Extra shadow error?

**mconeillster** · 04 January 2012, 03:16 AM

I have just received an "Extra shadow error" and Xara deleted SO MUCH of my progress on my project. Why is this? How can I recover this? I just lost three sessions of labor. I'm going back to Pshop if this keeps happening. I can't afford these kinds of setbacks.

**mconeillster** · 04 January 2012, 03:29 AM

Specifically, "Extra objects in shadow group. Xara has deleted them."

**angelize** · 04 January 2012, 03:38 AM

Hello mconeillster, Welcome to Talkgraphics. If you haven't disabled the back up function then you should be able to recover most if not all of your work. Go to file> open recent and and the bottom of the list of recent files click back ups this will open a directory of back ups on your hard drive. If you have saved your work it will be there under the name you gave it, if it is a new unsaved piece it will be under Untitled. open the most recent back up of your file and save it with a new name and you should be good to go.

**mconeillster** · 04 January 2012, 03:40 AM

Well, that worked, but how do I keep this from recurring? BTW, many thanks. I may get to pay my bills this month.

**angelize** · 04 January 2012, 03:47 AM

You are quite welcome, I'm glad I was able to help. As to why this happened it could be due to many things, I haven't come across this particular error before.

**HayTay** · 04 January 2012, 03:49 AM

Sorry for your loss, mconeillster. Welcome to TG, though.

It appears that you lost at least 3 opportunities to save your project during your 3 sessions of development. No matter what computer or application/program you're using the rule has always been SAVE, and SAVE OFTEN. Yes, even in PhotoShop. And yes, I've crashed PhotoShop Elements 9.

As to what happened, I don't know. You might want to send the file and the error to Magix/Xara's tech support staff. They may be able to discover what happened to your file and/or recover part of the file. If you could enlighten the TG users as to which one of Xara's programs you were using when the error occurred, we may be of further, more immediate, assistance. The newer versions of Xara Designer Pro and Xara Photo & Graphic Designer have a built in 'Automatic Backup' function which is enabled by default. There may be an automatic backup of a previous version of your project available on your hard drive. Check the Utilities > Options > Backup tab to see if 'Automatic Backups' are enabled and to find the directory/folder where the backups are being stored.

I hope this helps (some),
HayTay

**mconeillster** · 04 January 2012, 03:58 AM

Believe me, I backup with the best of them! LOL! I just hope this doesn't happen again. I'll send this report to Xara and see if the devs can prevent this from happening again. At least now I know what I can do to recoveer this if any error occurs. Many thanks again to Angelize.

**HayTay** · 04 January 2012, 04:14 AM

Beaten to the punch by Frances! Way to go, though. I'm glad she helped you locate a backup version of your project file.

If you are going to be be generating a lot of complex shadows using the 'Shadow Tool', one thing that I learned a long time ago is apply the shadows to your objects LAST (after all of the other design work is done, but not before SAVING your file). Also, be wary of applying shadows to grouped, or groups, of objects that may already contain objects with shadows. Shadows of shadows of shadows isn't very effective or efficient. That may have been the cause of your 'Extra Shadow Error'. Or maybe not...