Recover comp that I accidentally saved over

[Talha5EA6]

Hi, 

So I was working on a project during which another short project popped up. So I created another comp for that one and started working on it. When I finished and rendered the new project, I opened my AE file again to resume my previous work and found that it was all lost. Now I can't seem to find my composition even though I've searched in the project panel.

I really need to find the comp or I'll be losing a week's worth of effort.

Thanks 

[Mylenium]

We can't know what you don't know. It's as simple as that, even mnore so since yoou have not offered evene the most rudimentary system info. If you use a Mac, there may be a realtively straightforward way to restore an older file version, but otherwise there pretty much nothing your can do. Restoring an overwritten file would require to use some pretty nerdy stuff and even then it's not guaranteed that the resulting file is even usable.

Mylenium

[P.M.B]

I'm confused by your information.  You say you started the newproject in another comp.  if that's true then both "comps" would existed in the same project.  So everything would still be there.

On the other hand, if you mispoke when you said you started it in a new comp and what you really meant ws that you started a new Project.  Then that would mean that you'd never saved your first project with a unique name.  When you start a new project in AE it by default has the name "Untitled Project".  If you quit or start a new project AE will ask you if you want to save the current project.  The only way I can see your post making any sense is if you are saving all your projects with name "untiltled project" in the same folder and just overwriting every project all the time.  In which case, you need to go back to baby steps and learn how to use AE.  I mean no offense but The way you wrote it is like "another small project popped up" makes sound like you are working in some official capacity with AE.  If that's the case I don't understand why you would start a new project inside of an existing project.  And if you did, why would have had "opened your AE file again to resume your previous work"?   None of it adds up.  Are you sure you're correctly explaining what you did?

[Talha5EA6]

Thank you for your reply.

No I didn't mispoke, I actually did start a new comp inside the existing project with a different name and after rendering the new comp only, I shut down my PC. When I started it again the next day and opened the same AE file again I could only see the new comp, the previous seemed to have dissappeared.

I know it was pretty careless of me to not start a new project but I guess I was not thinking clearly.

[Sarah Bell Maps]

Hi Talha5EA6. A very common misunderstanding is that users have clicked into a comp, and can only see that comp in the preview. But you can actually "bread crumb" back to the full project. Try clicking the beginning of the bread crumb, and hopefully your full project is still there. It should be at the top of the preview. Your issue is old, so I am guessing it was already resolved. I just noticed some uneccesary snarky replies to your question, so I wanted to offer a friendly one in case others run into this. Best of luck! 

[Rick Gerard]

If you have autosave turned on, and everybody should, there will be a version of your project in the After Effects AutoSave directory. 

If you do not have autosave turned on and you don't save versions of your project, again, everybody should, then you are out of luck.

[Talha5EA6]

Thank you for your reply.

Yes I had my autosave turned on but it was unfortunately set to 5 saves only so all of them were saved over by the time I finished the small project.

[Ali Jaber]

Put "comp" in the search field of the project panel, this way after effects will list all the compositions in the project, take a look and see if you can find your composition, maybe you put it inside a folder by mistake:

[James28889241zuyr]

just to say, this one saved my life.. thank you Ali

[Ali Jaber]

Glad that helped!