File appears to be corrupted error

[ChiefCooper]

Is there anything that can be done to recover extensive work that is lost/not accessible?  I am using X17.  Received yet again the "File appears to be corrupted" message after the program freezing up and shutting down.  Is this a bug with X17?  I did not get this with X16.  Using Windows 11 if that matters.  Archive file is not showing up, and would not have hours/days of complicated work anyway.  Very frustrated with this.  

[Kiwideziner]

I had a problem similar a month ago, CA where really onto it and issued an update. This solved my problem and the machine actually appeared to be faster.

[Dermot]

First, I took the liberty of moving your post from the Chatroom forum to the Q&A forum since this is a much better place to ask questions if you want other users to see and answer them.

 

Next, you should confirm that you are using the latest update for your program version.  We often fix critical bugs with each program update so I think it is important to always use the latest one available to avoid the problems that have already been fixed.  For X17, this would be version 27.3.1.5 and you should be able to find your version listed on the program dashboard or in the Help->About dialog box.  You should be able to get the latest update here:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/updates.html

 

Next, this is often the kind of thing you should contact our Technical Support department about.  Since they are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, they will not be back in the office until next Monday.  Here is the link to the support area of our web site:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

 

The next step is to look for any information about the problem in our Knowledge Base articles.  After a quick search, it should lead you to this tech article:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00960/message-the-plan-file-you-are-attempting-to-open-appears-to-be-corrupted.html

 

Most often, when the development team receives a plan file that gives you this error message, it is indeed corrupted and can't be read in by the program.  It is almost impossible to determine what caused the corruption just using the file by itself though.  In very rare cases, we find that the "corruption" is not actually a bad file but is a result of a program bug that is causing problems while we are trying to read the file in.  This is the main reason that we encourage people to report these kinds of problems because this can help us make the program better.

 

If you would like to post your plan file on this forum, or a link to it on this forum if it is too large, I should be able to take a look at it to see if anything further can be done with it.

 

Since the most likely case is that the file can't be used, you should see if you can find a usable archive or backup.  Assuming that the program was making daily archives, then you should be able to find an archive file that is not very old.  This technical support article should help you find your archive files:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00099/accessing-your-archive-files.html

 

If this is a problem that you have been seeing repeatedly with different plans you are working on, and you are using the latest version of the program, then I would start looking into possible hardware or system problems.  This technical support article may help you to diagnose possible system related problems:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03049/troubleshooting-chief-architect-software-closing-unexpectedly-on-windows.html

 

If all else fails, again I would recommend that you contact our Technical Support team during our normal business hours.