when that happens.

Peter

Report · Jan 30, 2009

I have an indesign file that is corrupted. I can work on it an open it but can only print or export to pdf a page at a time. I get a "run out of virtual memory" error. We have run the diagniostic tools on my Windows machine. I deleted preferences. I exported to INX and reopened the file. That has not helped.

We work on a network here - might that be a factor? I've been able to massage this out to get the job done, but as this happened to a colleague last issue and we are moving toward dual purposing our work for digital editions, I'd like to find the source of the problem, since it means I can't export a book, nevermind the 10 page file.

Any suggestions?

Report · Jan 30, 2009

It doesn't sound like the file is corrupt. Have you tried deleting your temp files? Do you have enough space allocated to temporary files? Is you user profile maintained locally, or on the server?

Report · Jan 30, 2009

Yes, when we ran diagnostic and cleaning tools, we cleaned out temp files and checked the memory allocation. I'm not having this issue on any other files and I had a colleague try to print from his machine and he had the same issue.

Report · Jan 30, 2009

Can you print half the file at a time? This behavior has often been reported when there is a bad image linked to the file. The first suspects are .eps files.

Report · Jan 30, 2009

I can only print one or two pages at a time.

Report · Jan 30, 2009

Is it confidential, or would you like to have me see if I can print it here on my system. That might help determine if the problem is in the file or your equipment.

Report · Jan 30, 2009

The publication date is not until 2/9, so while it is not confidential, can I assume it won't be distributed? I'd love to have you look at it, so I can understand this better.
Denise

Report · Jan 30, 2009

I certainly won't distribute it. Package the file, then zip the folder and send to me at spammercatch at comcast dot net if it's under 10 mb. If it's over that size you'll need to put it on a server and email a link to that address.

Peter

Report · Jan 30, 2009

For those who might be watching, I looked at the file Denise supplied and was able to export the PDF without a problem. File performance was very slow, however, which I attribute a a large number of very high resolution images generating extremely large screen previews.

Peter

Report · Feb 05, 2009

I have a file in Indesign CS3 on my hardrive that won't open and it crashes the program everytime I try. It shows the recovery file but I can't get anywhere with it. Other files open fine. Unfortunately that's the file with all the work on it. It was working last night before I logged out, and I've restarted this morning. I tried copying it to our server and having someone else open it but that didn't work either.

Can you help recover this? At the bare minimum I need to be able to view the file so that I can rebuild.

Thank you
Angiela

Report · Feb 13, 2009

Perhaps someone could help me. Excuse me for any mistake in writing.
After re-linking three .jpg in a .indd file and saving it two times, as original and as a copy, InDesign CS2 crashed, and from that moment I can't open both the files. The program starts normally and opens other files, but not that one (two).
Every time it causes the crash of the program, that tries the recovery and opens a window with an advice about trying to re-link the 215 images, but when it reaches the 212, stops for an instant and then crashes.
I think that the three remaining images are those I've re-linked before the problem.
Opening it in Bridge and taking a look at the advanced infos (XMP - xapMM:Manifest) I've seen the 215 image description but no change/deletion was allowed.
It's a 224 page file, but only the first two page contains those three images.
any possibility of recovery.
Thanks in advance.
DT - http://danieletomasi.blogspot.com - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1229653879&ref=

Report · Feb 13, 2009

If you know which 3 files they were, move them to a new location. Open them in Photoshop, if they will, and save as .psd to avoid any further image deterioration from jpeg re-compression.

Open InDesign and try to open the file again (if you are asked if you want to recover, say no). Hopefully you will now be able to open the file and you should see a missing link warning. Re-link to the new .psd files you made, and resave.

Peter

Report · Feb 13, 2009

I'm new to forums like this. Why is a 2007 post in this area? I thought this section was for new request in CS4.

Report · Feb 13, 2009

I tried this solution, but unsuccesfully.
The file is at this link http://danieletomasi.altervista.org/im_o.indd.zip , no image in the .zip, a friend downloaded it and tried to open in his computer but failed.
I think my next week will be used to redo it from start :-(

http://danieletomasi.blogspot.com

Report · Feb 13, 2009

Oh, if anybody knows a way to recover it and to fix the problem, creating a MAC file, the problematic images are in the first two pages.
thanks in advance .

http://danieletomasi.altervista.org/JSteele/

Report · Feb 13, 2009

Don,

These threads stay around forever, and occasionally new posts are added. This particular thread has information about how to send a file to Adobe for analysis, and very remotely, possible repair.

Feel free to start a new topic in this area for a new feature you'd like to discuss.

Peter

Report · Feb 13, 2009

Daniele,

If removing the images didn't work, the file is most likely damaged beyond repair. You can read this whole thread to find out what you can do to see if there is any hope, but don't hold your breath.

Peter

Report · Feb 20, 2009

Tommy,

I have an Indesign CS3 file that say it is "damaged and cannot be recovered (error code:5)" when I try to open it. Do you think you might be able to take a look at it and see if you can help me out?

Matt

Report · Feb 22, 2009

Matt:

No need to ask. I'm interested in taking a look at any corrupted files to try to determine what may have gone wrong.

If your file is small enough for email, you can send it directly to me (tomdonov@adobe.com).

For larger files, you can upload them to our customer support FTP server. Here are instructions for doing so:
http://www.adobe.com/go/kb402038

When using the FTP site, please create a folder with distinguishing name, transfer your files to that folder, and then send me an email to let me know the files are there for me to take a look at.

Thank you,
Tommy Donovan
Development Project Lead
InDesign Product Family
Adobe Systems, Inc.
tomdonov@adobe.com

Report · Mar 02, 2009

Well, now it has happened to me too....

Tommy, could you help me out and salvage part of my college final? I'm not sure exactly what happened to it but now gives me the code 5.

Thanks