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vincentd6087485
Participant
November 21, 2024
Question

How do I recover files after a crash that simply didn't open?

  • November 21, 2024
  • 33 replies
  • 42923 views

i was working in illustrator (beta) 29.3.0 when it crashed. upon reopening it, i got a popup that it recovered the two opened files. i hit 'confirm' to open the recovered files, then nothing happened. can i recover them manually somehome?

33 replies

Participating Frequently
May 26, 2025

Illustrator has cool features, Adobe community is helping it improve faster day by day, and the developer team is working on it. However, there is a problem that I am facing without backup 

I have had an issue with "File Recovery" without recovering files.
Heh, maybe you don't get what I said, look bottom!

The recovery file won't open automatically after pressing "OK". also checked whether it does not opens automatically. I should open it manually from the saved location, but it is showing 0KB 'savinginprogress' and not opening. And I got noohhw after experiencing.

i am seeking help from Adobe community members. i attached the two images, i hope it will solve faster.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 27, 2025

The only thing you can do is save your files regularly.

And then also make backup copies regularly.

And also make backup copies on external harddisks.

And use backup software.

 

And when you are doing all of this, then the recovery feature is the icing on the cake. It was never meant to be your only file saving and backup solution.

Aleare Works
Participant
May 26, 2025

Realmente muy cansada y estresada de tener que rehacer mis trabajos hasta 3 veces porque Illustrator se cuelga al querer guardar, al reiniciar la app no muestra el popup para reportar errores y además tampoco recupera los archivos que estaba trabajando antes que se colgara.

Sinceramente me siento estafada, pago todos los meses por una aplicación que no funciona y me retrasa los trabajos!!!

No me manden mensajes diciéndome que reinicie la computadora, basta!! NECESITO UNA SOLUCIÓN CONCRETA!!!

HARSHIKA_VERMA
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 30, 2025

Hi Aleare Works,

 

We understand how frustrating it could be, and we apologize for the inconvenience. Would you mind telling us if you get any error message when Illustrator crashes? Please share the version of Illustrator installed on your machine and the details of your operating system. 

Does that happen with all files you're saving?
Have you submitted the crash report?

 

We will try our best to investigate the issue and help you resolve it.

 

Thanks,

Harshika

Participant
May 24, 2025

Just had the exact same issue! Illustrator crashed, when I restarted the app, it recognized that I had lost my work and offered to recover my files. But clicking "Confirm" did nothing. 

Just lost a day's worth of work! I rechecked my settings, and auto-backup has been turned on.

Seeing that many other people have had this issue, I believe it isn't my issue. It is a shame such popular software has such a fundamental issue. I am extremely pissed off. 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 25, 2025

@hkb99  schrieb:

and auto-backup has been turned on.

 


 

There is no auto-backup in Illustrator.

 

There is the file recovery

and there is automatic saving for Cloud files only

 

File recovery is the icing on the cake if you are doing the rather basic file saving routine already:

- you are saving your files regularly (on your own)

- you are making backup copies regularly (on your own)

- you are having at least one backup on an external disk (or the cloud)

- you are using Time Machine or something similar

 

No application will reliably save your files or make backups. You have to do it or it won't happen.

Participant
May 22, 2025

Same problem here ... I made my peace with it and will start my work from scratch, but now every time I open Illustrator, I get this popup ... which is pretty annoying. How can I get rid of it ? I have restarted my computer already. 

Participant
May 22, 2025

v.29.5.1 the feature still failing in the recovery after a crash. It crashes a lot more now also.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 22, 2025

@Juanmanwel  schrieb:

v.29.5.1 the feature still failing in the recovery after a crash. It crashes a lot more now also.


 

Do not ever work in a way that you need to rely on the recovery function for your backup or even more serious your only version of a file.

 

Just save your files. Recovery is nice, but it will never work in a way that you can rely on it for a backup or a saving operation. 

Participant
September 11, 2025

I see you writing this a lot on people's posts but, in fact, it can and DID used to work in a way that I could rely on it for a backup or saving operation - it worked perfectly this way for me for over 10 years and it still does in Photoshop and InDesign. I'm by no means saying people "should" work this way, but I'm saying it IS and WAS possible. Every time my program shut down unexpectedly, I could always rely on the programming opening back up in the exact way it was before shutting down, even if I had 15+ documents open at the time. If it could do this before, there's no reason we should be regressing on these features.

Participant
May 15, 2025

I worked on an illustrator file from the creative cloud, then I closed it & saved it. When I wanted to open it again by clicking the icon in recent files, a window popped out saying the file doesnt exist. After trying to open it for a couple of times, the file disappeared from the recent files. Moreover, it's nowhere to find on my disk nor creative cloud, althogh I thought it was at least once saved on the hard disk in the process. I worked on this file for several weeks, it was saved at least couple of times.. but In the RecoveryData folder there are only files ".aishm". Could you please help me to recover the file? I cannot understand what has happened.

kglad
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 15, 2025

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.



<"moved from using the community bugs">
Participant
May 6, 2025

My computer shut down and I lost several documents. I open adobe illustrator repeatedly and it will say "The following documents were recovered:...." and I click ok and nothing happens, it stays on the homescreen. I try to go to the recovered docs folder and there are just a bunch of Images folders with .aishm files (e.g. 

Library/Preferences/Adobe\ Illustrator\ 29\ Settings/en_US/DataRecovery/f8G3ixw5L6/Images/111.aishm). Is there a way to recover the files?

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 6, 2025

If it crashes while saving, then those files are lost most of the time. That's why saving is important. And also making backups.

Participant
May 5, 2025

After hitting "okay", these files usually open by themselves but isn't doing it now for some reason. I noticed some other people had this issue but saw no real solve for beside an Adobe employee using the AID files in /DataRecovery to try to recover your files for you. If an adobe Employee sees this is able to help me that would be great, here's a drive link to everything the data recovery folder (reminder trying to recover files named above): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ONDeGeJzDZWVB3tiZNl_HUle6n-wcQSK?usp=share_link

Community Manager
May 5, 2025

Hello @jesus_9689,

Thank you for sharing the file with us. Despite attempting to recover from the file, regrettably, there was nothing left to salvage. We understand this may not be the ideal outcome, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused.

 

Could you confirm if the file was saved on a network, removable drive, or a cloud-synced folder like Google Drive or Dropbox? Storing files in such locations can sometimes lead to corruption issues. To prevent this from happening in the future, we recommend saving your work locally first and then manually copying it to your desired backup location.

Additionally, were you experiencing crashes in Illustrator when this issue occurred? If so, we suggest trying the troubleshooting steps outlined in this help article (https://adobe.ly/3ENsMl1) to see if it resolves the problem.

 

To avoid similar situations in the future, we advise saving multiple copies of your active work locally or saving them as cloud documents.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or need assistance. We're here to help.

 

Anubhav

Participant
May 5, 2025

Hi @Anubhav M
It was saved on a network/could-synced folder called Egnyte. Likely why wasn't able to recover them properly.

Known Participant
May 3, 2025

I just lost 8 hours of work and nothing can be recovered. Even after the automatically crash recovery was enabled, I am seeing nothing.

I did got the recovery dialog box after the restart from crash but the recovered documents had nothing. It was just the last save.

 

All I am seeing is .aishm formats in data recovery folder of %appdata%

Can anything be done? I just lost a big effort.

I am at v29.5 and I am seeing more crashes on this version.

 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 3, 2025

The only people that might have a very slight chance to help you are staff. I assume that Anubhav has notifications for this thread turned on, so you can only hope that he sees your post soon. But it's the weekend.

 

Since you experience a lot of crashes, you should address that, since that is not normal. Did you already reboot the system and reset the preferences. Maybe clean up your font folder. Check if you really need all the applications that are currently running in the background. You can try if the crashes also happen when you run the computer in Safe Mode (note: this is just a test, not a permanent solution).

 

But then also: make a backup strtegy. 8 hours without saving is just not a good idea. And neither is 8 hours without a backup of the file.

 

The recovery function is meant to be the icing on the cake of a real backup strategy. It is not meant as Autosave. And will never be, since a crash in the middle of any saving operation will ruin any file.

Community Manager
April 30, 2025

Hello everyone,

Our team has made some improvements to file saving, which should also help with recovering files after a crash in the latest Illustrator (beta) release. Please try out the latest Illustrator (beta) (https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/creative-cloud-beta.html) and share your feedback.

Anubhav

Participant
May 13, 2025

your team did what??

I will tell you. You asking people to update to newer versions but basic functions doesnt work. all my work just pfffhh - dissapear. thank you. thank you for taking my money my time and my job.

[profanity removed by moderator]

Community Manager
May 13, 2025

Hi @plmy38829434yjng,

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble. Could you please provide more details, such as the version of your OS and Illustrator, a description of your workflow, and specifics about the issue? If possible, a screen recording would be very helpful.

Looking forward to your response.

Anubhav