Layout refuses to open recovered file

My layout file will not open or save properly. Leading to recovered versions of work completed that it simply refuses to open no matter what. I dont want to keep starting over only to lose the work and waste more time. There’s no reason this file should be corrupt, but is there someone who can open my file and advise? I’m on the classic 2020 version and suspect Sketchuip wants to make this as inhospitable as possible to push people to subscribe to their support less subscriptions…

What version of MacOS are you using?
Are you saving to the cloud?

MacOS Monterey v 12.1 and it backs up to dropbox. I think the sku file was saved as 2021 at one point, so I’ve saved a 2020 copy of both now. Not sure if the glitch is resolved but I’m at least getting some responsiveness now. Ever since I updated once last year I have to right click and open as the old version or else it will convert to a newer version that doesn’t sync.
Also I can’t close a single sku model - it opens the last seven I’ve been working on at once, and if I close one they all close! Lots of weirdness trying to stick with 2020

Again with another relatively new file. I’m pretty careful about only saving and opening as the 2020 version, but I cannot figure out why my layout file that I was working on a few days ago, just won’t open today. I go through Layout> recent files, or I right click the file itself to open with Layout 2020. It starts and then nothing. No file, no error msg or explanation. I just can’t get to work because I can’t open it. Is there some other work around to this issue?

Can you share the LO file so we can see what you’ve got going on?

Sorry the file is 544 MB, says the largest I can share is 16MB? Is there a way to share this?

Upload it to DropBox and share the link. At 544Mb it’s not terribly suprising that you’d have trouble opening it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rifrt0pqq07leu2/Fairlane%20BP.layout?dl=0

Thank you. This has less pages and drawings than most of my files actually, that should definitely be opening… Look forward to your advice!

I’ll see what I can do with it. I have to go pick up my kid from school so it might be a little bit.

Does it seem reasonable to you that this LayOut project references at least 28 SketchUp files?

Nope. It’s one model linked to those viewports.
However I do keep a skeleton version of this template file in a ‘new client dropbox folder’ that I duplicate with every new job and then go in and link only that clients model to it upon setup. Maybe it has a ghost memory of every previous file?

When I downloaded my own link, it took me to a trial version of 2022… Which I believe means at some point I’m ‘command S’ saving my work and it’s converting my file to a newer version and then I cant get into it to export back to my classic 2020 version.?

The LayOut file contains at least 28 SketchUp reference files. Based on the names of them and their Date Modified I suspect two things. First you have a bunch of unused references in your document and it looks as if you are inserting your SketchUp references more than once, possibly copying from Sketchup and pasting in LayOut.

Not ghost memory. Just a dirty file. You keep adding stuff to it without purging unused stuff. There are reference files in this LO file that were last modified in 2018!

Do you have SketchUp/LayOut 2022 installed on your computer? Even if you open the file in 2022, you can use Save as… to save it back to 2020.

Here is a screen grab showing some of the reference files in your LO file. They are sorted from largest to smallest.

I’m not sure what files are curent and which are old unused files at this point.

More digging: The most recently modified SketchUp reference is …Fairlane–existing… I tried opening it but it is corrupted. I get a message indicating it does not look like a SketchUp file. That would explain why your LayOut file won’t open. Are you saving and working on files that are stored in the cloud?

I looked at the next newest SketchUp file, … Hadfield CONCEPT 2 … and found some incorrect tag usage and a bunch of unused stuff to purge. This reduced the file size by about 35%. I looked at another older SketchUp file and got even more reduction. I would guess the same sort of thing would be found in your most recent file if it wasn’t corrupted.
Screenshot - 2_6_2023 , 2_11_49 PM
Screenshot - 2_6_2023 , 2_12_05 PM

It might be that @colin could pry that .skp file out and try to recover it for you but typically when SketchUp files are corrupt in this way he’s only able to rover the components and the materials those components use but the scenes are blank.

Do you have the original .skp file Fairlane-existing SketchUp file and can you opening? It might be possible to replace the corrupt version with the one you have.

Ive been downloading 2022 to use the trial to open my file, so I can go in and look at these things but I’m getting nowhere and still dont have it open. Those are all other jobs, not relevant to this particular file, so whatever I do here I can go into my other current files and repeat the steps to clean up old references it’s been collecting. Yes I can still open the sketchup model for Fairlane. It’s just layout that seems impossible to get open right now.

Again, it won’t open because the Fairlane .skp file is corrupt.

They may not be relevant to this particular project but they are still relevant to the file because you haven’t been purging the old stuff. You seem to be just adding to it.

So share that .skp file. I’ll try to replace the corrupt copy in the LO file and see if I can get it to open. Don’t hold your breath but I’ll try.

As above…

Ok here it is. And yes to answer you above I am saving files to dropbox.

Are you working on files directly from DropBox?

Yes, I’ll open files from dropbox. If not ‘open recent files’ from sketchup or layout. I didn’t think that would affect the file.
Should I just be deleting unused references in document setup or elsewhere?

Working directly on files saved in the cloud is risky. If there’s a momentary break in the connection during a save or auto save the file can be corrupted. Best practice is to download the file to your local (internal) drive. Work on it there, save the changes locally and only when you’re finished for the time being, sync it back to Drop Box.

You should be purging the unused stuff in Document Setup>References. Your LayOut template should not contain any references to projects at all. You should open the file you are considering your template and make sure you’ve removed anything that doesn’t belong.

I opened your latest .skp file to clean it out. (Incorrect tag usage and unused content.)
Screenshot - 2_6_2023 , 2_41_56 PM

Screenshot - 2_6_2023 , 2_42_16 PM

Then I replaced the corrupt SketchUp file in your LayOut file. Unfortunately I was still not able to open the LO file. I expect there’s something else that is corrupted too. I’m thinking at this point your best bet is to start over after you’ve cleaned up your template and saved it. Then insert the Fairlane SketchUp file and proceed. Here’s the purged SketchUp file saved to version 2020.
1284 Fairlane - existing .skp (2.6 MB)

FWIW, I deleted the references older than Feb 1st of this year. I expect that remove some actual template references but it amounted to 2342 files. This reduced the total file size by more than 98.5%. Still haven’t found the corrupt part of it.

■■■■ I was just working on this Friday afternoon, hard to believe I can t recover that work, clean it up and just go in and delete old references from here. You are looking for the corruption in the layout file or the model? If you there are any other directions you can give me to clean up unused items, please tell me how to navigate to those places for my own reference, so I can repeat what you are up to? Thanks!

Since you gave me the .skp file that I could open and I was able to replace that bad .skp file, I was looking for other corrupt files in the LayOut file. I’m sorry, though. I haven’t got time to go through the other 2381 files in your LayOut file. You could recreate the LayOut file from a clean template in much less time.

I’m sorry to be blunt but the problem stems from your poor workflow and the fact that you’ve been working on with files saved directly to the cloud.

I deleted all the old references in hopes of getting rid of the unneeded stuff and any corrupted references but that was unsuccessful. In order to do that correctly, though, we need to get the LO file open. Not something that can be done at this point so there’s really nothing for you to do. You would be time and effort ahead to just give it up, clean up your template and start over with the cleaned up SketchUp file. No point wasting time trying to fix what can’t be fixed. I think you’ve spent enough time on this file. Sunk costs and all that.