How to Recover My Files

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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

Quote from: gmlent on March 20, 2020, 12:53:26 AM
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

Quote from: gmlent on March 20, 2020, 11:09:42 AM
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

Quote from: gmlent on March 20, 2020, 12:45:32 PM
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.