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lhermevic
lhermevic
Participant
February 12, 2021
Answered

InDesign Vanished File

  • February 12, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1372 views

I was working on a book file with 250+ pages and then my InDesign started getting sluggish. I saved the file (with CMND + S) and then restarted the software to see if the sluggishness would dissapear. As I opened InDesign there were no sign of the file I just saved on the recent files list, the file vanished from the folder it was originally saved to and now InDesign won't open any .indd files at all.  I was using the latest version (16.1).

 

I tried everything: rebooting my computer (MacBook Pro), going through every .indd file on my hard drive, searching on InDesign's recovery folder, installing older versions of InDesign and none of these worked. Funny fact is that I remember saving the vanished file around 8:05pm and as I was searching through my folders, I find a old .indd file I haven't opened since April/20 last edited today 8:06pm.

 

I'm completely sad and frustated because I've lost 1 week of hard work and I just wanted to know if someone has gone through a similar situation or if I can somehow recover this vanished file.

 

Thanks.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer lhermevic

EDIT: I found the missing file on a folder I've never saved the file to after perfoming a file recovery scan on my hard drive. It seems that the file was automatically deleted and it was not showing up normally in that odd folder otherwise it would have shown up when I searched for its name in Finder. The file only appeared after the recovery scan was done and it appeared as a file that had been deleted.

 

I still don't know if this was a MacOS bug or InDesign's, and I still don't know why InDesign stopped opening .indd files after that bug happened, but the lesson I take from all this is to always backup your files, folks.

3 replies

J
Jeremy276356759y2u
Participant
January 13, 2023

I had this same issue and was never able to recover the file. It is super unfortunate that this would happen from such a robust program. I was hoping the auto-save would be safe but not the case at all. Saving it to the hard drive from this point on. Wish I had total recall. 

 

Sick to stomach....

F
Fluo
Participating Frequently
June 29, 2023

Jeremy276356759y the same just happened to me. A whole day's work, vanished! I'm pretty sure I did save regularly while I was working on it. The file is still there but when I open it it is almost blank, as if I had just set it up.

Ugh. 😞

 

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 29, 2023

That's very unusual. Are you certain you're opening the latest version?

lhermevic
lhermevicAuthorCorrect answer
Participant
February 12, 2021

EDIT: I found the missing file on a folder I've never saved the file to after perfoming a file recovery scan on my hard drive. It seems that the file was automatically deleted and it was not showing up normally in that odd folder otherwise it would have shown up when I searched for its name in Finder. The file only appeared after the recovery scan was done and it appeared as a file that had been deleted.

 

I still don't know if this was a MacOS bug or InDesign's, and I still don't know why InDesign stopped opening .indd files after that bug happened, but the lesson I take from all this is to always backup your files, folks.

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 12, 2021

It's important when you've been working on a document for some time to do a Save As and give it a incrementally named file (name1a.indd, name1b.indd and so on) this clears out the crud that can build up in a document and that can cause corruption. It means you can also get to earlier version if something goes wrong with your current one.

I would also suggest saving externaly as well, as well as locally, so you can still access your documents from another computer if somethimg happens to your one!

A
AaronWinters
Participant
February 23, 2023

Im doing exactly that but return to find only v1, but no V2, v3 etc., despite having a v7 PDF exported that morning!!

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 12, 2021

Did you do a week's work and didn't make any back-up copies?

lhermevic
lhermevicAuthor
Participant
February 12, 2021

I was relying only on TimeMachine's automatic backups, and even with these backups done, I could not find any sign of the lost file in the previous backups (and it had at least 1 backup a day during the time I first created the file and the time it went missing). But as I just edited the post with its outcome, I was able to recover the file through a file recovery scan.

Thanks for taking your time and replying.

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