After Illustrator unexpectedly Crashes files recovered are empty/ blank

[care$]

Illustrator unexpectedly crashed on me, and i lost three of my open files i was working on. i have my auto save settings set to automatically save recovery data every 30 seconds and to automatically save cloud documents every 5 minutes . i restarted the app and it showed the pop up talking about recovered files and i hit okay and then it never showed me any files to save. i looked and saw i had some files in my computer titled recovered files but when i click on them they're empty. not sure what i should do to recover or get my files back i'm really frustrated because i put a lot of work into it and i really need them back. please help.

{Renamed by MOD}

[Myra Ferguson]

Here's more information on recovering your files:

Fix Illustrator crash and recover documents

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi there,

Sorry about the crashing! I know that's really frustrating. I would request you to share a few more details like:

• OS and version of Illustrator
• Did it crash after performing a particular action? (While saving, exporting, opening, placing, importing, using any tool, etc.)
• Do you have a backup file?
• Where are you initially saving these files (CC Cloud Document/ Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System/ External HDD)?

In addition to the suggestion given above by @Myra Ferguson, you may be able to revert to the last saved version if these were the Cloud Documents you were working on. If they were Cloud Documents, then you may try the steps suggested in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/open-revert-cloud-document-version.html) to get back to your previous saved version.

Also, if you have a backup of the original files, you can share that and recovered files, and we will try to recover them. You can upload it to the Creative Cloud (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/share.html) and share the download link here or via DM. But I must inform you that file recovery can't be guaranteed with 100% success. We'll surely try our best.

Thanks & Regards.

Anshul Saini

[care$]

it's version 25.2.3 i wasn't on my computer when it crashed i opened it back up and my computer was dead, when i plugged it in and it came back on i saw that it had crashed. i don't think i have a backup file. i have it set to save to my computer and the creative cloud but i could not find it in either one. 

[care$]

all i have is this but they're all empty folders...

[Anshul_Saini]

Thank you for sharing the details. Could you please share a few more details:

• Are these folders in the screenshot created by you?
• Did you check the recovery folders?
  

  The auto-recovery feature of Illustrator autosaves a copy of your files at regular intervals. You can recover your files, which are not manually saved, from the following location:
  < your username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator [version] Settings/en_US/Adobe Illustrator Prefs/

• If you find any files in this location. You can upload it to the Creative Cloud (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/share.html) and share the download link here or via DM. We will try to recover it. But I must inform you that file recovery can't be guaranteed with 100% success. But, we'll surely try our best.

Also, you may check out this help article on crash (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/crash-file-data-recovery.html).

Thanks & Regards,

Anshul Saini