"Unexpected File Format" Save corruption

I was working on a project and hit save when Flash freezes and I receive an error message saying "Adobe Flash CS5 has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." - with an option for "Close program"
I waited, in vain, to see if Flash would resume running but unfortunately it left me with the only option of hitting close program. I hit close program, and Flash disappears. When I tried to open the file I was working on I get the error message "Unexpected File Format"
The save file is now corrupted. Since I am new to flash (student at university), and unaware of how notoriously unstable it's save files could be, I did not think to save a secondary backup file and just save on a regular basis instead.
Here's the details of my computer:
OS: Windows 7 64bit
Intel i7 950 @ 3.07 Ghz
6GB Ram
Flash CS5 version 11.0.0.485
I have tried every potential fix I have found to no success. If I am unable to recover this file there is a very high likelihood I will be unable to finish my assignment in time, I will fail the course and will have to repeat the entire year.
Is there anything I can do to recover this file?

After looking over the file some more it seems as though I must have lost everything. Comparing similar files I've been working with, their sizes are around 5-7MB, the corrupted file is only 4kb suggesting everything is gone.

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Flash 'Unexpected File Format' Save corruption

Hello.
We recently upgraded to Windows 7 64Bit from Windows XP here at work, and since the upgrade i've discovered a very scary issue with Flash.
When going to save one of my large projects, often Adobe simply crashes outright, freezing up and displaying a standard error message.
"Adobe Flash CS5 has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." - with an option for "Close program"
I hit close program, and Flash disappears. If I try and open that same FLA file again, I get the error message
"Unexpected File Format"
Unfortunately it seems since Flash is crashing in the middle of saving, it is corrupting my FLA file. This is extremely worrying, since it corrupts my entire source file.
I'm lucky I keep regular backups, otherwise I could have lost months of work instead of just todays. In the meantime I have been copying and pasting a new version of the file each time I open Flash, but it's a crapshoot whether next time I save if it will kill it or not.
Here's the details of my computer:
OS: Windows 7 - Recently upgraded from 32bit Windows XP
64 Bit Intel Xeon X5560 @ 2.80 Ghz
4GB Ram
The Flash CS5 version is 11.0.0.485
The FLA in question is 10MB, and contains some large map files (gifs), lots of small JPG's as well as a fair chunk of code as well as importing of external classes. I've tried replicating the issue on smaller files, and haven't been able to do so.
I was wondering if it was a case of not enough memory, but Flash appears to use around 450 mbs. About 40% of my total memory is free, according to the Task Manager performance.
Any ideas what could fix this issue?

Hello Sukhi12,
I just read your reply and I can't believe that Adobe is taking a stand like this!
Are you seriously (no really, SERIOUSLY?!?) telling us that Flash is not designed to save files over a network?!?!?
I am really upset by the fact that Flash is such a badly designed product and I'm even more upset by the fact that appearently Adobe doesn't give a ***** about it!
Are you aware that in the modern world EVERY company has a policy to save files over a network? For most developers it's not a choice of saving locally, it's just not an option. We are forced to use networkdrives, and if I may say so, I totally agree we should! Come on Adobe, this is 2011 you know! And saying in your technote (from 2009!) that we just have to use a third-party version control system is totally rediculous!
A few things that I like to say about this matter:
1) I have been using Flash for about 10 years now. I have been using a network drive most of this time and I never (really, never!) experienced corrupt files while saving. Even with flash 5 there was no problem at all! So something changed with Flash CS5 and Flash CS5.5 and Adobe is too lazy to admit it. Very bad....
2) Why is it that software like Photoshop is able to save over a network without any problems? Why is a PSD-file so much different from a FLA-file? Surely Adobe must have people on the payroll that are perfectly able to code software that can save over a network? Photoshop proves it's possible, doesn't it?
3) I told you in the beginning of this forumpost that I'm saving my files over a network. Why didn't you show us the technote at that point? Why did you ask me to send you sourcefiles first? Is there some boss that told you to get rid of those nasty questions, or something?
4) I'm really surprised that the technote says that Flash IDE is not "designed" to function across LANs. Why is this not mentioned on the Flash Product Page where you want us to pay $699 for this product? I would really like to know this as a new customer! Something in the features like: "Beware, unlike other software, Flash Professional is NOT ABLE to save your files across LANs. If you try to save, flash will most definately corrupt your files beyond repair".
5) As you can see, I am really upset about this and especially about the attitude Adobe is displaying about this. I'm am surely going to twitter this to everyone I know and start a good amount of posts in the Flash Community about this.You really can't do this, Adobe.
You might not suspect this, but I am actually a big fan of Flash, as I suspect most of you are. I like to think that I support Flash despite the fact that Apple is pissing all over it lately. I defend it to people by saying it's a wonderfull product that does wonderfull things. I am very dissapointed that Adobe is letting us down like this.
Please answer these question for us. I'm sure the Flashcommunity is dying to know what's going on here!
And also, please ask your developers to fix this annoying problem. I'm sure it's not impossible....
Regards,
Sander

Unexpected File Format

I am developing a training course in Flash CS3 and several of
my files seem to have become corrupt - when I try to open them I'm
getting the 'Unexpected File Format' error message. They are
definitely CS3 files. I am making sure I publish swfs before I
close the files so I can decompile them to get a flash file back,
but I am worried that this is a sign of doom!
Is there anything I could be doing to cause this corruption?
Flash isn't crashing or showing any visible signs of anything
wrong. I have added the same background graphic (a png file) and
changed the title to a different font in each of these corrupted
files - could that be it?
I am thinking of saving all the uncorrupted files back to
Flash 8 and working in that instead - could that be a solution?
Thanks for any opinions!

Have that other person save the file in whatever older
version of Flash that is available in the Save As interface and try
that.
Beyond that, what version of Flash do you believe you both
share?

HELP! Unexpected File Format Error

I was recently working on a project in Flash CS5.5 for school, last thing i did was save the project and close the program. Next time I try to open it I get an error saying "Unexpected File Format", and the application closes itself out. I can open Flash by itself and work on anything else, but when I try to open my class project it repeats the same thing "Unexpected File Format" and closes. The file was originally started IN Flash CS5.5, and has not moved to any other program since then. I dont understand what happened. I really need this project working again, can anyone help?

It's just happened again!!
This is really killing my deadline. Same file, this time I had just deleted to fonts from the library, then clicked save to get the alert to kill flash.
This time I got the additional info from the "Adobe Flash CS5.5 has stopped working" alert box:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Flash.exe
Application Version: 11.5.0.325
Application Timestamp: 4d79fed5
Fault Module Name: Flash.exe
Fault Module Version: 11.5.0.325
Fault Module Timestamp: 4d79fed5
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00131e35
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.4
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409
If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
Then after clicking "Close the program" on the alert, I get another alert with the following in the problem details:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Flash.exe
Application Version: 11.5.0.325
Application Timestamp: 4d79fed5
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.17514
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ce7b96e
Exception Code: c0150010
Exception Offset: 00083f7e
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.4
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: aba5
Additional Information 2: aba5168922f519834928ffedc4428eb5
Additional Information 3: a36e
Additional Information 4: a36ebf3985e5b9460741b16a785caa1b
Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409
If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Unexpected File Format in Flash Pro 8

Hi, I have downloaded the trial version of Flash Professional 8 for a homework assignment and when I try to open the file that the professor gave us I get an error that states "Unexpected File Format" I have tried almost everything to fix the file but nothing is working. I do not know what version of Flash the file was originally saved in. Can anyone help?

if that file was saved for a newer version, there's nothing you can do other than ask your prof or someone else to save it down for you or download a newer flash pro version that can open your fla.
p.s. flash pro 8 is very old. we're on flash pro 14 now.
Downloadable installation files available:
Suites and Programs: CC 2014 | CC | CS6 | CS5.5 | CS5 | CS4, CS4 Web Standard | CS3
Acrobat: XI, X | 9,8 | 9 standard
Premiere Elements: 13 | 12 | 11, 10 | 9, 8, 7 win | 8 mac | 7 mac
Photoshop Elements: 13 |12 | 11, 10 | 9,8,7 win | 8 mac | 7 mac
Lightroom: 5.7.1| 5 | 4 | 3
Captivate: 8 | 7 | 6 | 5.5, 5 | 1
Contribute: CS5 | CS4, CS3 | 3,2
FrameMaker: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7.2
Download and installation help for Adobe links
Download and installation help for Prodesigntools links are listed on most linked pages. They are critical; especially steps 1, 2 and 3. If you click a link that does not have those steps listed, open a second window using the Lightroom 3 link to see those 'Important Instructions'.

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I was working with a FLA file when i press Ctrl+s to save the file it says "can not save and somethig.. bla bla.. " so, i have just closed the file whitout saving. Then i tried opening the FLA again and i get "Unexpected File Format" error. Are my FLA file contents now forever lost? No way to recover it? its around 6Mb of size. can you please help me to recover it??

There's a lot of info on the forum about this but grab WinRAR, duplicate the FLA and rename the duplicate to something.rar, open it with WinRAR and acknowledge the archive may be damaged, Tell WinRAR to fix the archive, when complete rename back to FLA and try it.
http://download.cnet.com/WinRAR-64-bit/3000-2250_4-10965579.html?tag=contentBody;pop

How to fix "Unexpected File Format" in Adobe Flash Professional CS6

I am trying to access my Fla file and every time I try to open it, It keeps saying "Unexpected File Format" and then closing. This happened after the Auto Saving crashed the program. I've already tried the "turn it into .rar and repairing the .rar then turning the rar back into fla." that didn't help at all. Please help I've spent a whole year working on this animation and to have the program do this to me the minute I finish makes me so mad and not want to ever buy another product from adobe ever again! please help!?!

Check out : http://helpx.adobe.com/flash/using/whats-new-cs6.html
In that click on "Choose network interface for remote debugging for AIR" section.
Hope it helps.

FAQ: How to resolve "Unexpected File Format" error with Flash Professional CS5.5?

You may encounter errors when you attempt opening or saving files using Flash Professional CS5.5. To address the above problem, Adobe released an updater for Flash Pro CS5.5 (version 11.5.1).
The following article explains about the errors and Flash CS5.5 updater released to handle them in detail:
http://blogs.adobe.com/flashpro/2012/07/24/unexpected-file-format-error-on-opening-flash-f iles-using-flash-cs5-5/

Which operating system are you using? If you look in the Adobe Download Assistant is it still downloading the install files?

"Unexpected file format" unless I rename

Hi,
I'm working as a freelancer in a flash project. The project includes a list of as2 files which I need to edit and debug. I was going to do that using flash cs3 but every time I try to open an as2 file I get an "Unexpected file format" error message. The files are strictly text and (not binary), but it seems flash cs3 won't open files with a '.as2' extension (e.g. scriptfile1.as2). If I rename the file so it holds the .as extension (e.g. scriptfile1.as) then cs3 opens it fine. Unfortunately I cannot rename these files since I'm not the owner of the project, I merely make some modifications.
Does anyone know of a way to open .as2 files in flash cs3 without renaming them to .as?
Thanks in advance,
Yishay

no. those weren't created in flash (unless they were created as .as files and renamed).

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Somewhere upgrading versions of Photoshop (Mac), some old File Formats have remained. The result is that I cannot properly select a File Format to Save As... except the native PSD format. Others have to be selected by selecting a format below the one on the list, meaning that I cannot select TIFF because there are no formats below this one. (Accepted formats http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7758a.h tml#WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7754a)
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Curt,
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Suppossedly, according to the information from Adobe, the only place plugins should be loaded is in the Photoshop > Plug-Ins folder, or possibly Library>Application Support>Adobe>Plug-Ins (according to the link you provided). There is nothing there.
When I look at Photoshop > About Plug-ins I see that, for example, there are two (2) versions of CompuServe GIF format. Obviously one is old from a previous install/update, but I cannot find it anywhere. If I could find it, I could remove it. I suspect that is one of the conflicts causing my problem, but I see no way in Preferences to remove a plug-in. The link you gave says to move it outside the folder, but it presupposes you can even find the offending plug-in, which I cannot.
Monty

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upload your fla and post a link.

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Caches/com.apple.Preview
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Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist
Preferences/com.apple.Preview.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist
Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState
Launch the application and test.

Photoshop CC 2014 saves corrupted jpeg files!

I just cant understand this???
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I have try with the latest iMac and the latest Mac Book Pro, both with Mavericks and Yosemite. Im saving to their internal hard drives. I can not open the corrupted photos on any application.

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"Unexpected File Format" Save corruption

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