Illustrator files saving as 0 KB across devices leading to data loss

If you're saving files to an external hard drive it might be worth doing a couple trouble shooting steps with the drive. First, if you have another good USB cable try using that to see if the previous cable might be bad. Check the drive for errors as well as optimize and defragment the drive.

Are you saving rto external drive? If so, does it also happen if you first save on your internal hard disk and copy the saved results to the external? Can you try to turn off Preferences > File Handling > Save in Background?

Hi @jacob5ECF,

Thanks for reaching out, and really sorry you're running into this issue.

Could you please confirm the version of Adobe Illustrator you're using along with your OS details? Also, let me know if this is happening with all files or only specific ones during save or export.

In the meantime, I'd recommend trying a few quick checks. Please try saving to a completely local folder like your Desktop instead of an external or synced drive and see if that helps. You can also go to Preferences and turn off Save in Background under File Handling, then test again. If you’re on Windows, try launching Illustrator as an administrator once and check if the issue persists.

It would also help to try saving with a different name or format to see if the behavior is consistent. If you’re using any cloud sync services like OneDrive or Google Drive, try saving outside those folders for now. Additionally, please manually reset Illustrator preferences using this reference video and test again: https://adobe.ly/422I6C0

Let me know how it goes after trying these, and I'll be happy to take it further with you.

Abhishek