AI file opening as PDF images

[Pooja25769867oi3j]

Hi, I saved my AI file yesterday and Now when I am trying to open the file. It says it's unable to read the file and open up as a PDF with all the content as in image format. which is not editable. I worked so much on this file for days. I'll loose it all if it doesn't work. plz help me solve this.

Attached image is all I see 😞

[Test Screen Name]

Something has damaged the file. Perhaps an Illustrator crash or system crash, a disk fault, anything. If you kept backups as you worked (which is recommended of course) then go back to the last good backup. If there are no backups, now you now why people keep saying backups are important. 

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post if it helps you get responses.

<moved from using the community>

[Bill Silbert]

Your screenshot says that it is converting 39 pages to PDF. I assume that means that you had 39 artboards in your file. Your screenshot also shows images on each page. That seems like an awful lot of content which, it seems to me, is why this file has become corrupted. Creating a complicated multi-page document is done far more efficiently using InDesign. InDesign was created for making multi-page documents like you have here but in a far more efficient and less memory intensive way. Illustrator was designed to be a drawing program with some layout capabilities. Using the right program for the right purpose will help avoid calamities such as you're now facing.

[Bobby Henderson]

Oh, heck yeah. When I saw the note about 39 artboards I was pretty shocked. That's quite a tightrope to walk in Illustrator. I love Adobe Illustrator, but it's a rare occasion I'll use it for documents with two or more pages and/or art boards. I use it for large format design and really like the new large canvas capability. But it's usually a one art board at a time thing. InDesign is far more suitable for multi page documents and more suitable as a "container" for assets ported over from Photoshop and Illustrator.