Help for Damaged Keynote Files

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Level 1

16 points

Help for Damaged Keynote Files

I was going to post this as a reply, but all the threads where people had this problem had been archived.

My friend was working on a Keynote presentation literally for months. Hours ago he was showing it to me and his Mac crashed for no reason. When it restarted, his presentation wouldn't open. Keynote gave a message that the file was damaged.

My friend almost had a nervous breakdown. Seriously.

I searched all the forums, but found nothing. Then I made a test Keynote presentation and noticed this: the index file should be called index.apxl.gz. His was called index-temp.apxl.gz.

I renamed it and the presentation opened as normal.

So, control-click or right-click on the package name and select Show Package Contents. If the index file has the wrong name, change it.

Hope that helps just one person from having a breakdown.

PowerPC G4 Desktop 933-MHz, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 5, 2007 8:24 PM

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Answer 1

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Tyro Author

Level 1

16 points

Jul 6, 2007 7:59 AM in response to Tyro

Little clarification: when I said control-click or right-click on the package name, I should have said on the Keynote presentation name. Then select Show Package Contents. A Keynote presentation is actually a bundle of files, so when you do this, you'll see all the files that make up your presentation. Look for the index file and rename it as I said above, if needed.

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Answer 2

d.nando

Level 1

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Aug 9, 2007 11:50 AM in response to Tyro

Tyro,

I love you man! Thanks so much for posting this. I've been working on a mission-critical presentation intensively for weeks and have seen the same problem, the mac crashed and it wouldn't reopen, file damaged message. Just changed the file name as you suggested and it worked! A big, big thank you!!!

If any Keynote programmers are lurking, clicking on the Play button has crashed my mac about 10 - 15 times now. The last time it crashed, i couldn't reopen the file, as this thread describes.

After it crashed once or twice, i was very careful to save the file before clicking the play button in the interface. Then I noticed that when it crashes, Keynote did not save my recent changes, even tho' I had carefully saved the file and watched the save dialog pop up and complete before clicking Play.

I'd like to know if this problem has been fixed in iWork '08, to decide if i should upgrade or not.

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Answer 3

gueehom

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Aug 28, 2007 8:52 PM in response to Tyro

So many thanks mate!
You saved my talk... I exactly had the same unexpected crash than your friend, and then, the file was damaged!

Your post rocks!

Cheers,

G

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Answer 4

Oct 22, 2007 2:19 PM in response to Tyro

Hey man thanks so much for your post! Im using iWork 08 now and yep, just as mentioned by another dude it crashed when pressing the play button, immediate restart. Big disappointment here as I thought Mac's were 'crash proof'.

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Answer 5

Oct 27, 2007 10:34 AM in response to Tyro

I need help! Where's the index file, and what is it? Where do I control-click the package name to show Package Contents?

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Answer 6

jelsas

Level 1

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Nov 19, 2007 8:24 PM in response to Tyro

Thank You!

Same thing happened to me, and this fixed the problem. Thanks!

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Answer 7

Dec 28, 2007 3:58 AM in response to robertxing

I couldn't find the file to save my life! I downloaded some freeware - EasyFind. Once loaded it revealed the location of the file and took me right to it in the Finder. I was able to rename the aforementioned file and now the Package is opening fine. You bet I'll be making a backup of the file every hour!

Found it on Apple's site

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/easyfind.html

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