Illustrator crashed - all layers merged into one

Hi @Lewis266846707er1,

I'm sorry to hear about the issue you've experienced with Illustrator. I can understand how frustrating it must be to have your work lost or damaged due to a software crash.

Unfortunately, once the layers have merged into one, it can be challenging to reverse the damage in the recovery file after the crash.

Regarding your issue with saving to the cloud, it's possible that the file wasn't saved due to a connection issue or some other technical problem. It's also possible that the recovery feature was turned off in your Adobe Illustrator preferences, which can happen when Illustrator detects that the file is complex.

We appreciate Monika's suggestion to save manually and, create backups & install the Autosaviour plugin, which can automatically save your work at regular intervals, as well as Ton's recommendation to restore previous versions of the file in Creative Cloud.

If you need further assistance or have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thanks,

Anshul Saini

If you go to your Creative Cloud files folder you should be able (right click) to open the file on the website and restore a previous version.

This looks like Illustrator could only import the PDF which is embedded in your file.

Saving not once while working on a project for several hours is not the best idea - was this an AIC file? A cloud file? Or did you rely on the Recovery function?

If you cannot remember saving your file, install the plugin Autosaviour. There is a free version available.