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Inspiring
March 8, 2017
Question

Can't recover trashed 358-page InDesign CC 2017 document

  • March 8, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 1577 views

Hello Community,

     I'm a fuss-pot for details, but somehow I trashed my 358-page InDesign CC 2017 document,

and no way could find out how to recover it.

It looks like, judging by what I found about recovery, my docs are not automatically backed-up.

I have my own backup on an external disk, but it's 8 days old and missing data since then.

     Please help. Thank you very much,

          Morty

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 4, 2017

but somehow I trashed my 358-page InDesign CC 2017 document,

and no way could find out how to recover it.

There are a number of file recovery apps out there some are free. I've used Stellar Recovery and it works great. It's not free, but the demo will tell you if the trashed file is still there.

Data Recovery Software Free Download – Stellar Data Recovery

The sooner you run a file recovery utility after the loss the better the chance of recovering trashed files.

Dov Isaacs
Legend
March 8, 2017

What many of us who have used technology over the years have learned is the maxim “save and backup early and often” even if it appears somewhat inconvenient. This applies not only to InDesign documents, but virtually any type of digital asset that is being worked on for a period of time with numerous edit cycles including spreadsheets, photos, presentations, etc.

In my own work using InDesign, it is not unusual for me to work for an hour, save (using “save as”) the document, close the document, copy the document to a backup location with a “generation name,” and then reopen the document in InDesign. (If you are particularly concerned about document integrity, you might also do a IDML save as well!) I do the same thing when doing complex image edits and spreadsheet edits. It may seem like paranoia, but it has saved my tuchas many times.       

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Derek Cross
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 8, 2017

Absolutely Dov - everyone should copy your wise words and print them out stick them where they can see them constantly. Mind you I don't know what a "tuchas" is!

Dov Isaacs
Legend
March 8, 2017

Where the sun doesn't shine?

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Sandee Cohen
Legend
March 8, 2017

Is your file corrupted? That is do you have it but it won't open? In that case Markzware's product is the place to go.

But if you put your file in the trash (or recycle bin) and then emptied them, you need a hard disk recovery service. And even then you may not get much. Especially if you've been writing on and off of the hard disk.

Are you sure you trashed it? Or maybe it's sitting in the trash but it wasn't emptied.

Inspiring
March 8, 2017

Not corrupted, Sandee. Was green-no-errors.

It opens, but it's all gone.

By trashed, I mean I must have accidentally highlighted it (I had a Word doc and a TextEdit doc open same time),

then tapped it accidentally and didn't notice it became blank because I was attending to the other docs, which had

things in it that related to my InDesign doc.

     Not in the trash.

     Thanks,

      Morty

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 8, 2017

Hi Morty: I am so sorry to hear this. I know how hard you have been working on this file.

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
Steve Werner
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 8, 2017

Markzware has a file recovery service you can pay for:

DTP File Recovery Service | Markzware