Certain artwork disappearing from file

[Jonathan Q.]

Yesterday I started working on some small logos for a friend of mine. They were very simple, just text and some small basic illustrations, and they were only two colors: black and red. When I finished working yesterday I saved the file and closed Illustrator just like I've done a thousand times. I opened the file today, and all of the red artwork is gone, but the black pieces are totally unchanged. Illustrator didn't crash, and I didn't get any notification that anything was wrong. I've been using Illustrator for years and have never had anything like this happen to me. This was the only version of this file, and I feel like there isn't going to be a way to recover what I lost, but I'm hoping someone might have some insight on how to avoid this happening again in the future.

[Monika Gause]

Is this perhaps on a hidden layer?

Or is it still present in outline view?

Did you add the red parts at the end? So did you first create all the black parts and then all the red parts? If that is the case, you might want to turn off "Save in background" in the Preferences. Also: you didn't save to a networked drive, no?

[Jonathan Q.]

They're not anywhere in the layers panel or visible in outline view. They weren't added at the end, I used both colors throughout creating the pieces. Save in background is already turned off, and no, the file is saved locally.

[Monika Gause]

That sounds weird. Maybe @Anshul_Saini has some explanation or can do anything about your file.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @Jonathan Q.,

I understand how frustrating it can be to lose your artwork, and I'm sorry to hear that you're facing this issue with your Illustrator file.

Regarding the missing artwork, since the file is already saved, it may not be possible to recover it. However, I suggest checking if you see a thumbnail preview in Illustrator for the red and black logo file on the Home screen of Illustrator under the Recent tab. Additionally, it is possible that you saved the file as a PDF or in any other file format or in a different location with an alternate name.

Unfortunately, it's hard to suggest how to avoid this issue in the future since you saved the file without any errors and only noticed the missing artwork when you reopened it. However, I recommend saving your work frequently and checking that all your artwork is visible and accounted for before saving and closing the file.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out.

Best,

Anshul Saini

[Ton Frederiks]

It is hard to tell why this happened, but having versions of your file would have helped going back to a still working version.

You can save your files in the CC files folder, the files are saved locally, get backupped and versioned and you still can create your own backups because they are saved locally.

Sync:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/sync-files.html

Versioning:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/versioning-faq.html