File disappeared

[cj7393]

Hey guys, my computer did an update this morning and when I restarted the computer and opened back up illustrator, the file I was working on disappeared. I went back to the folder where I knew I had my file saved but instead of finding the up-to-date version of my file (which I had continually saved while working on it), it showed an old version of my file and it said that the file was last modified 4 days ago and not been touched since which is not true. I lost all my work from the last 4 days, even though I had saved it continually as I was working on it. Does anyone know what happened? And is there any way I can recover my work?? Also, Illustrator did not crash, therefore there was no recovery option for me to click on, my file just disappeared. help please!!

[lambiloon]

Hi did you tried to search on your computer windows update or Illustrator update not disturb the files at all....Thanks.

[Monika Gause]

Which system is that?

Exactly where is that file stored?

[Bill Silbert]

What version of Illustrator are you working with? Was your OS update an automatic one?

[lotems17792987]

happened to me today.

following

[Monika Gause]

lotems17792987  schrieb

happened to me today.

following

Which system?

Which version?

Where do you store your files?

And just in case you're on Mojave, try and turn off the iCloud Drive.

[Francesco Della Peruta]

If you are using a windows PC, I've found this suggestions on Microsoft site:

Method 1: Let's try the basics.

Let's go to the basic locations to look for your files. Follow these steps:

    1.    Check your Recycle Bin.

    2.    Open File Explorer and search for the file and see if it shows up.

Method 2: Use File History to restore your files.

Assuming your File History back up settings was enabled, we can easily restore your missing files from there. Follow these steps:

    1.    Press Windows key + S and type File History.

    2.    Click Restore your files with File History.

    3.    Enter the name of file you're looking for in the search box, or use the left and right arrows to browse through different versions of your folders and files.

    4.    Select what you want to restore to its original location, and then select the Restore button.

    5.    If you want to restore your files to a different location than the original, press and hold or right-click the Restore button, select Restore To, and then choose a new location.

Method 3: Restore to an earlier point.

Go back to the point before the update was installed to recover your files. Follow these steps:

    1.    Go to Settings and select Update & security.

    2.    Click Recovery and then Restart now under Advanced startup.

    3.    In the Advanced startup screen, choose Troubleshoot.

    4.    Select Advanced options and then System restore.

[Toshi5CA7]

I had the same thing happened to me yesterday. I have Windows 10, using Illustrator 2021 (Not the latest one). I think Windows updated between yesterday (4/11/22) and last time I worked on the Illustrator file (4/9/33). Last night I opened the Illustrator 2021 and as usual, I clicked on the Recent file on the start up screen of the Illustrator. But it didn't open anything. When I double clicked the icon of my latest work file, nothing happened. So I opened the folder where I saved it. I found the file but that was dated in the middle of March, not the date I worked on (that was 4/9/22).  I opened it anyway. But that was the file I  saved in March, not the latest one. So I closed that file.

I restarted the computer hoping something changes. But in the process of restarting, Windows started to update. I didn't expect that.

Then I spent some time searching on the web for this problem. I couldn't find anything. After that, I came back and looked at the folder. Then to my big surprise, that file completely disappeared in the folder. I lost not just the last half month of work but that file has completely disappeared. I have been working on this art work for over 3 months. Last one I saved under a different name was 2/28.  So I lost almost 2 and half months of work. I was so shocked. 

I searched for that file on the whole hard disk. But Windows Explorer search didn't find anything.

I searched for that file name on C drive. Search results showed a few files with that name but they were shortcut files and "Adobe Illustrator Artwork 12.0" file (169KB) that is I guess just the thumbnail picture.

I didn't want to give up and re-do all the work I did from the file saved in February. So I prayed and opened the Illustrator again. And I clicked on the icon of the latest file I worked on. It opened the white screen. I waited for a while. Then miraculously it opened the latest file that I worked on 2 days ago. I don't know where it came from, where Illustrator found that file. Luckily I was able to open the file with all the work I did. So I quickly saved it in the different name on a few different hard disks and on cloud. I will save on cloud and on more than one hard disk from now on every time I finish the day of work.

One thing I noticed was on the Illustrator's Startup page's recent section, the file I was able to open has the ".aic" extension. It was not ".ai" extension. Anyone know what that is?  

I still can't find that lost file. I don't know what happened. And how the Illustrator could open the lost file. I didn't know it was a Windows update problem or Adobe problem. I hope no other files were lost on my hard disks.

I hope someone can give me a good explanation and a solution for this problem. I was so lucky but I am sure not everyone is as lucky as I was. 

Thank you.

[CarlosCanto]

You probably saved the file as Cloud Document, that would explain why you couldn't find it in your local computer.

Here's more info about it

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/cloud-documents.html