Over 2+ hours of lost work...

[mckj445]

I just spent ages on an animation, closed my computer, and I wake up to my computer crashing. I spend ages digging for the recovery file and it says Zero bytes on the file. I tried opening it but it doesn't work. PLEASE tell me there's a way to recover this.

[kglad]

unless you disabled autoback up, check

win: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Adobe\<animate version>\en_US\Configuration

mac: Users/<username>/Application Support/Adobe/<animate/flash version>/en_US/Configuration/

and periodically save your work with all programs using increasing version numbers.

[mckj445]

I've already found the recovery file, my problem is that the file is zero bytes, i wanna know if i can fix that.

[kglad]

no.

[_keyframer]

If the recovery files is 0 bytes then all may very well be lost. You said you spent "ages" on the animation - did you at any time save the file? Not trying to sound snarky, just doesn't sound like what typically happens. AnCC is pretty solid and dependable because it is always creating a recovery files while you are working.

[mckj445]

Well, I don't remember actually saving it myself, I just remember constantly seeing the auto save pop up.

[kglad]

you'll need to start over and again, periodically save your work with all programs using increasing version numbers.

[_keyframer]

I agree. Start over, do it better the 2nd time around. But do a "save as..." immediately to a local drive. After a significant amount of work, save again, then do a save as again with a new name or add a number to the end of the existing file name.

[mckj445]

Alright, here we go again...

[kglad]

do not use the same name when saving. append a version number that increases with each save.

any time animate or your computer crashes with a fla open that file will probably be corrupted. if that file is yourproject_v053.fla, then yourproject_v053.fla is probably going to be corrupted. yourproject_v052.fla will be just as you saved it before the crash so you only loose the work done after v052.

i use a jsfl file tied to a keyboard shortcut (ctrl-shift-s) that automatically appends increasing version numbers.

[Colin Holgate]

The recovery folders that kglad mentioned can be written in a different way. If you're on Windows, paste this into File Explorer:

%LocalAppData%\Adobe\

then open the folder for Animate, en_US, Configuration. All being well there will be some recovery_ fla files in there.

For Mac, in Finder choose Go to Folder from the Go menu, and paste this in:

~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/

then again, go into the right Animate folder, en_US, Configuration.