Adobe Community: "Invalid Project File" when I try to open my work! HELP!

Currently Being Moderated

1. Stan Jones,

Jun 17, 2011 9:11 PM in reply to TonyBdfx

Report

What version did you make it in? Encore is very forgiving regarding opening an earlier version in a later version, so I don't see why you are having this problem.

I would test your current functioning: create a small test project. Save and close. Can you reopen it?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

2. Jim Simon,

Jun 18, 2011 8:41 AM in reply to TonyBdfx

Report

Do you still have the project folder with the same name as your Encore project?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

3. Bill Hunt,

Jun 18, 2011 8:51 AM in reply to TonyBdfx

Report

Welcome to the forum.

Is it safe to assume that you are created the Project on the PC, and are still using the PC?

Have you done any housekeeping, and perhaps deleting what appeared to be some empty folders in the Project's hierarchy? (That is what Jim is also asking). The folder structure is important, and must be maintained, or there will be issues.

Is your Project on an external HDD? If so, is the OS assigning the drive letter, or have you assigned the drive letter manually in the OS? Is that drive letter the same, as when the Project was created?

Good luck, and please let us know a bit more.

Hunt

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

4. Stan Jones,

Jun 18, 2011 10:03 AM in reply to Bill Hunt

Report

In both CS4 and CS5 at least, a missing folder gets a "Cannot open project; the folder for this project cannot be found" message. Who knows what message happens if only certain elements have been moved, etc.

Do you get an error number or any additional information in the "Invalid project file" message?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

5. TonyBdfx,

Jun 19, 2011 5:06 PM in reply to Stan Jones

Report

I used CS5.1 Encore. Did not move or delete anything!

Also, when saving a copy of ANY project, I save to a second location called "back up" and 90% of the time I get a pop up box "General Error" but NOT when I save to my usual location.

Using my C: drive.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

6. Bill Hunt,

Jun 19, 2011 5:40 PM in reply to Stan Jones

Report

Stanely,

The error messages that you cite, are what I am used to, as well. However, as we all know, sometimes the error messags in Encore can leave a lot to be desired, and there have been instances where "wires" got crossed, and Encore received an error from the Sonic modules, or from the OS, but could not really act upon it - so it guessed at what could be the problem.

I have only seen the error message, that you mention once, when I Deleted some of the necessary folders by mistake. All it took was to create the necessary folders, though they were empty, as the originals had been, and all was good again. In all of my years with the program, that was but one of only two errors, that I have ever encountered in Encore, so I have to rely on reports from "the field," when it comes to errors in Encore.

The only "Invalid Project Flie" type error, that I can recall, was when users attempted to Open a Mac NCOR on a PC, or vice versa. Do not recall the exact syntax of those errors, as I have never seen them myself.

Hunt

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

7. TonyBdfx,

Jun 19, 2011 6:00 PM in reply to Bill Hunt

Report

I used CS5.1 Encore. Did not move or delete anything!

Also, when saving a copy of ANY project, I save to a second location called "back up" and 90% of the time I get a pop up box "General Error" but NOT when I save to my usual location.

Using my C: drive.

I re-made my project (menus) and saved it again on my C: drive with all supporting files. It saves fine and I also save a 2nd copy in another folder (in C:) as 'back up', BUT when I save a second copy of the same project, sometimes the 'back up' gives me the General Error pop up box. When I re-save the project in the ususal C: location, it appears ok now, except when I save another back (I used dates for my files, ie "Project06162011.ncor" or "BackUp06192011" which is Project Name with the month/day/year so I can keep a continuing record of my progress).

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

8. TonyBdfx,

Jun 19, 2011 6:02 PM in reply to Bill Hunt

Report

Oh, yea, I'm using Window 7 Pro (fully updated) on a Dell Studio laptop. All works fine so far. I have an external Western Digital HD at 10,000 rpm on my eSATA port for video files.

In a month or so I'm looking at a Mac all-in-one 3.2GHz, 16 gig ram with SSD and HD, 27 inch!!!! I'm so done with Windows!

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

9. Stan Jones,

Jun 19, 2011 7:47 PM in reply to TonyBdfx

Report

I wasn't clear re the answer to my question: Do you get an error number or any additional information in the "Invalid project file" message?

I understand about the general error also. But when you get the "Invalid Project File" message, anything else? You might check any error logs and the windows event log.

Your new project is okay, right?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

10. ram8kumar,

Jun 19, 2011 10:26 PM in reply to TonyBdfx

Report

You mentioned about saving your projects on the external hard drive. Some times the external hard drive might cause some problems with Encore's communication with the drives. This is because encore tries to acquire some hardware before opening the project and if it can not acquire the hardware, it throws out some error.

Updating the driver software might help.

Thanks,

Ramesh.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

11. TonyBdfx,

Jun 20, 2011 10:02 AM in reply to Stan Jones

Report

NO error numbers. ONLY "Invalid Project File".

When I re-make all my menus (by first drag/drop all images/PSD files to a particular folder in C: drive) and save the project and save a second copy to a 'back up' folder on the C: drive, it NOW behaves.

Before, i was saving to my external Western Digital 10,000rpm drive eSATA. Never had a problem before. Other files open/closed well.

ONLY now having a "General Error" ONLY when I save a copy of current work into 'back up' folder. When I re-save in my usual C: drive folder, no problem. PS: Back up is ALSO on C: drive!!!

Weird. Any guesses?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

12. TonyBdfx,

Jun 20, 2011 10:03 AM in reply to Bill Hunt

Report

PS: Using Encore 5.1 (and I still have 5.0) and my drive letters have NOT changed or moved.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

13. BoiseBaked,

Sep 25, 2011 8:24 AM in reply to TonyBdfx

Report

You know what. Adobe. You need to fix this bug. If not fix it, you need away for customers and your engineers know what what was corrupted in the project file. You can't run a business with a tool that let's you do all these hours of work and then decide arbitrarily not to work and become unrecoverable. You should be sued for this kind of stuff. Leaving this kind a problemt to a users forum is criminal. Here is the bug I submitted. Adobe GET INVOLVED.

******BUG******

Concise problem statement:

Encore fails to open due to "Invalid Project File."

Steps to reproduce bug:

1.Create a encore project with menus an multiple timelines where assets are references to CS5 Premiere and After Effects projects. Encore and assets project files are located on an external HDD connected using USB 2.0. Encore is installed to an internal SATA C: volume.

2. At this point, I'm able to close and open the encore project.

3. Do a build that includes transcoding. Building to an DVD ISO image file.

4. Build completes, save Encore project and close it.

5. Shutdown computer.

6. Power on computer, try to open Encore project.

Results:

Open of Encore project fails: "Invalid Project FIle." Weeks of work is lost.

Expected results:

Open needs to succeed or Encore needs to indicates specifically what is invalid. And, there needs to be a way to recover the project. There are no logged events or error messages to indicate the root cause of the problem, that is, what makes the project file invalid. The Internet it full of Encore "Invalid Project File" pleas for help. Please fix this issue. It's a deal breaker.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

14. BoiseBaked,

Sep 25, 2011 8:35 AM in reply to Bill Hunt

Report

BTW, Mr Hunt. Changing drive letters on external disks should never result in project open failure due to "Invalid Project File" and here's why. Project references to project data files should only use relative path. If the Encore doesn't do that, it's a code defect. This isn't a problem anyway, simple deductive reasoning indicates the problem is a corrupt project file - not something external to it. Assets referenced by a project file simply become offline when the project is opened. The project file still needs to open. This is an out and out a stupid Adobe Encore defect and they need to get involved and fix it.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

15. BoiseBaked,

Sep 25, 2011 9:21 AM in reply to BoiseBaked

Report

My specifics: Window 7 Pro 64bit. Encore version: 5.0.0.508. I use MacDrive 9.0 to access a formatted Mac disk as an external HDD (not Western Digital, I've long since given up on them) connected by USB 2.0. It's not MacDrive 9.0 since the problem occurred on MacDrive 8.0 as well. I might be related to USB connectivity. I'm checking that out now. The problem started to happen after I upgraded to CS5.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

16. Joe Riggs,

Mar 7, 2013 6:31 PM in reply to BoiseBaked

Report

Just experienced this on CS6.

Identical experience to BoiseBaked

Using Win 7 64bit.

|

Mark as:

Encore

"Invalid Project File" when I try to open my work! HELP!

Jun 17, 2011 8:35 PM

More Like This

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status