Question:
My Illustrator file is corrupted / became corrupted. How can I open a corrupted illustrator file?
Answer:
I can’t tell you how many times this burned me in college and after school until I started using Freehand. (Freehand is dead now, but OH! how I miss it sometimes…). AI files become corrupt when the machine crashes or your are working off a server a lot. The file is constantly updating the steps taken in the vector process, but if there is an error in the saving of a single step, you can get a nearly fatal error.
The answer is a simple question of using a workaround method that will recognize the vector elements. This can be achieved with Adobe Acrobat, Adobe InDesign, or Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator
To attempt recovery using Illustrator itself:
- Create a new document
- Select “place image” ( File > Place… )
- Choose your corrupted file in the dialog box. Make sure you choose file types to ” ALL DOCUMENTS “, not just RECOMMENDED.
- Save this file. If you cannot save this file (due to corruption), copy your vectors and paste them into a new illustrator document.
PROS: You should be able to select the corrupted file, and your vector work should be saved.
CONS: All layers will be flattened into one. PMS color info and placed images may be lost. File may still be corrupted.
Adobe InDesign
You can often recover illustrator .ai files in InDesign. It will often fix the corruption issue, because InDesign rewrites all the postscript code itself.
To attempt the recovery using InDesign:
- Create a new document at the same size of your Illustrator file (or use the default size).
- Select “Place File” ( File > Place… )
- Choose your corrupted file in the dialog box.
- Click on the file to place it. Adjust it to fit on the page entirely.
- Export this InDesign file as an .EPS ( File > Export > Choose .EPS )
- Open this .EPS document in Illustrator
Pros: You’ve got a working file with all of your vectors intact, and freshly postscripted.
Cons: Your text will probably be broken into numerous textboxes- some of them only a single character or word long. Some layers or all may be flattened.
Adobe Acrobat (not reader)
Acrobat has some useful mechanics which also rewrite your postscript information. You will need an illustrator version which can open PDF files (ai 10.0 or higher).
To attempt recovery using Acrobat:
- Open the corrupted file in Illustrator (make sure ” ALL FILES ” has been chosen)
- Select the arrow tool (if you cannot see it, choose it by using Tools > Advanced Editing > Select Object Tool )
- click on any element, image, or text item, and then move it slightly by using the arrow keys
- Save your file ( File > Save )
- Open your file in your Illustrator program
- When the dialog box pops up telling you that “This file has been modified outside of Illustrator. Would you like to keep the changes”, choose YES
Pros: Your file will be fine
Cons: Your file may be a single layer, and your text may be broken in weird places.
Files get corrupted every day. It seems that Graphic files which are saved directly to a server are corrupted much faster and much more regularly than those saved on your machine.
Best Practices:
As an educator, I cannot stress enough how “best practices” will improve your processes, even though they aren’t always practical. Sure, we should save our work every 15 minutes. Better still, is to work iteratively, saving a backup file under a different name when the work is sent out for approval or takes a new direction. Work on your hard drive, and then save back to jump drives or servers from there.
If you found this tip helpful, let me know. Thanks!
Our designer seems to have this problem— especially when deadlines are looming. I often thought he was just making excuses, but he does work on those little thumb drives.
I have bookmarked this page, and I’ll print out a copy just for our January Deadlines.
Cheers!
Tech Question: Just how do these files get corrupted anyway? I’m tired of having these problems…
I really like this blog. Please continue the great work. Regards!!!
I wish I had seen this article last week… Missed my deadline and looked… well… wish I had seen this.
No comments, let see some video.
@cary monetti, Ok, that’s kind of a short note. Depending on how your file is corrupted, different solutions will work. Video will not work for everyone… A good thought though. If you find one that challenges all, some, or one of these solutions, please post the link here.
I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business.
Hullo, how are you? I really like your blog! I wonder if u might assist me (I am certain your other subscribers may also be interested). I want to get involved in creating a blog also and I currently use a blog with wordpress, but it is very confusing for me to create and I would very much like to attempt to find some decent training guides or courses (hopefully ones that are free) that can assist me in using word press correctly. As a word press site owner yourself, do you perhaps maybe know where i could learn tutorials to be able to do this? Thanks Alot!
How about a google search? Is this really a comment that should be showing up in an area on opening a corrupted .ai file? So many people don’t even know how to open *.ai files… Try direct searching to learn, and direct messaging to ask questions.
Great article. There’s a lot of good information here, though I did want to let you know something – I am running Redhat with the latest beta of Firefox, and the design of your blog is kind of quirky for me. I can read the articles, but the navigation doesn’t work as well as I hoped… taking a long time….
I am so glad I read this post. Really saved my tail. The Acrobat thing wasn’t really working for me, and that’s all people seem to show. Glad you had an InDesign solution. Thanks!
Blog looks great! Always looking for motivating blogs to keep mine going!
You should add some social bookmark buttons to your website site? At least add one for Digg so we can digg you up!
You don’t have to be a designer to open up .AI files. Thanks for helping me to open these corrupt AI files.
Good day from Paris! Am i allowed to quote a post within your weblog with the link to you? I’ve tried emailing you regarding this problem however it appears i cant reach you, please response when have a time, thanks.
Sorry, your reply got flagged as spam. No sweat though. As soon as I removed your email and website, everything is cool. Go ahead and try again. That email and domain have been permanently removed.
This blog is fantastic.I would like to introduce this great website to my friends.please
This kills me. I’ve been looking for a way to open a corrupted ai file. The InDesign worked like a charm.
What a brilliant blog post.. Thanks for giving out this blog post!
Great blog here i like all the information thats being shared, congratulations.
Great article. Waiting for more.
Great article. Waiting for more.
Great article. Waiting for more.
Great article. Waiting for more.
This internet site carries a very good offer of very good straight down to earth well getting information also it will require to hold out tremendously well, if it hasn’t already? I liked studying about some while using products!
I just sent this post to a bunch of my friends as I agree with most of what you’re saying here and the way you’ve presented it is awesome.
Sick and exhausted of acquiring minimal quantities of useless potential consumers to the site? very well i need to notify you of the brand-new underground tactic which creates myself $900 each and every 1 week on 100% AUTOPILOT. I may likely be right here all 1 week and heading into component but why do not you simply research their internet internet site out? There may likely be considered a very good video clip that points out everything. So in circumstance your severely contemplating making straightforward very hard money this could be the internet internet site for you.
Well this could likely be considered a very good article, instead beneficial an I be conscious that it is in real truth instead crucial particularly for people teenagers who’ve dermis problems.
http://flirtsexkontakte.net/setcard/397159/jasmin88.html Thanks for that awesome posting. It saved MUCH time
adfasdfasdfa
yeah I coulda wrote that better.. lol jk! I was really impressed with your blog and I must say, you are a pretty good writer my friend.
A thoughtful insight and ideas.. I will use it on my blog. You’ve obviously spent a lot of time on this. Congratulations!
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!
This valuable webpage is really helpfull. Thank you so much for this!!! vimax penis enlargement pills SB2011LAIN_AING
You certainly have some agreeable opinions and views. Your blog provides a fresh look at the subject.
Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
Constructive information here I know this is somthing my boys will be intereseted in thank you for taking the time to make it obtainable to us. Im confident he and he friends will like it too
We extremely appreciate your website post. You will discover so many means we could put it to proper use by using minimum effort with time and resources. Thank you so much regarding helping make the post answer many queries we have experienced before now.
This is a lot useful information. I have to say I really like reading this article alot. It aids me to get better understanding about the subject. It is very well written and published. I am going to definitely see these satisfied very intriguing. I am hoping you are able to grant more in the future.
I’ll save this page… Appreciate sharing. vimax penis enlargement pills SB2011LAIN_AING
Can I just say what a reduction to seek out someone who actually is aware of what theyre talking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know how one can convey a problem to light and make it important. More individuals must read this and understand this aspect of the story. I cant imagine youre not more widespread because you positively have the gift.
Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
HHiya, may I know what theme you are using for this site? it looks prety
Nice post ! Thank you for, visiting this blog page dude. I will email you soon. I didn’t realise that.
Thanks for taking the time to talk about this, I feel fervently about this and I take pleasure in learning about this topic. Please, as you gain information, please update this blog with more information. I have found it very useful.
I added your blog to bookmarks. And i’ll read your articles more often! Before this, it would be possible for the government to arrest you just based on whatever you were saying, if they didn’t like it.
Hi there. I read “%BLOGTITLE%”. It was fantastic. Check out my blog sometime.
ducati exhaust
The article is very excellent.Let me learn a lot of knowledge.
Certainly it is the best timing to create a few plans for the longer term and it is time to be happy. I’ve read this publish and if I could I desire to suggest you some attention-grabbing things or suggestions. Maybe you can post next material referring to this article. I wish to read even more issues related to it! vimax penis enlargement pills XR2011LAIN_AING
Hy i,m beginner in this questbook and i will to view the newinfo postated in this posts .I can see your web fromgoogle blog and i have tryed to register some days a go but this security code was hard ro read but i manage it : This was my introduction in this questbook
Super best regards
And this is my blog you can send to my mail
http://www.liveinternet.ro/
radio