Automatic Save Recovery Data NOT working

[Sedawk]

I have been working for about an hour and had a crash.  However,  Illustrator did not attempt to recover the file I had been working on.

Automatically Save Recover Data Every:  2 mintues is selected.

Turn off Data Recovery for completex documents was also selected, but this document consisted of about 100 rectanges, 20 lines, and 30 text elements - is that complex?

Also it give the folder as "/Users/...ences/Adobe Illustrator 22 Settings/en_US/DataRecovery.

Three stupid things about this:

1) The directory is truncated so I have no idea where to find it.  Make this a text field that can scroll so I can actually read the path.

2) If I click"Choose" it does not select the current Auto Record folder - if it did, then I could at least find it. 

3) I am using Adobe Illustrator 24.1.2 on the Mac (OS version 10.15.4).  Why does it have "Adobe Illustrator 22 Settings" in the Data Recovery path?

The Adobe Illustrator 22 folder does not exist on my computer.  I searched my computer for a "Adobe Illustrator 24 Settings/en_US/DataRecover" folder and found that.   And its empty.

Does auto recovery / saving acutally work in Illustrator or do I need to put my Apple Watch on a repeating 10 mintue timer reminding me to save?

[Mukesh27119163g5hv]

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[fady zaky]

SERIOUSLY you have to get a plugin to have a decent auto save. THis says way to much about how Adobe is turning great working software into unusable ones. 

[Bobby Henderson]

No piece of computer software or hardware is perfect. The same goes for computer users. Stuff happens. All anyone can do is work in a manner to be prepared for trouble as best as possible. Anyone who uses computers long enough will learn, often through painful experience, to adopt strategies to protect their data. It can be as simple as manually saving an open document before trying a really complex pathfinder operation that very well might crash Illustrator. Astute Graphics' Autosavior is a great (and free) plug-in that can automatically make back-ups of projects while you're working on them. All hard drives fail eventually. If the file isn't saved on two physical volumes (preferably in two different physical places) it isn't saved.

I disagree with the notion that software today is more buggy than it was in the past. People often look at history through rose-colored glasses. Crashes happened just as often 20 or more years ago as they do today. But back then the crashes were more likely to take down the entire computer system rather than just one application. Graphics software today does a lot more "heavy lifting" than its more primitive versions from back in the good old days.

Yeah, a full Creative Cloud subscription is fairly expensive. But this isn't consumer-grade software. It's for professional use. And you get a lot for the money. It surpasses what came in a Creative Suite Master Collection box that cost over $2000. The Adobe Fonts service on its own is worth a fortune.

[Bobby Henderson]

Whatever. Keep doing what you're doing. I suppose you just want to vent rather than trying to find a solution to a problem. In that case it's just as productive to step outside and shout at the sky. Griping in a public forum just for the sake of griping is liable to invite responses you may not like.

[fady zaky]

I did find a solution! A plugin! Like I said, this should just be working in the program itself! 
Don't make it sound as if I don't know how to save a file. Fine if auto save and auto back up does NOT work in your software, but then don't pretend that it does! 

A problem that has been clear for at least 4 years, just like many. Sure.... I'm the problem! 👍

[Scoville Inc.]

I just lost hours of work (again) and I am constantly worried about using Illustrator because it's so unreliable. 
Its frequent crashes not only cost me hours of valuable work but also disrupt my creative flow, causing stress and frustration.

Even simple tasks are difficult as Illustrator tends to lag constantly (not only on PC but also on my MacOS.
It's clear that the software is built on years of "workarounds" in the code.
Despite the high cost of the software and my very expensive PC setup, these issues persist and seem to worsen with each update. I suggest that Adobe start the app from scratch because, after years of use, it's only getting worse.

[Monika Gause]

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@Scoville Inc.  schrieb:

It's clear that the software is built on years of "workarounds" in the code.

So you are a coder and you have seen the code?

Despite the high cost of the software and my very expensive PC setup, these issues persist and seem to worsen with each update. I suggest that Adobe start the app from scratch because, after years of use, it's only getting worse.

---

You know what that would mean, right?

It would be a beta version for years with no guarantee that it would work better on your PC, because maybe the reason on your PC is something else. Illustrator works fince for most people, otherwise this forum would be a different place.

If you need help with your system, please contact http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

They can login to your system.

[spaceprobe]

So here we are in mid 2025 in a thread started five years ago, and I have suffered this same issue.

Data recovery did not work - the folder in prefs is just full of cyrptically named empty folders, and auto save - despite it being set to 5 minutes doesn't seem to have saved anything at all ever.

Don't give me a lecture about saving and being responsible - I have been doing this for decades and the ONE TIME I really really need this, because my own solutions have let me down - it fails.

It seems the Adobe product team has been dedicated to addressing this matter. and have been actively working to enhance the autosave/recovery functionality to better serve us in the future for a very very long time now with no progress or results. If this were me or my team we'd have all been sacked now and more competernt people put in our place.

Adobe still flawlessly take my money every month tho.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @spaceprobe,

I am sorry to hear about the trouble you're having with file recovery in Illustrator. Would you mind providing some details about the circumstances under which these files were saved or edited and the location of the files where they were stored? For example, were there any unexpected Illustrator crashes, sudden app closures, system shutdowns, or power cuts during the editing process?

Additionally, our team has made some improvements to file saving, which should also help with recovering files after a crash in the latest Illustrator (beta) release. Please try out the latest Illustrator (beta) (https://adobe.ly/469NKG0) and share your feedback.

Anubhav