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Donnalyn5EE4
Participant
August 13, 2022
Answered

My work saved from a Mac is completely blank when I opened it on a PC

  • August 13, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 174 views

I did a lot of work on some Illustrator files on a Mac computer at my university, saving periodically to two flash drives (the second is backup). When I got home and opened them on my PC computer, they were both completely blank. The only thing preserved was the number of artboards and their dimensions.

I used the same flash drives last year to work between university (Mac) and home (PC) with no problems. Both university and home have the most recent version of Illustrator. My university is closed, so I can't yet check if the Illustrator files on my flash drive still work on the university computer.

Are my files recoverable? How do I fix this so I can take my work home? I won't be able to finish my course if I can't work at home.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Monika Gause

Are you saving directly to those flash drives or do you move the files there after saving to the internal drive. Unfortunately there is an issue with flash drives in Illustrator https://helpx.adobe.com/be_en/illustrator/kb/illustrator-support-networks-removable-media.html

 

Is the file size resonable? Or is it very small?

 

Since this goes from Mac to PC: Are you opening the correct files? Mac OS saves some extra files for internal purposes.

Does the PC support the file system on that thumb drive?

Can you try and first copy the files to the PC then open them?

Do those files still open in Arobat? This would give you the opportunity to at least get something from your file. It's not fully editable and might be a complete mess, but it will still be something there after all.

1 reply

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 13, 2022

Are you saving directly to those flash drives or do you move the files there after saving to the internal drive. Unfortunately there is an issue with flash drives in Illustrator https://helpx.adobe.com/be_en/illustrator/kb/illustrator-support-networks-removable-media.html

 

Is the file size resonable? Or is it very small?

 

Since this goes from Mac to PC: Are you opening the correct files? Mac OS saves some extra files for internal purposes.

Does the PC support the file system on that thumb drive?

Can you try and first copy the files to the PC then open them?

Do those files still open in Arobat? This would give you the opportunity to at least get something from your file. It's not fully editable and might be a complete mess, but it will still be something there after all.

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Donnalyn5EE4Author
Participant
August 16, 2022

Thanks for your reply. I was saving to the computer and then copying them onto the flash drives. There were three files, sizes were about 50,000 KB (basing this on files where I'd made the equivalent amount of progress). I was opening the correct files. Unfortunately I couldn't retrieve anything using other methods. When I was able to get back to the university computer, the files still had the same problem, so it wasn't a Mac to PC issue as I'd hoped. I was told that it was mostly likely the flash drives that were the problem, and that other students had had issues with flash drives in the past as well. I'm glad there is some further information about that; thank you for the link!

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