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JackFancyTO
Inspiring
November 8, 2024
Question

Missing Artwork Outside Art Board

  • November 8, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1035 views

Something weird was happening so I reset preferences. In order for it to take effect I had to restart Illustrator and when I reopened a file all my work outside the artboard has gone missing. Am I crazy? 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 8, 2024

It looks like you are opening a pdf instead of an Illustrator document.

Can you describe how you save your files?

Do you save them as .ai, .aic or .pdf?

Where do you save them? Local hard disk, server, dropbox or other cloud synced folder?

JackFancyTO
Inspiring
November 9, 2024

I did save it as a PDF in dropbox but I think I corrupted the file by resetting my preferences to default. I'm hoping to hear I'm correct so readers cann prevent this from happening.  I will be saving everythinng as AI from now on

 

 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2024

Resetting your preferences does not affect your files. But saving as a PDF will if you do not turn on "Illustrator editability"

JackFancyTO
Inspiring
November 8, 2024

Update: I'm not crazy and neither are you if you experienced the same thing and here looking for answers. Some work creeped onto the art board which let me know the right file was opened. These items were clip masked along the perimeter of my artboard, I was hoping if I released them all it would reveal all my notes and explorations I performed outside the art board. It didn't work; only items inside the art board was clip masked. I closed the file without saving hoping if I reopen it the glitch would be lifted; it didn't. What's annoying is I can see my work outside the artboard as a thumbnail in Adobe Illustrator's prompt page under 'recent'. I received a warning saying 'The document contains PDF objects that have been reinterpreted: To get the look, some of the text was converted to paths.' Somewhere in this forum somebody wrote 'PDFs aren't editable and it's best to always save files as AI' but it doesn't explain why this happened. If someone can share how this glitch occured it would help the community understand how to prevent this situation from happening. 

 

Is there a way I can open the corrupted file bypassing lllustrator reinterpreting my PDF? I hope so but I doubt it. 🤬