Flash won't save, .fla file vanished

[jebellenie]

Here's a good one, am working on a flash website in flash CS3 (AS3), and suddenly its refusing to save. Anywhere. It says "Could not save as c:\main.fla, this file may be read only, save as different name" blah blah blah. It was originally on a network drive, but i've tried saving it as different names onto local hard drives, usb drives, other network drives, etc. but it refuses. The file is still open in flash and I can make changes to it and even export it as a swf which works fine, I just can't save it.

Heres the kicker though, the .fla file has vanished from the network drive. I've searched and its nowhere to be found. I had a backup I made this morning, but thats also vanished (that one could possibly be my fault). I have another backup but its from about 3 days ago and i've done loads of work on it since then.

This has happened before, but I hadn't done much before the fla file vanished so i could restore an earlier backup without much problem. This time its much more of an issue.

Flash hasn't failed entirely. I can load other fla files and change and save them with no issues, I just can't save the main one i'm working on.

Having it still open is useful, as I can rebuild from the earlier version without forgetting what i've done, but that will take hours. What i'd like to know is if theres any way around this, or if not any quick way to duplicate all of the information from the file thats loaded into one that I can actually save. Any suggestions will be greatfully recieved, i'm going to look into the possibility of running a file-recovery program on the network drives, but that will be a pain and i'm not sure if it'll help. I can't do anything else on this until monday when I get back to work, but i'd appreciate any and all replys in the meantime.

Right now I'm going to hibernate my computer to retain the open flash file and go home and drink.

Thanks,
James

Update: I copied all of my library items into another flash file and saved that, so at least those are safe.

[CyanBlue]

Howdy and Welcome... :)

Sorry to hear what's happened... But that is a sort of a known issue with the Flash ever since I have used it... The issue basically goes with working with the FLA file on the server... Sometimes the connection gets wild and Flash basically loses everything you worked on... I know that does not happen all the time, but I have seen that happen quite a few in my Flash life...

Since you mentioned that you still have the file open, can't you try to do Save As and see what happens???

[kenn3ton]

I just had the exact same problem. Even with the network drive.

The way I got around it was this:
First, make a new project with all the same settings as your 'problem' project.
Second, Copy your entire library over to the new project.
Third, Select all of your frames in the main timeline. Copy Frames and paste them in the new project.

Your done, The copy frames will copy all actionscript and embedded symbols. You can then save the new project.

Hope that helps.

[Narendrakumar]

i too had this same issue and did what Kenn3ton told.

It works so for

[jebellenie]

Thanks all, copying the frames in each scene to a new fla seems to have worked ok and definitely saved me a few hours rebuilding from an old version.

I think i'll be working on files locally and taking more regular backups from now on.

James

[mockingbird]

Hey guys...i just experienced the same exact problem and was not smart enough to try and copy paste my work, instead i closed the file and went t try and re-open it...but to notice that my fil has misteriously vanished. Now i have to say that it was a real waste of money going to the barber yesterday....so my question guys...IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN GET MY FILE BACK?!? please some help i am desperate :(

[chroma]

This is the most cruicial bug I've ever seen in flash, if not anywhere! It just happened to me too. I had two fla's open, with a lot of written actionscript and animations in it. Kind of frontend and backend program. Luckily for me, I still had the two files open when I realized that the files were gone from the server and that I couldn't save them anywhere. The solution mentioned by Kenn3ton worked for me. I wouldn't be surprised if anybody sues Adobe for this bug. As I said, it's the worst bug I ever seen.

[Potemkyn]

I don't remember having this sort of problem until after Flash MX 2004 came out.

After having this sor tof situation happen every so often. I tried the copy frames method also, works fine. Save as never works.

So, what happens to the file that is open anyway?


Mike

[laz87]

I'm using Adobe Flash CS3 on a Windows XP machine, and experienced the same thing with a network file. I think I've tracked it back to having the file open on my machine when I rebooted the network server.

Regardless of how it happened, I may have found a simpler solution than copying files over. I'm using AS2 in this instance, so I tried the "Save As" straight to my desktop, but I had it save as a version 8 file. I was able to save it. From there, I saved that file back to the original network location as a version 9 (CS3) file.

If you're not using AS3, I'd give that a try. The new file seems to be working well now. Just thought I'd share this with anyone else that comes along, maybe it can save you a little bit of frustration.

[ping411]

I ran into this same problem this morning using CS3. Unfortunately, I didn't think of either of these solutions until I had already lost the file. At least it's nice to know I'm not alone.

mockingbird, after losing my file, I tried using file recovery software to find my missing file. It has always worked in the past, but it didn't today. As far as I know, your file is gone forever.

I hope somebody at Adobe is fixing this, or that they do get sued as previously mentioned. I was so mad when it happened, I almost jabbed my pen through my Wacom tablet.

[Potemkyn]

Ping, this has been a problem for years, even before Macromedia and Adobe at least publicly) announced they were merging.

Ah well, Just copy all your frames and open a new document and paste the frames until Adobe makes the time to fix this. Perhaps they could quit advancing ActionScript and spend time on this problem.

Mike