Puppet lost all rigging, can't get it back, please help

[PhlipperR]

Hello all,

I'm new to this, and have been following OkaySamurai's tutorials, which are great.  I created a self-portrait with a view to making a music video with it.  After putting loads of work in on my puppet I began to work on head turns and did the first 3 views.  When I saved and went back to CA all of my rigging was lost, and now when I try to scrub it all and re-rig from scratch I can't even get an arm dragging.  LimbIK doesn't appear to 'light up' on the panel and although the dragging works the hand itself seems to be pinned at one spot for no reason that I can find, and this means that although the hand moves it appears to stretch from a fixed point.  I have literally no idea where to begin!!
Before I worked on the head turn views it was working beautifully, lots of hair movement etc.  but it's all gone. I've tried rolling back to before my update but that doesn't fix it.  I'm devastated!  Please help if you can.  I've been trying to attach the puppet to this post but it tells me that the file type is not supported!
Phil

[PhlipperR]

I've put the puppet file HERE , thanks

[renatus1234565 · Accepted solution]

it might not be what happened here but I've lost lots of rigging before when I decide to change things after I've started rigging a lot already. 

   So basically whatever the highest level you changed something at is, everything below that level (all rigging) will be gone when you go back into CH. It can't figure out how you want things further down if you change ANYthing in a higher up layer, which makes sense eventually. 

Basically it means once you've rigged a lot be VERY careful once you're back in PS or AI where you built it. This has mostly happened to me when I was learning how to do the head turns properly so if I would, say, change the name of some heads or ad a plus where there wasn't one in a layer name then EVERYthing below that levels' rigging will be gone, no way to get it back. 
 might not be what happened to you but it's just a word of warning. Now if I make complex puppets I don't rig mouths or fine details until I feel like it's very near finished, even though it is fun to have it working early on. 

... and the practice you get from re-rigging a lot really is good, until you start throwing things...

[PhlipperR]

Thank you, wise words.  I restarted and am now about 75% through finishing my first animation, just over 3 minutes long with moving scenery and 4 puppets.  I know that there are many areas where I have taken a long route to achieve what I wanted, but I realised that I didn't really need the head turn for this production so I left it out the on the second pass, although I did have it working before I restarted.
It's all practice and learning, I suppose, but I felt a bit panicky over losing so much work when I posted.  I'm glad it happened now, as it's given me a better understanding.  Thank you so much for replying and for those excellent workflow tips.