Files can't be opened

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2019-06-30 18:36:21

This morning I woke up to a scary notice while trying to open one of my MANY Pixelmator Pro files. It states that the file may be damaged or that my file isn't compatible with the current version of the app. All of the files for Pixelmator are saved to the iCloud Drive folder in Finder. Literally all of the files (excluding the VERY last file I worked on last night) are showing the same warning. Most of these files haven't been opened for months or even a year.
I have no clue what to do. I've really tried everything, deleting the app, reinstalling it. Downloading the files from iCloud.com and trying to open them. Nothing is fixing this problem. I REALLY do need this fixed as I'm constantly working in Pixelmator Pro.

Please help. Image
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2019-07-01 15:39:28

I know we're already in contact with you about this but just in case anyone else ever has any similar issues — this really looks like an iCloud Drive syncing issue of some kind, especially if those files weren't even opened by the app. Pixelmator Pro shouldn't have the ability to touch unopened files, so it does looks like something went wrong during the sync stage. Are the files 0 bytes or is there some data in them?
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2019-07-01 16:15:19

by Andrius 2019-07-01 15:39:55 I know we're already in contact with you about this but just in case anyone else ever has any similar issues — this really looks like an iCloud Drive syncing issue of some kind, especially if those files weren't even opened by the app. Pixelmator Pro shouldn't have the ability to touch unopened files, so it does looks like something went wrong during the sync stage. Are the files 0 bytes or is there some data in them?
0 bytes. I have no idea how this happened.
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2019-07-02 11:50:42

Another thought — have you been testing out the iOS 13 beta? One of our devs had a similar issue after installing the beta and I can see there are few more people reporting this on this reddit thread. As far as I can tell one person got the files back by checking recently deleted files on iCloud.com.
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2019-07-03 07:15:11

Looks like this has also been reported by some other devs and has been mentioned in the official iOS & iPadOS 13 Beta 3 release notes. That also mentions the workaround to get those files back is to check recently deleted files — any luck trying that?
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2019-07-28 21:22:49

Any fix to this yet??? I am not running IOS 13 beta on my main machine, but on my laptop. All Pixelmator iCloud files show zero bytes. Not recoverable via iCloud.
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2019-07-29 15:14:30

by John Mueller 2019-07-28 18:22:49 Any fix to this yet??? I am not running IOS 13 beta on my main machine, but on my laptop. All Pixelmator iCloud files show zero bytes. Not recoverable via iCloud.
According to the release notes of one of the last few iOS beta updates, this issue has been fixed. However, since it's actually not caused by us there's nothing we can do about it (I know how terrible that sounds...). Have you tried getting in touch with Apple Support about this?
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2019-08-06 19:16:09

This problem just started after upgrading to 1.4. I had no problems just days ago... latest creation date was Friday. The files did not show 0 bytes until I tried to open them on my iMac. I do have iOS 13 so iCloud is probably the culprit to some extent, but the fact that I've run Pixelmator Pro for a month with no issues until I updated my Pixelmator installation leads me to believe it's not just Apple's issue. I hope I have not lost my extensive library of files.

After doing more research it appears that the files were affected starting 7/26 (for me). Going to iCloud.com allowed me to find them and they were put back into my library as filename 2.pxd.
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2019-08-12 16:54:24

Hi Heather, just to double-check, were you able to recover all your files using iCloud.com? It's not entirely clear what exactly can trigger the issue but the underlying cause is the beta version of iOS/macOS. Although it does look like the latest betas shouldn't have these problems.