CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • March 13, 2019 at 3:12 am #114920
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    This is one of those “oh dear, that’s gone forever” moments. But who knows? This forum may come up with an answer.

    Because an anniversary of an event is coming up, I went searching back through files for some documents that were created using InD CS-something-tiny (3? 4?) about a decade ago. According to the Mac Finder, they are still InD files but they now have a rectangular black icon with the word “exec” in green on it, suggesting to me that the file itself thinks it is a Terminal application. Naturally, when I attempt to open the file, I get a message along the lines of “the file ‘[insert name]’ is an unknown format and cannot be opened.”

    Have these files now irrevocably gone to God? Is there any chance at all of their being resurrected?

  • March 13, 2019 at 7:46 am #114921
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Try setting the file name extension to .indd
    And choose the file in the Finder, choose File > Info, and set the application to open to InDesign.
    Also, try opening the file from within InDesign (using File > Open) and then if it works, do a Save As.

  • March 13, 2019 at 5:17 pm #114952
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    Hmmm…

    I posted a reply, thanking you, David, but it has not appeared. Partial success as have now been able to open three of seven dodgy files.

    • March 13, 2019 at 5:28 pm #114959
      David Blatner

      Keymaster

      Thank you for letting me know, Tom… sometimes posts get “stuck.” I just unstuck it. Glad you have had at least partial success. Not sure why the others won’t open at all. Maybe see if someone else can open it?

  • March 13, 2019 at 5:26 pm #114951
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    Thank you, David.

    Partial success. None of the files had a file extension (remember they were rare on Macs way back when) and when I added the file extension, I was able to open three of the seven dodgy files. Fortunately, from my point of view, those three files were probably the most important in terms of otherwise lost contents.

    But the other four keep giving me a message: “Cannot open the file [name]. Adobe InDesign may not support the file format, a plug-in that supports the file may be missing, or the file may be open in another application.” Since I have not used ploug-ins and it is clearly not open in another application, it looks like these four may be lost causes.

    Unless someone has another solution?

  • March 13, 2019 at 8:25 pm #114961
    Tim Murray

    Member

    They might not be InDesign files. Slap some other extensions on them . . . you won’t hurt anything. You might even be able to break into them with a text editor or a hex editor and get some clues.

  • March 14, 2019 at 8:58 pm #114969
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    Yes, they really are InDesign files. I know, because I wrote the originals.

    Changing the extension to .txt allows access to the textual contents of the files (entirely unformatted, of course, and mixed with a certain amount of gibberish) but any graphic or design content is impossible.

  • March 15, 2019 at 8:04 am #114971
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    First, see if someone else can open it. (If you want to send a small file to me to test, you can email it to me at david [at] indesignsecrets dot com.

    If that doesn’t work, you might try this:

    DTP File Recovery Service

    
    If you do, let us know how it works!

  • March 15, 2019 at 2:40 pm #114983
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    File sent, David.

    The matter is not important enough to justify my turning to a commercial recovery service. I am a retired pensioner.

• Author
  Posts