HELP!!! Construct 2 froze, capx broken now :(

I wanted to add a sound to my project and then pressed ctrl+s as usual to make a quick save, the progress bar appeared and just froze :(

After waiting a few minutes, i had to kill c2 via taskmanager and now it won't let me open my project anymore, the error i get is: Unable to open "blablabla" for unzipping.

I've tried to rename it to .zip and repair it with DiskInternals Zip Repair and Winrar but the resulting file contained no .caproj or Layouts :(

Does c2 keep a backup of old .capx files anywhere?

This was my project for the rotary competition, which i've worked on for weeks and it was almost done.

Is there anything else i can try to recover it?

It's missing alot since i've tweaked it alot in the last few days but atleast that would be a start.

Please Ashley help me :[ or anyone else that has an idea I'm really distressed, else i wouldn't post a near finished project file :( EDIT: removed links cause i got it working again thx to @Wink :D Note to @Ashley: please add an auto-backup thingy to c2 Note to self: never use .capx again for own projects :O

I had a similar case. I solved it via the program I mention here:

scirra.com/forum/corrupted-capx-file_topic48999_post307979.html

Ever since this happened I grew 4.5 gray hairs and stopped using the 1 file format.

Ize I don't know if this will work for you but if you have windows 7 try right clicking on your (.capx), and select (properties). When the new window opens select the (Previous Versions) tab. Then you should be able to restore your file from a previous restore point if your computer is set to save restore points. Usually when windows updates, or you install a program like Construct 2 your computer will save a restore point automatically. If it does you will loose all your work back to that point but if your lucky maybe it won't be to much.

Wink I love you... in a heterosexual way :D

I was able to merge what i had manually restored so far and the old backup from beginning of the week win7 made! :D

lol, I'm glad it worked for you Ize.

You're right we should add an auto-backup facility (been on the todo list for ages like a lot of stuff), I'll try and get it done sooner since two of you could've used it recently. However, you should also see best practices - back up regularly! Auto-backup is still not enough to secure your data (see the article - hardware failure, fire, floods, theft etc. can still cause disaster). Using project folders is the same, and they can still corrupt if your computer crashes/BSODs/disk skips during a save, they're not much different to .capx in that regard.

I cannot recommend enough that you keep a daily backup on Dropbox. It takes literally no time at all and even with autobackup in Construct 2, it will mean your data is safe even if your entire computer is destroyed.

In fact I think it might be worth adding a built-in feature to backup to a dropbox folder once a day. I'll try get on that for the next build.

n fact I think it might be worth adding a built-in feature to backup to a dropbox folder once a day. I'll try get on that for the next build.

That'll be great ! Can't wait...

Thanks alot :D

Every time I add something significantly new to my games I saw it as. New capx with the name of the game and (v1.00) ect that way it's unlikely you'll loose your whole game. And as the manual says, when it stars to say compressing capx in the output on the bottom left; that's when you should start saving as a project.

Ashley, just an idea for the way projects are saved in C2:

When saving the file it overwrites the previous file so if C2 crashes during the save then the whole project could get corrupted. Wouldn't it be a better idea to save to a new temporary file then copy that over the old file. That way if C2 crashes during a save only the most recent changes would be lost instead of the whole project.

I believe that is how for instance Microsoft Word does it's saving. Just an idea.

That autobackup to dropbox would be great. What would be excellent if we could choose to delete previous backups after a certain amount, and also choose the frequency of backups...

Wouldn't it be a better idea to save to a new temporary file then copy that over the old file.

It already does that. It saves to myfile.capx.tmp, then providing everything has saved OK so far, it deletes the .capx and renames the .capx.tmp to .capx. So I have no idea how anyone could get corrupt files. I guess these things just happen, so hopefully autobackup will help there anyway.

(For the record it does the same for every file in a project folder as well - e.g. first it saves to Layout1.xml.tmp, then if successful it deletes Layout1.xml and renames the .tmp)

Also getting the unable to unzip error.

Unzipped and attempted to run from the folder - said a specific graphic was not in a folder - so I added the file to the textures folder.

Now gives me message that file is not available over in some temp folder - despite being available and running from the folder on my desktop.

Even tried putting the file in the folder - rezipping the file - renaming to capx.

None of this worked.

Frustrating for the student in my class who lost a weeks worth of work.

Any other ideas ?

t1techno: this thread is old, the issue hasn't been heard of in months.

Anyway, had you setted the backup options ?

If so, you might try to fall back to a abckup version.

If not, send the archive of the project over here (maybe in a new topic) and we'll try to see how to salvage it.

t1techno: that could have been caused by a hardware failure or some other disk corruption, it's not necessarily Construct 2's fault - which is why you should always have backup set up. That applies to any software, not just Construct 2. Anyways as Kyatric said post your .capx and we can see if anyone can salvage it.