Participant

Question

How do I recover files after a crash that simply didn't open?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
November 21, 2024
33 replies
42809 views

i was working in illustrator (beta) 29.3.0 when it crashed. upon reopening it, i got a popup that it recovered the two opened files. i hit 'confirm' to open the recovered files, then nothing happened. can i recover them manually somehome?

Show previous replies

E

E29415529ec34

Participant

I had been working on a file and Illustrator had crashed, the window saying my files I had been working on had been recovered, yet some of the files that were listed were ones that weren't even open. It did list that my recent file had been recovered but when I went to check the original file, it was still at the last point it had been at before saving and I can't find the recovered file.

I'm on mac and I went looking for the recovered file using the naming convention <filename> [Recovered] but it was nowhere to be found. I tried looking through the DataRecovery but all the files are just strings of letters and are .aishm files which I can't open (nor do I understand how to open). Every time I reopen illustrator it keeps telling me it recovered my files but I can't find them anywhere. Please help, this has happened a few times now with other files and I need these files for work and also school as I am a student.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Please take this as a wake up call to never let that happen to you again, because from now on you will be prepared.

No application ever will reliably save your files. Not a single one of them. They will always fail when you need them most. And that's why you have to do the saving stuff.

- Save your files early on. As soon as there is something in the file, save it.

- Whenever you made changes, save it.

- when you do not know if you want to keep something, save a copy.

- after half a day's work, save a copy.

- save everything on two different disks. External harddrives are always cheaper than having to redo any work.

- You are on a Mac. Use the Time Machine. And again: an external harddrive is cheaper than having to redo your work.

- reboot the computer regularly (and no, twice a year is not regularly)

- if power outages are a thing, get a UPS This one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply (not the shipping service)

F

francesca_1329

Participant

I've had the same issue happen to me today, lost 5 hours of work as well and all was lost. Illustrator crashed, it said it had recovered files, I clicked ok and it opened a blank A4 called "Print" which is nothing I was working on.

Monika - an advice to learn to be empathic with people - of course getting in the habit of saving files prevents these issues, but when a load of really committed and clearly quite hyperfocused creatives have just lost hours of high-effort work, your approach really doesn't help. We all know saving is the solution, but to some even remembering to eat is difficult when highly engaged in design work, let alone save a file. That's why we use precious RAM space keeping the file recovery option activated, because up until the last update it was a really realiable tool.

So this thread isn't seeking for better behaviours, just answers for a company we give a lot of money to to understand why they changed a *KEY* function of their software to the point that it doesn't work anymore. That, and if there's a solution to open these aishm files, or if any information is actually contained in them.

J

JasonDavis

Participant

I'm running version 29.4, but it hasn't worked in a while. Every time Illustrator crashes it only recovers to my last save point, it never recovers anything I haven't saved.

Automatically Save Recovery Data Every 2 Minutes - is turned on. I have changed the minutes it saves, and it doesn't help.
Turn off Data Recovery for complex documents - is turned off. I have tried with it turned on, it doesn't help.
My recovery file location is set to my local machine, not the network.
My files are saved to our local network, this didn't used to be a problem (worked fine 4 months ago).

I mostly hoping Adobe will roll out an update that fixes this issue, but in the meantime if someone has a suggestion, I'm open to it.

Thanks,

jane-e

Community Expert

@JasonDavis

I've moved your post from Creative Cloud desktop to the Adobe Illustrator forum.

Jane

J

JasonDavis

Participant

Thank You!

G

Grace29016315jj2d

Participant

My computer crashed, and I had several files I had been working on open in illustrator. When my computer came back on, it said they recovered x amount of files. I clicked okay, and the recovered files never opened. It's only shwoing the progress I made weeks ago, not recently. I have the auto save feature turned on for every two minutes. I tried to do some digging to find the folder with my recovered files, but the file type is not supported (showing a .aishm when online said it should be a .aid?). Is there a way to get my progress back? The only things i can think of us updating my computer, or clearing my work off my computer onto an external drive incase it's a disk space issue.

Any thoughts or ideas would be so helpful!

A

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Grace29016315jj2d,

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?

Also, kindly share a link to the AID files after uploading to Dropbox/Google Drive/etc. so we can check it on our end. Although we cannot guarantee a successful recovery, we will try our best to do so.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

S

sergitoca

Participant

I get regular crashes in Illustrator (using MacBook Pro 2023 = M2 Pro). Nothing out of the ordinary for the moment XD. The new problem is that lately, Illustrator stopped recovering any files when I open it again.

So when I open the application again, It shows a message informing that Illustrator recovered from a crash, and shows a list of the recovered files. When I press ok, nothing opens.

I go to the default Data Recovery folder (I never changed its location) and the only thing I find is a bunch of folders, but no .aid files that I can open manually.

Is there a way I can recover the files? I even tried deleting preferences and reinstalled the application but this issue keeps happening. Thanks.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Illustrator should not crash regularly. I have a hard time to remember when it last crashed for me and most of the time I have it open for days on my Macbook (yes, I know that is bad practice).

Staff will chime in on this thread soon to help you solve the crashing.

Still you will need to come up with a backup strategy. You need to save your files regularly and also make backup copies regularly.

Data recovery is not Autosave. And also while it is a nice thing - don't ever rely on it as your only backup.

S

SassyLang

Participant

Since the latest update, it crashes regularly. Hasn't been an issue until yesterday. I had a file which I had been saving regularly as it was a highly detailed bespoke illustration. Whole system crashed - computer had to reboot and my file was not saved. Not only that - it didn't save the versions I had been saving. I have done a file search in event that I had accidentally saved it elsewhere but nothing. When I have gone into my Application Support - no Data recovery file under Illustrator 29. There are folders for 27 and 28. But none for 29.

P

PovDawg

Participant

I've laoded Illustrator on a new PC worksation a few months ago and keep losing data after many crashes (even if I save every 5 minutes, I'm still losing data). The "DataRecovery" folder gets filled up with folders with random names rather that .aid files. Anybody else ever see this?

thanks!

A

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @PovDawg,

Would you mind providing some details about the circumstances under which these files were saved or edited, the location of the files where they were stored, and the version of the OS/Illustrator installed?

Also, kindly share a link to a sample file after uploading to Dropbox/Google Drive/etc. so we can check it on our end. Although we cannot guarantee a successful recovery, we will try our best to do so.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

P

PovDawg

Participant

thanks! I'm running Illustrator 29.4 (64-bit)

my backup folder is defaulted to....

C:\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 29 Settings\en_US\x64\DataRecovery\00 NEW TEMP

here's a sample file...

Jagermeister Street Pole SIGN DIELINES 2513119-03_040425.ai

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

I’m really sorry to hear about the time and effort lost due to these crashes. I completely understand how frustrating it is to lose hours of work, especially when you’re deeply focused on a project.

I recognize that the new .aishm recovery file format has caused confusion, and I understand your concerns about it not working as expected. I’ll contact the product team for more clarity on this backend change and will share any updates as soon as I have them.

In the meantime, if you experience another crash, I recommend the following steps to maximize your chances of recovering your work:

1. Submit a Crash Report: This helps our team investigate the root cause. You can find the steps here: Crash Report Guide

2. Wait 2-3 Minutes Before Relaunching Illustrator: After a crash, Illustrator may process data for a while, and the crash reporter might take time to appear. Waiting a few minutes before reopening Illustrator can increase the chances of accessing the recovered file.

I know this doesn’t undo the frustration many of you have faced, but I really appreciate your patience while we investigate this further. Your feedback is crucial in helping us improve Illustrator.

Thanks again, and I’ll keep you posted.

Best,

Anshul Saini

G

Goleq

Participant

Is there any update on this? Changing the auto-save recovery function to the point where it doesn't work is beyond ridiculous.

A

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Goleq,

Our team is actively working on improving Autosave and you will see improvements in future versions of Illustrator. We will update this thread as we have more info.

For now, I would advise saving multiple copies of your active work locally or saving them as cloud documents.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or need assistance. We're here to help.

Anubhav

T

TessBerger

Participant

Illustrator (v29.3.1 on a Mac, updated this morning) froze and crashed on me. When it reopened this time, the recovered files window came up and I clicked "ok" to reopen them like usual, but Illustrator wouldn't open the files and just stayed on the "Welcome to Illustrator" screen. I could create a new file or open a file from my browser just fine. I tried force quitting and rebooting and the recovered files window came up again but same issue.

I tried creating a new file to get the workspace window open, went to the DataRecovery folder, and attempted to open an .aid file from there – it disappeared like it opened but nothing did. I tried opening another one (not sure why) and it crashed Illustrator again and now the recovered files window isn't popping up anymore.

A

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @TessBerger,

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?

Also, kindly share the AID files after uploading them to Dropbox/Google Drive/etc. so I can check them on my end. Although I cannot guarantee a successful recovery, I will try my best to do so.

Additionally, for help with crashes, please try the suggestions in this help article (https://adobe.ly/4bXMNkQ) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

R

Robin_Carter

Participant

If they werent saved before the program crashed how can they be recovered? I am having the same issue and need to recover Untitled-5. I select okay and it takes me to the welcome screen without opening any files.

L

LisaAnnW

Known Participant

I am on Mac OS 14.7. Mine crashed unexpectedley having a few untitled sketch fies open. When I reopened Ilustrator (29.3.1) it said the files were successfully recovered but did not open them, nor can I find them. So where the heck are they? They are not in my document recovery folder, downloads, desktop, Creative Cloud, iCloud. Where??? Attached the screen capture.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Do not rely on the Recovery function for backup or file saving.

A

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @lwandrei2,

If the files are not automatically recovered, and they are not available in the recovery folder, chances are it is lost. I understand this may not be the ideal outcome, and I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Could you confirm if the file was saved on a network, removable drive, or a cloud-synced folder like Google Drive or Dropbox? Storing files in such locations can sometimes lead to corruption issues. To prevent this from happening in the future, I would recommend saving your work locally first and then manually copying it to your desired backup location.

Additionally, kindly try the suggestions in this help article (https://adobe.ly/3FFpQXK) for help with crashes and share your observations.

To avoid similar situations in the future, I would advise saving multiple copies of your active work locally or saving them as cloud documents, as Monika suggested.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or need assistance.

Anubhav

S

s_2193

Participant

Recovery Tuto speak about aid Files... but it seems now in the Recovery Files we got aishm fiiles... ok why not but why we can open these files in illustrator ? loool like all of you lost 5 hours of work... Fix this Adobe please

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Recovery is not a backup solution and should not be used as such. The files are not meant to be just opened.

That apart: sometimes the Illustrator team can actually save something from your files. @Anshul_Saini can you please try?

Nevertheless you need to come up with a trusty backup routine. Save your files early, save often, save different versions on different harddisks. Turn on Time Machine if on a Mac. Get a backup solution if on Windows.

Illustrator recovery is the icong on the cake.

S

s_2193

Participant

That's not the issue, and there's no point in repeating "get into the habit of saving" when we're deeply focused on our work. Everyone forgets to save sometimes, especially when working on something that requires a lot of attention to detail. The question here is: what are these new formats aishm... and why aren't they working? Personally, I checked the file management settings, and autosave is enabled every 2 minutes... Despite that, it didn't change anything, whereas with the old Illustrator, if this happened, it would instantly recover my recent file

S

ShikoMT

Participant

I just lost 7 hours of work, I was putting the finishing touches on an illustration and was using the node merge tool and at one point the program crashed and closed and there is no solution to recover files. Beautiful morning, isn't it? :c

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded