Layers disappeared

[LucasMulder]

I was busy with a Inkscape file for a few months. I saved the file for many times. But once i changed one little thing on the file, but moments later Inkscaper crashed. And when I started up Inkscape one day later a few layers are dissappeared an aren't standing in the ' Layer-list'. Were are they, what' s happend and how can I solve this?

Sorry for my bad English

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum 

Unfortunately, this sometimes happens, especially if the file is very large, if you close Inkscape before the Save is completed, Inkscape didn't have enough time to save it all.

Is there any chance you had made a backup file?

Sometimes it happens just because the file is large and very complex, it can become corrupted.   Sometimes the file can be saved.  Can you share the file with us?

I probably don't know exactly what to look for, but other members do.  It might be possible to fix it using a text editor (because SVG images are ultimately text files, unlike photos, for example).

Also, if you do have any backup file, if you could show us that too, we might be able to use the backup, and sort of put the file back together again.

You could either attach the files to your message here, or you could upload them somewhere else, and give us a link to them.

There's no guarantee we can fix it.  But maybe   

[LucasMulder]

How can i send the file to you?

[brynn]

You could attach it to a message, if you use the full editor, and not Quick Reply.  Click the "Reply" button, to get the full editor.

Then after you type your message, look below the text area, and click "Attachments and other options".  You should be able to go from there, but if you still need more detailed steps, I can write them.

Or another way is to upload to some kind of file sharing site, like DropBox, or image host like imgh.us, and then give us the link.  Then we can download from there.

[LucasMulder]

This is the file

[Lazur]

Hi.

Bad news, the </svg> tag is missing in your file, that is meaning it is corrupted to some extent.
Strangely it still opens fine, while I'd never seen an svg that opens with such unclosed ending.
Usually that means the bottom part got chopped off of the file, caused by bad saving.
I'm afraid it's not much to recover from that file itself.

If working with rasters you can get a more stabile file by linking them instead of embedding them in.

[brynn]

The file opens for me with 9 layers!  How many are missing?

[LucasMulder]

I think there missing 5 or 6 layers.

[brynn]

I agree with Lazur, that probably the missing content can't be recovered.  At least not very easily.  Not unless you have a backup file.  Even if the backup is not current, it still might contain some of the missing content. 

I don't know if this is possible, but it seems like I've heard of computer experts who can recover lost content.  Maybe that's just on TV, haha.  But still, I do think it's possible.  I see that you're using Windows, and if you bought your computer with Windows installed, you might have access to tech support from where you bought the computer.  You'd probably have to pay for it though.

There are a few things you could do, to help avoid this problem in the future.

1 -- If your regular work routine is [work, work, work, ..... > Save > Close], and you're working on such a large file as this, you need to allow a few moments after Save, for Inkscape to save the file completely.  At this time, there is no way to know when the save is complete (although this gives me an idea to ask the developers if they could add some kind of notification) (because we see this problem more and more, lately).

Have you noticed while you're working, that Inkscape is slow to respond to your clicks and drags and etc.?  Here's a tutorial/article I wrote, to help avoid these performance issues.  http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=35  Mostly I just mention that to provide helpful info, since you're working on this large file.  But for estimating how long to wait after Save, before you Close the file, I would suggest waiting 2 or 3 times longer than you're waiting for Inkscape to respond while you're working.  Note that is very much an estimate.

For the work routine, mine is [work > Save, work > Save, work > Save......Close]

2 -- Edit menu > Preferences > Input/Output > Autosave.  There are some precautions for using this, which I can't remember at the moment....mostly because I've never used it.  But I'll do some research later today, and post the info for you.

3 -- Well, this is good advice for everyone who is using a pc for essential work, one should always have a good, solid, backup routine.  AND use it regularly!

[brynn]

Ok, for the autosave feature.  As far as I can tell, you can set Inkscape to save the file at any time interval that you choose.  I think the biggest caution is how quickly the folder where you decide to save the backups can get very large very fast.

For example, if you set it to make a backup every 5 minutes, and you work on the file for an hour.....or I guess, if the file is open for an hour, whether you work on it or not, you will have 12 of those large files.  In just one hour!

At least that's my understanding.  This is what I read, which admittedly is about an older version.  I don't know if this feature has changed since then or not.  http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.47#Autosave

By the way, when I saved your file.....I don't know if Inkscape did this, or something else on my computer.  But it added a missing close-group tag and the missing end-SVG tag.  The other layers are still missing.  But at least the file is not corrupt anymore.  It's attached  (I put a "b" in front of the file name, so it's not confused with the corrupt version).

Better luck