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• • May 16, 2019 at 7:07 pm #116576
    Deanette Russell

    Member

    Hi, indesign crashed as I was going through saving new untitled files and after saving three it crashed and upon restart didn’t recover the files. The files are in this folder but I don’t know how to use them to recover them.

    C:\Users\xxxxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version 14.0n_US\Caches\InDesign Recovery

    DBTmp812878322934406 17/05/2019 10:43am file 792 kb
    DBTmp812878322943937 17/05/2019 10:43am file 2095 kb

    (which is the time that it crashed)… there are several like these so I am guessing that they are all the ones that didn’t recover.

    when I open them with indesign it comes up with this message.

    Cannot open the file xxx. Adobe Indesign may not support the file format, a plug-in that supports the file format may be missing, or the file may be open in another application.

    Does anyone know how to open these recovery files? There must be a way to do it. I am pretty desperate as I had been working on these documents for the past several hours… some days… :( please don’t judge. :)

    Any help would be soooo appreciated.

  • May 16, 2019 at 8:18 pm #116577
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I’m sorry to say that I’ve never been able to open recovery files like that… InDesign doesn’t store the whole document in there.

    If you have more than one version of InDesign on your computer, make sure you’re using the most recent one to open the files. (The “missing plug-in” error sometimes happens when you try to open an INDD file in the wrong version.)

  • May 16, 2019 at 8:33 pm #116581
    Deanette Russell

    Member

    Thanks David, my hope is dashed. :)
    So you are saying that even though these files are in the recovery folder there is no hope of recovering them?
    I was opening old documents that I had bought years ago and they were “converting” in indesign 2019. Given I trust what you say completely I will now try torecreate them. :(

    Lesson learnt… I think :)

  • May 20, 2019 at 11:36 pm #116613
    David Dilling

    Member

    I am late to the party, so we may be too late.

    There might be some hope. Do you also have the original files which InDesign won’t open?
    I might be mistaken, but I think the “DBTmp…” recovery files contain some data about the “changes” that were made to the document and so the recovery can “merge” them.

    It turns out the MarkzTools plugin for InDesign we develop will actually open and convert the recovery files, but often they do not contain much data. That is often the problem.

    Thus, can send us both the original bad file along with the DBTmp as there is a chance we might be able to salvage something.
    (From the sounds of it, you never saved the file to start with though – but just want to be sure)

    Friendly Regards,
    David Dilling
    Markzware

  • February 26, 2020 at 3:08 pm #12304368
    Civi Bernath

    Participant

    Hi David. I worked on a file for 4 hours without saving (I kind of rely upon auto-save). InDesign crashed and then failed automatic recovery when I restarted it.
    Are you saying you can still salvage my file?

  • February 27, 2020 at 2:12 am #12343072
    David Dilling

    Member

    Hi Civi, Yes, we may be able to recover your bad InDesign file: https://markzware.com/products/file-recovery-service/ There is no guarantee, but we have about a 70% success rate recovering corrupt indd InDesign files. We even had a little article here on InDesignSecrets, https://indesignsecrets.com/corrupt-indesign-file-horror-stories.php

    We stand-ready to assist, if you opt that route.

    Friendly Regards,
    David Dilling
    Markzware

  • February 27, 2020 at 6:46 am #12343073
    Civi Bernath

    Participant

    Thanks for replying.
    Looks tantalizing, but I’m afraid it’s not worth the cost to save a couple hours of work. I am able to duplicate the last saved version of the file and use that. But it’s good to know for the future!

  • February 27, 2020 at 6:51 am #12343074
    David Dilling

    Member

    Another trick Civi, which we use often on the backend anyway, is try your corrupt InDesign file in IDMarkz. This is a stand-alone tool that opens and previews InDesign files without the need for the Adobe apps! https://markzware.com/products/idmarkz/ Then it can export as IDML, PDF, etc. Problem is, at the moment it is macOS only. If you send me your file, I will try, free of charge (as friends of InDesignSecrets) for you. My email is David AT markzware D O T nl.

  • November 19, 2020 at 12:36 pm #14332684
    Cynthia Da Costa

    Member

    Hi David,

    If possible could you do the same for me?
    My InDesign crashed, I only have the DBTmp files no recover InDesign file.
    When I try opening the ID file all my paragraph styles are gone.

    Kind regards
    Cynthia

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