Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 6/30/2009

Question
I have been having a lot of trouble with opening saved files in CS4. I have
contacted Adobe and their experts cannot find a solution. Perhaps you can.

I am working on a Mac Pro quad core 16 GB RAM.

When saving some files (many layers and in excess of 500 MB), they
sometimes take a long time to save and when saved, show a different date
(save 29 June, shows a saved date of 28 June and a different time!). Also,
when I attempt to reopen, I will get a message that it cannot open the file
and lately with the message opens the file with only a few layers presents.
Very exasperating as I have reconstructed the files about 4 times already. Any
help would  be appreciated. Thank you ROBERT

Answer
Hi Robert,

Lets try to work through this and find out exactly where it is failing.

First, Im running under the assumption that you have a fully licensed version of CS4, not a demo.

Next, when you install CS4 it is recommended that you do a complete uninstall of older versions and then reinstall CS4. This helps with a lot of bugs, conflicts, etc.

OK, onto your doc. Saving taking a long time is not uncommon when you have larger docs like this.

When you save your files, what file type are you saving as? If you are saving as a native AI doc, you should make sure "PDF compatibility" is checked on. This is a known bug and many times this is the culprit for file corruption. Its a must.

If you are currently saving as an AI with everything checked out, have you tried saving as another file type that still supports layers, such as .eps,  and seeing if that corrupts as well?

If you have tried all these, the next step is to see if this is breaking Illustrator somehow.

Here's how to start - If you save a smaller size file with less layers, does the same error happen? Start by creating your document a piece at a time, saving along the way. Each time you save, close and reopen and see if it is in tact. If you can't even save a small file without corruption, uninstall and reinstall AI.

Let me know what you find out.

Thanks

Kevin