How to Recover My Files

[gmlent]

Good morning.

I have a lengthy (250-ish page) document I've been working on for some time. Yesterday afternoon it crashed on me, and now when I try to open it I get the attached error message. The emergency recovery file and the autosave files both give the same error. I have a backup from late January that I had in my Google Drive and when I download and open it, it opens fine. However, so much changed in the file between January and now that it would be a ton of work to bring that file up to date.

What options do I have to recover my file? It was saved in 1.5.5, so the error stating that it was created in a later version of Scribus makes no sense. The help files mention opening and editing the file in a text editor, but neither of the ones I've tried can open it.

What can I do? I'm at my wits' end.

Thank you!



 

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[utnik]

hi gmlent

after a crash there are a couple of possible file damages.
if you show me the .sla files (the old one and the crashed one), i'll take a look and see if i can fix it. i don't need fonts or images for this.

utnik

[gmlent]

Thank you for your quick response!

Not to sound like a newbie, but how I I show them to you (what do you mean by that)? These files are massive - I'm talking 1-2GB.

[utnik]

hi gmlent

did you embed your images into the .sla file? or what makes a 250 page file heavier than 1 gb?

even if it is that fat, you might put it to a file host service and send me a link to it. (your upload might take a while...)

utnik

[gmlent]

The file is a document intended for print on demand, and the pecs form the PoD service dictate 600 DPI for black & white images (of which there are many in the document).

How do I show it to you without images or fonts? I feel I'm missing something important here.

Thank you again for your help!

[utnik]

hi gmlent

The file is a document intended for print on demand...

...How do I show it to you without images or fonts?

ok. – now i understand...
the .pdf file is in the gigabytes. but what i would like to see is the .sla files, as i think scribus fails when you try to open the workfile, not the final print document.

utnik

[gmlent]

No, the .sla file is also in the gigabytes.

Part of the reason it took me so long to respond yesterday was the time it took to upload these to a Google Drive folder.

But if I am understanding correctly, when you saw "show you" the .sla file, you need to actually download my source files (the ones I show in the attached image), correct?


 

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[utnik]

hi gmlent

No, the .sla file is also in the gigabytes...

...But if I am understanding correctly, when you saw "show you" the .sla file, you need to actually download my source files (the ones I show in the attached image), correct?

yes, the source files (.sla) are exactly what i asked for. and the size of them implies that you embedded the images (instead of linking them to the .sla file...)

utnik

[gmlent]

You are correct. I embedded all images, as required by the PoD service.

The Drive folder containing my files is here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KZldGneSShbDSEBLgdG2SK3XkVqU7J_1

"Copy of Adventures in the Land of Fate with Calendar is the older file I can successfully open. The three others are the ones that give the error message I mentioned.

Thank you again for your help!

[utnik]

i'll take a look at them – but first i'm at work (despite of 'covid19' i'm one of those who are still allowed to go to work...)

utnik

[gmlent]

I appreciate anything you can do to help!

Thanks again!

[Nermander]

You are correct. I embedded all images, as required by the PoD service.

Are you sending the SLA to the PoD service?

Uusually you would send a PDF, then all images get embedded no matter if they were embedded into the SLA or not.

[gmlent]

I am not sending the .sla to the printer, no. But Scribus crashes often, and my document is very image-intensive. On a couple of occasions I have been unable to open the file until I moved it to another drive or location on my computer, and in order to preserve all of the images I embedded them in the .sla file. It is an easier solution than having to remember the location of 150 or so images within the document so I can replace them each time I had to move it.

[a.l.e]

i've opend "Copy of Adventures in the Land of Fate w-Calendar.sla"

it's all there... but, of course, being a 1Gb+ file everything is very slow.

you will probably need to:

- split the document in multiple sub documents (if you can't open the file mentioned above anymore i can do that for you).
- reduce the size of the images (there are a few 20Mb jpgs...)
- probably, avoid including the images in the .sla (that makes one more 1 1/2 Gb to open in parallel to loading all the images...)

scribus really need to improve and only load the images that are on screen... but until that happens, you need to find a workaround that works for you...

[gmlent]

Thank you for your help!

The file you mentioned is one that I can still open easily; It was the backup I saved to my Google drive in late January and I included it in the folder I linked as a counterexample. The others have an extra month and change worth of work in them, and are the ones I really need.

Are you able to open any of the other three files?

I have been hesitant to split the document because of page numbering and similar concerns. As a last resort I can try that, but I need to be able to open it first.