Yesterday, 01:28 PM
(This post was last modified: Yesterday, 01:38 PM by ink_stroke.)
Many thanks for your replies!
Your writings about hardware reminded me of an incident that took place here on May 31st: My house was struck by a lightning. I can't remember if I was working on my images just then. What I do remember is that I was just looking at my Deponia-desktop wallpaper, and then the screen suddenly going super-bright for a second as the lightning struck the building. I hadn't experienced anything alike before. Usually, I don't use my computer when there is a lightning storm; but that one had just begun and seemed to be very distant. I was very shocked and turned off my computer quickly, hoping that it hadn't got damaged.
Later, I checked my devices. None of them seemed to be damaged while my neighbour's modem was broken; so I seemed to be lucky. By now, I can not tell if the issues with my files are due to that lightning strike; but it is for sure that they began around that time.
Yes, I said "around that time" even though I've stated that the loss of layers hadn't happened before last weekend. It's because now I remember another issue that happened more than a week ago and that I didn't think of when writing about the layers: One morning, I opened two files I had been working on the day before, and both of them had corrupted image layers in them, showing only parts of the original images, the rest of the pages being completely grey. It was not only the image layers, but also the original JPG source files that looked like that. This is what one of those files looks like now (not the original file, only a screenshot):
I have no idea if I had had those files opened during the lightning strike, nor when exactly I realised the issue. The files' details say that they had last been changed on May 29th.
Thanks for that hint! May I ask how you came to the conclusion that your disk was broken?
Yesterday, I spent the whole day checking all of my disks with chkdsk, a built-in Windows tool. There wasn't a single error found; although I don't know what it said to my Windows drive because it shut itself down automatically when it was finished there; and it showed a wrong time remaining.
I've also checked my RAM bars with memtest. According to it, they are all fine.
Thanks!
I've tried that with a corrupted file. The tool threw an error message. This is what it said:
(The second file's alright.)
Corrupted files are very large - as if they contained all the missing parts!
Thanks for your effort and suggestions!
I don't think that my hardware was too weak. I've got a Pentium i5 with 6 cores and 16 GB DDR4 RAM. This is what GIMP's dashboard says about it:
Today, I saved the broken files' contents by recomposing the files, taking care not to use linked layers or parts from broken files. When I opened some of the broken ones, I realised that GIMP showed this message in the bottom line:
So what does all of that mean now? It doesn't seem very likely to me; but I think it possible that the lightning strike may have damaged both the XCF files and the JPG files that may have been included in those files as linked layers, or that I switched my computer off too quickly so that the opened files could not be saved. It's also possible that I then copied those files to my backup disk so that I later got a family tree of several corrupted files everywhere around.
I have no idea how realistic that sounds; but for now, I guess I can not do much more than work with the files that have for sure not been corrupted, hoping that the issues aren't going to appear again.
Many thanks for now!
Your writings about hardware reminded me of an incident that took place here on May 31st: My house was struck by a lightning. I can't remember if I was working on my images just then. What I do remember is that I was just looking at my Deponia-desktop wallpaper, and then the screen suddenly going super-bright for a second as the lightning struck the building. I hadn't experienced anything alike before. Usually, I don't use my computer when there is a lightning storm; but that one had just begun and seemed to be very distant. I was very shocked and turned off my computer quickly, hoping that it hadn't got damaged.
Later, I checked my devices. None of them seemed to be damaged while my neighbour's modem was broken; so I seemed to be lucky. By now, I can not tell if the issues with my files are due to that lightning strike; but it is for sure that they began around that time.
Yes, I said "around that time" even though I've stated that the loss of layers hadn't happened before last weekend. It's because now I remember another issue that happened more than a week ago and that I didn't think of when writing about the layers: One morning, I opened two files I had been working on the day before, and both of them had corrupted image layers in them, showing only parts of the original images, the rest of the pages being completely grey. It was not only the image layers, but also the original JPG source files that looked like that. This is what one of those files looks like now (not the original file, only a screenshot):
I have no idea if I had had those files opened during the lightning strike, nor when exactly I realised the issue. The files' details say that they had last been changed on May 29th.
(06-09-2026, 06:52 PM)MrsP-from-C Wrote: @OP: are you sure your harddisk /SSD is ok?
Just thinking as we experienced that some weeks ago here at home.
First "strange" things happening about images until we realized it was the hard disk at life's end.
Thanks for that hint! May I ask how you came to the conclusion that your disk was broken?
Yesterday, I spent the whole day checking all of my disks with chkdsk, a built-in Windows tool. There wasn't a single error found; although I don't know what it said to my Windows drive because it shut itself down automatically when it was finished there; and it showed a wrong time remaining.
(06-09-2026, 02:19 PM)rich2005 Wrote: I know...never the user... always the program.Yes, indeed!
I've also checked my RAM bars with memtest. According to it, they are all fine.
(06-09-2026, 06:42 PM)teapot Wrote: It would help to confirm if the fault is on gimp's saving the .xcf file or on loading it.
One clue would be file size, a saved file with missing layers would be smaller.
I suggest looking at the .xcf files outside of gimp to see what layers are present.
Do you have imagemagick, available here. https://imagemagick.org
To use imagemagick to see what layers there are do: identify filename.xcf
For an example here's what I got for one of my .xcf files with 10 layers it shows the layer offsets, width and height of each layer:
Code:
$ identify pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[0] XCF 391x602 391x602+0+0 8-bit sRGB 0.010u 0:00.011
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[1] XCF 391x131 391x131+0+471 8-bit sRGB 0.010u 0:00.014
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[2] XCF 57x236 57x236+168+322 8-bit sRGB 0.020u 0:00.015
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[3] XCF 64x190 64x190+110+218 8-bit sRGB 0.020u 0:00.016
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[4] XCF 39x156 39x156+153+183 8-bit sRGB 0.020u 0:00.017
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[5] XCF 49x266 49x266+145+322 8-bit sRGB 0.020u 0:00.017
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[6] XCF 90x132 90x132+119+79 8-bit sRGB 0.020u 0:00.018
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[7] XCF 83x185 83x185+151+53 8-bit sRGB 0.020u 0:00.019
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[8] XCF 124x535 124x535+110+53 8-bit sRGB 0.020u 0:00.023
pipecleaner-stick-man-03.xcf[9] XCF 391x602 391x602+0+0 8-bit sRGB 0.040u 0:00.036
Thanks!
I've tried that with a corrupted file. The tool threw an error message. This is what it said:
Code:
C:\Users\Andreas>identify F:\C05_blank.xcf
identify: not enough pixel data `F:\C05_blank.xcf' @ error/xcf.c/ReadXCFImage/1495.
C:\Users\Andreas>identify F:\C05.xcf
F:\C05.xcf[0] XCF 9920x6992 9920x6992+95+95 8-bit sRGB 2.238u 0:02.237
F:\C05.xcf[1] XCF 10110x7182 10110x7182+0+0 8-bit sRGB 4.465u 0:04.464
F:\C05.xcf[2] XCF 9920x6992 9920x6992+95+95 8-bit sRGB 6.583u 0:06.583
F:\C05.xcf[3] XCF 4116x5012 4116x5012+5477+1653 8-bit sRGB 7.217u 0:07.217
F:\C05.xcf[4] XCF 230x300 230x300+8903+5250 8-bit sRGB 7.221u 0:07.221
F:\C05.xcf[5] XCF 4019x909 4019x909+5523+567 8-bit sRGB 7.354u 0:07.353
F:\C05.xcf[6] XCF 4760x465 4760x465+287+6378 8-bit sRGB 7.495u 0:07.495Corrupted files are very large - as if they contained all the missing parts!
(06-09-2026, 02:19 PM)rich2005 Wrote:(06-09-2026, 01:36 PM)ink_stroke Wrote: I didn't expect to be back this soon; but this program is indeed giving me pure terror.
Just before, I opened the main raw file I mentioned above - the one I use to integrate my drawn images into - and could already see in the little preview icon that some objects were mi ssing. When it was loaded, it was clear that only 2 of 5 layers were still there; a text layer, a filled background part, my signature image and a vector graphic had been removed.
..snip..
Anyway, am I really the only person in the world experiencing this issue? It didn't occure here before last weekend; but since then, it does every day. .
In the mean time I have been trying all sorts of ways to lose layers between saving an image and reopening at a later date. Without any sucess.
I know...never the user... always the program.
My guess is it is something in your workflow or maybe your Windows Gimp installation. If you get a chance with one of your projects about to save, go into Windows -> Dockable Dialogues -> Dashboard (bottom of menu) Take a screen shot and post it here.
Maybe someone will spot lack of resources or some problem.
Edit: Something like this: If you are maxing out memory or starting to use the swap space then your installation is short of resources.
Edit again: Much as I dislike Reddit, a Google search does come up with similar issue: This one maybe
https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/1...howing_up/
Otherwise, you could use some other program, Maybe Krita or Paint.Net
Thanks for your effort and suggestions!
I don't think that my hardware was too weak. I've got a Pentium i5 with 6 cores and 16 GB DDR4 RAM. This is what GIMP's dashboard says about it:
Today, I saved the broken files' contents by recomposing the files, taking care not to use linked layers or parts from broken files. When I opened some of the broken ones, I realised that GIMP showed this message in the bottom line:
So what does all of that mean now? It doesn't seem very likely to me; but I think it possible that the lightning strike may have damaged both the XCF files and the JPG files that may have been included in those files as linked layers, or that I switched my computer off too quickly so that the opened files could not be saved. It's also possible that I then copied those files to my backup disk so that I later got a family tree of several corrupted files everywhere around.
I have no idea how realistic that sounds; but for now, I guess I can not do much more than work with the files that have for sure not been corrupted, hoping that the issues aren't going to appear again.
Many thanks for now!