The project appears to be damaged...

[lukew22344230]

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could possibly help me out please?

I had a drive go down on me with a months project on and am desperately trying to do anything I can to get the project back via data recovering the autosaves.

I've managed to get the whole autosave folder back but every project file is giving me the 'project appears to be damaged, it cannot be opened' error.

To confound issues I'm now on a different workstation but pretty sure the same iteration of PP.

Would someone from Adobe possibly try and see if they can debug the project file for me?

I'm running the latest version of Premiere 2018.

Link to Project file - WeTransfer

Thanks,

Luke

[Stan Jones]

As you do, I get the "damaged" error when I try to open.

When I try to extract with 7zip to look at the project xml, it gives an archive error.

I'd look at your data recovery method.

[lukew22344230]

Ah thought that may be the case. Thanks so much for trying for me! You don't have any suggestions per chance for reliable data recovery software?

Thanks

[Stan Jones]

This is the one I have used, but none of these are for the faint at heart.

Disk Recovery Software and Hard Drive Recovery tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Free to see what it finds; costs money to actually recover files.

IF the recovery of the autosave files was okay, then they are in fact corrupt/bad archives. And your actual latest project file could be too. (I.e. bad luck on top of bad luck.) So did you have other backups? Did you have a backup of the drive (even if not your latest project version)? etc.

It is always good practice to save regular backups (save a copy) to a different drive, in addition to using autosave. If you did, even if outdated, great. If not, lesson for the future!

Did you have cloud sync turned on for this project? It would provide the latest version of your project file - it does not keep multiple versions.

[Jim_Simon]

There are reviews for data recovery software online.  Some research is definitely in order here.

To avoid this happening in the future, here are two features you should upvote for Premiere Pro.

Instant Auto Save – Adobe video & audio apps

Save Version – Adobe video & audio apps

The Save Version feature combined with a Dropbox account would be very valuable.

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi lukew,

Solved this issue yet? If not, kindly contact Adobe Support: Contact Customer Care

Thanks,

Kevin

[Edwardscissorhands]

I have a sort of similar situation occurring. I've spent about 2 months working on this edit. Lots of AE work/Frame by frame animations. And also had tons of AU projects all saved under the same C drive that this was saved under.  I accidentally deleted my WHOLE C DRIVE in command prompt and used recovery Data software to get back files, But they are all scattered and in no particular order. Is this why my Premiere projects/ premiere auto saves are all now not working? Are they currupt? And If so how can I salvage them if there is a way that anyone knows of. I did not back up on any other clouds or drives. Last salvageable version of the program I have is from January, and it would not even be worth it to put that much work back in. But this project is very important to me. Please help. ....:/

[MyerPj]

Wow! Appropriate forum name I would think. 

When you have an autosave file, the idea would be to put it back in the same main project folder you have and start it there. That means you need to put back all the scattered files back into folders where they were originally at, so the project can find those files. It doesn't sound promising. This is one other reason to keep all the project files media, AU, AE, PP of course files all together, in case you have to rebuild the project.

You need to find all the files the project was using and gather them up together. You can try relinking the files once you have them all there. Of course do not copy any files whatsoever back onto that c: drive, only recovered files should be on there.