Help! My SketchUp Model Won’t Open Anymore

[PeterLustiger]

Hi everyone,

I’m having a serious issue with one of my SketchUp models, and I really need help. This morning, I was working on the model without any problems, but suddenly, it stopped opening.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

I attempted to open the .skb backup file, but it won’t open either.
I tested the model on a friend’s computer, but the same issue occurred.
All my other SketchUp models are opening and working just fine, so it seems to be an issue with this specific file.
I don’t know what went wrong, and I’m worried I might lose all my work. Has anyone experienced something similar? Is there any way to repair or recover the file? I can't attach the file because it's too large here is the wetransfer Link: https://we.tl/t-l3uV2sfX2x

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Peter

[Dave R]

@PeterLustiger there's a fairly large chunk of data missing from your .skp file. Where have you been saving it while working on it? This sort of corruption seems to be fairly common when working on files saved directly to external drives, network locations, or directly to the cloud. the best advice is to make sure you are saving to an internal drive while working on the file and, since you have a subscription for SketchUp, save a backup to your Trimble Connect storage regularly. Each time you save the file to Trimble Connect it is an incremental save meaning you can always go back to an earlier version if needed. Normally you'll work on the internally saved file, though.

I wouldn't hold my breath but you could put in a support ticket with SketchUp Customer Support and ask them if they can recover anything from your file ,however they wouldn't get your request until Monday at the earliest. They are unlikely to be able to recover the entire model file but they might get something. Depending on your schedule it might just be faster for you to start over.

[Rich O Brien]

@PeterLustiger

Same for me. Failed to open document

[Dave R]

@PeterLustiger there's a fairly large chunk of data missing from your .skp file. Where have you been saving it while working on it? This sort of corruption seems to be fairly common when working on files saved directly to external drives, network locations, or directly to the cloud. the best advice is to make sure you are saving to an internal drive while working on the file and, since you have a subscription for SketchUp, save a backup to your Trimble Connect storage regularly. Each time you save the file to Trimble Connect it is an incremental save meaning you can always go back to an earlier version if needed. Normally you'll work on the internally saved file, though.

I wouldn't hold my breath but you could put in a support ticket with SketchUp Customer Support and ask them if they can recover anything from your file ,however they wouldn't get your request until Monday at the earliest. They are unlikely to be able to recover the entire model file but they might get something. Depending on your schedule it might just be faster for you to start over.

[PeterLustiger]

@Dave-R You’re absolutely the best for this fast and detailed answer—thank you so much! You’re completely right, I’ve been working on the file saved directly to an external drive. Lesson learned! Luckily, I managed to find an older version from a week ago, so I won’t have to start entirely from scratch. Thanks again for your help!

[Dave R]

@PeterLustiger good deal and I'm glad it helped. It's good that you found an older version that is viable so you don't have to start from the beginning.