Error opening file: "The data couldn't be read because it isn't in the correct format"

We have over a hundred Hype files and suddenly I cannot open over half of them.

This is a huge issue for us, please can you help resolve this or we will have to start from scratch with many different projects.

Hype is also up to date so I’m not sure what the problem is…

Some of the files we can restore with the restorable.plist file, but most of the Hype files don’t have this readily available.

The most likely cause was a bad transfer or sync. Is this stored on a remote volume or synced folder?

If you control-click in the finder on a .hype document, does it have “Show package contents?” If so, what is inside? (typing ls -al with a space at the end and then dragging in the file and hitting return will show the contents)

…and most importantly, do you have backups?

This sounds like a storage issue or as @jonathan says a bad sync/transfer.

Are you also able to zip one of the files up and post it so we can look at it.

@jonathan @MarkHunte

It’s always been stored on the main hard drive, all of the backups have a similar issue. The problem arose when I updated the version of Hype.

The contents shows the data.plist that looks normal (as far as I can tell), but the resources and thumbnail are corrupted. It looks like the images are damaged and therefore none of it will work?

I have attached one to this post.

22 - Competition.zip (2.8 KB)

That’s really bizarre - all the files are in place, but there is empty data in the files. The binary representation is all zeros, although I’d guess the number of zeros that the file size was.

  • I’d do a “show package contents” on a file that you have not opened yet with Hype. Do the images within show up?

  • What version of macOS are you running?

  • Also, are you able to open the files once, and then not upon subsequent saves? Or does this happen with the first open?

I had this once on a old Linux system. It ran out of disk space on the hard drive and started zero terminating every file the system wanted to open for read access. Make sure your not in a similar situation and that might be the cause.

Also you refer to updating Hype. But..

..This really the best thing to look at first so as not to confuse where the issues lays.
Also do you have any othe image or other files not related to Hype packages that are in the same hard drive that show similar issues.?

Same issue with a file I haven’t opened yet.

I’m currently running the 10.13.6

This problem suddenly arose and I haven’t been able to open them since, so it happens on the first open.

Can you look at an old file, pre the Hype update that has not been opened with the latest version.
Don’t open the file in Hype.
Use “show package contents” to check the content and see if the images ect open independently. ( not via Hype)

Also maybe post the un opened file here so we can check it ( again a hype file that has not been opened after the update )

I’ve tried from a very old backup and it seems I am very unfortunate, they are all corrupted… Is there no solution - and is there no way to prevent this happening in the future?

Sorry to hear that! If you have any which have been exported, you can restore them. If you’d like to share them with us we may be able to help. I’ve sent you a PM.

Note that it sounds like there’s something seriously wrong with your drive/data… Hype doesn’t (and can’t) modify files when it isn’t running and certainly wouldn’t zero out data. You may want to check other files and see if there’s something wrong going on. :frowning:.

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