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

[vincentd6087485]

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?

[Goleq]

Actively working on improving Autosave with future improvements isn't going to help anyone that has been affected by this unexpected change. What I, and probably many with me, would like to get confirmation on is: is there any recovery data stored in these new .aishm files? Is there a way for us or even you to extract that data in the near future? 

[E29415529ec34]

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]

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)

[francesca_1329]

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.

[francesca_1329]

ps. don't get me wrong, it is fantastic advice you've given, and an incredible skillset to be so organised and prepared. It's not quite as simple as implementing it to some, that's all I'm saying. 

[Anubhav M]

Hello @francesca_1329,

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 file(s) from the Data Recovery folder 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

[francesca_1329]

Hello Anubhav, 

Thank you for picking this up. I hadn't saved the file, that was my mistake. Files recovery was activated though and I've never had any issues with it before. This time, illustrator crashed and as it reopened, displayed the usual message to say files had been recovered, I clicked "Ok" to open the recovered files, but all it opened was an empty A4 called "Print", which isn't even the name of the file I was working on (as it wasn't saved, it simply was Untitled).

Here are the files I'm hoping to recover: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1az1uellY0zPMn_drgErplSVQo2nwbynJ?usp=drive_link 

Thank you so much

[Monika Gause]

because up until the last update it was a really realiable tool. 

By @francesca_1329

If you take the number of this kind of questions in this forum as a reference, then: no, that is not the case.

Make saving your file a habit so that it even kicks in when you are focused. Or are you trying to allude that I'm not creative?  

You can set up a reminder for that on your phone. Or you can get the free plugin Autosaviour and it will give you the reminder right inside of Illustrator. 

[francesca_1329]

I disagree, I think except for some cases, up until the last update, most issues like this one could be resolved. It now doesn't seem to have a solution. 

I am in no way trying to allude you're not creative. I don't even know you, why would I ever make that assumption? Has the internet really done this to how people approach each other? I am simply explaining to you, that there is a really wide range of characters and to make the assumption that creating a habit is an easy or implementable task for someone you don't know is presumptious. And as a direct consequence of that, for a software to alter a tool that made it slightly easier on someone who struggles with routine behaviours it is beyond absurd. 

[Deidra_Adams]

Your suggestions above don't apply to all cases in this matter, especially mine. My application crashed as I was saving the file. The suggestion to save in order to avoid any loss of work is a moot point. 

[Grace29016315jj2d]

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!

[Anubhav M]

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

[jampiece]

The same thing happens to me

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @jampiece,

Sorry to hear you’re facing the same issue. Could you let me know which version of Illustrator you're using and whether the files were saved locally, on an external drive, or synced to the cloud? Also, please check this location on your system:
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator [version]\en_US\DataRecovery
(Just make sure to replace <YourUsername> and [version] with your actual username and Illustrator version.)

If you find any .aid files there, feel free to zip them up and share a link via Google Drive or Dropbox. We’ll do our best to see what can be recovered, though just a heads-up, we can’t guarantee full recovery.

You can also take a look at this helpful guide from Adobe: Recover Illustrator files after crash

Looking forward to hearing back from you. 

Abhishek 

[PovDawg]

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!

[Anubhav M]

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

[PovDawg]

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

[Anubhav M]

Hello @PovDawg,

Thanks for sharing the sample file. Would you mind confirming if this happens when working on files from a specific directory, such as a removable or network drive or a cloud-synced folder like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.?

Also, for help with crashes, please try the suggestions shared in this help article (https://adobe.ly/4jcELac) and let us know how it goes.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[PovDawg]

my working are on my C: drive using OneDrive as our cloud service

C:\Users\**\OneDrive - **\GP 2025

[Anubhav M]

Hello @PovDawg,

Thanks for confirming. Illustrator supports working across networks, removable media, and cloud-synced folders (Google Drive / Dropbox / OneDrive, etc.) and is vigorously tested across multiple configurations. However, not all configurations, including different software, hardware, settings, and access rights, have been tested. Therefore, your configuration can cause errors, crashes, or unexpected behavior. You may learn more about this here: (https://adobe.ly/3XOick2).

To avoid such problems, we recommend working on your files from a local directory, like the Desktop, and manually copying them to the removable media, network drive, cloud-synced folder, or using Cloud Documents.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

 
Anubhav

[PovDawg]

working on a file on a local file doesn't produce a .aid file at all.  The autosave feature just doesn't work on this computer.  It works on my home computer on the same OneDrive.  Oh well,

[Anubhav M]

Hello @PovDawg,

Thanks for confirming. Could you try installing an earlier version of Illustrator (https://adobe.ly/4i41nZC) and checking if you continue having this problem?

Also, check if you have any Antivirus software enabled, temporarily disabling it, and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

[sergitoca]

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]

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.

[SassyLang]

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.