Cannot open FreeHand MX files after copying between Macs

Question

Cannot open FreeHand MX files after copying between Macs

When I copy a FreeHand MX file from one Mac to another, on the new Mac it appears as a "unix executable file" and will not open in FreeHand. Even if I change the Get Info to open in FreeHand, it will open FreeHand, but the file does not open.

I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with FreeHand not having a file extension to identify its files?

Has anyone encountered this, or can suggest a way to get my FreeHand files to open? At times I've not noticed the issue and copied the file back over the original when trying to sync the Macs. This results in complete loss of all my work in the FreeHand file!

iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 27, 2006 11:05 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,978 points

Oct 28, 2006 1:33 AM in response to V. Anne Smith

V. Anne

How do you copy from one machie to the other? Via a disk or flash drive? Is the drive formatted for WIndows? What's happened here is that the Unix Executable Bit has been set on the files, which can happen if copied to/from Windows formatted drives.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2822314&#2822314

Is a thread that deals with this problem with Word files. Hope that helps.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Oct 28, 2006 2:44 AM in response to Yer_Man

Well, the execute bit was set, but unfortunately fixing it didn't solve the problem. I went as far as making sure all the copied files had exactly the same permissions as files I've create on the same machine (-rw-r--r--), but opening the file still does nothing but launch FreeHand.

This problem seems to happen when I copy from Mac to Mac over our office network. I have a Mac-formatted USB drive, and I think it doesn't happen when I use that, which is why the problem is inconsistent enough that I sometimes accidently overwrite original files. Curiously, when I connect between these two Macs in the office, one direction (laptop to desktop) acts like I'm connecting to a PC--it has the same three-unit connect window, and claims the desktop is part of "WORKGROUP". This can probably explain why the execute bit got set. (Could this have something to do with how they connect the work computers to the network?)

Unfortunately while this was a true feature of the files, fixing it still has not helped. Any other suggestions?

Thanks

iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,978 points

Oct 28, 2006 4:10 AM in response to V. Anne Smith

V Anne

Given that the files open Freehand, then we can reasonably guess that the OS recognises them as Freehand files. But as the files themselves don't open, we have to consider if they have been corrupted in some way.

Transfer one back to the original machine (rename it so that it won't overwrite) and see will it open there.

Regards

TD

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Answer 4

Oct 28, 2006 5:20 AM in response to Yer_Man

The reason it opens FreeHand is that I did Get Info and told it to open with FreeHand. (it gave me a message saying FreeHand might be able to open Unix Executable Files, but that was before I changed the bits -- I'm away from the original computer now, so I can't test to see what would happen if I did that after changing the bits)

I mentioned that I'm away from the original computer now, but I have tried copying files back in the past (usually in desparation when I've managed to lose my work), and it remains the same un-readable format. Although changing the bit may help this--can't tell until monday until I go back to work (unless I decide to go in tomorrow to get the files again --I hope I have originals somewhere!)

Thanks for the advice.

iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2006 7:46 AM in response to V. Anne Smith

This may sound a bit odd... but on your original computer, zip up the file before you xfer it over..

then once its on the 2 computer, unzip it and see if it works better.

Lots of files on Mac OSX may appear to be files but are really packages.... and don't transfer like files normally do. Zipping them up usually fixes this issue

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Answer 6

Blueye

Level 1

14 points

Nov 3, 2006 9:30 AM in response to V. Anne Smith

V.

I'm not sure if you've gotten this answer, but add (.fh11) or whatever version of FreeHand you have (.fh9, .fh10, etc.) to the end of the file name.

We had this problem when our IT guys copied all of our files to another server, all of the FreeHand files were turned to Unix. Adding the .fh11 to the name instantly changes the icon back to a FreeHand icon and all is well (other than the pain in the buttox to have to add the tag to all of the files).

I hope this fixes your problem, it worked for us.

B.

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Answer 7

Nov 3, 2006 12:41 PM in response to Blueye

Yes! That did it! Thank you so much!

I hadn't had a chance to check out the other suggestions yet (e.g., zipping).

This is nice as it rescues files I thought had gone forever. I can easily put in the habit of saving files as .fh11 when I make them, so that I don't have to change them later.

iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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