How to open a .aid file?

[howhardcanthisbe]

Computer didn't crash I just closed an illustrator file without saving it*. Autosave is set up for every 2 minutes and I can see the autosaved version .aid but can't figure how to open it.

Thanks for any help on this.

(*I accidentally closed it because there is some key combination which I inadvertently do which changes my keyboard from English to French and then  the Z becomes X - so when I do control Z I've actually done control X - wish I knew how I did that).

[Jacob Bugge]

howhard,

What happens if you change the name and also change the extension to .ai or to .ait?

I am afraid the OS may have a life of its own, and that the language change can happen at any time, especially if you have a keyboard version that is another language (such as FR) than the OS (such as EN).

[howhardcanthisbe]

Thanks Jacob, Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try it. My first attempts said "the file is in use" so I closed Illustrator and the .aid files vanished. I have now recreated the work.

[Andy Swift · Accepted solution]

You can just open the file with Adobe Illustrator.

To open the file on a Mac, select it, cmd-I to "Get Info" and choose open with Adobe Illustrator (click "Change All..." while you're at it so the next time you won't have to do this step).

• Do NOT change the extension

• Do NOT quit Illustrator or the file will be deleted

If you want to restart or do something else that requires you to quit Illustrator, you can just duplicate the .aid file and let the original get deleted.

[carmcalabrese]

This is a hit or miss, but worth trying. Sometimes the files simply won't open due to being corrupted and you're sadly out of luck.

[clarissad92454039]

It says the file is unknown and cant be open:/

[Anjani P.]

this works!! thank you very much

[Schatxe]

This solution works!! Thank you so much. 

[StephJMac]

This does not work. I get an error message saying "There is no application set to open the document “AIDBTemp17064948464533231616.aid”."
I've tried opeing it in illustrator beta and the regular illustrator, but they are both greyed out for me.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @StephJMac,

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing difficulty opening the .aid file. Could you please upload the file to a cloud storage service like Google Drive and share the download link here or via DM with me? I'll do my best to assist you in recovering the file and resolving the issue.

Best regards,

Anshul

[Marketing35731125d1wc]

I can't open the .aid file with illustrator. Can I send you the file?

[Lady Moiraine]

Hi @Anshul_Saini

Wondering if you can help me with the same issue.  After a crash I can't open my .aid files as Illustrator 2025 is greyed out.  I've saved the 2 x files in Google drive here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1VM06h7hQyY72-2Rdm5KClK8fjtcvZrrv

Much appreciated.. hours of work gone 😕

Thanks,
Karin

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Lady Moiraine,

Sorry to hear about your experience. The link you have shared is currently private. Kindly reshare the link after making it public and enabling the option to save a copy/download (if any), so I can check the files on my end. Although I cannot guarantee a successful recovery, I will try my best to do so.

Thanks,
Anubhav

[Lady Moiraine]

Thanks @Anubhav M

I've updated the access to the folder!   Here's the link again - 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VM06h7hQyY72-2Rdm5KClK8fjtcvZrrv?usp=sharing

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Lady Moiraine,

Thank you for sharing the file with us. Despite attempting to recover from the file, regrettably, there was nothing left to salvage. We understand this may not be the ideal outcome, and we 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. For help with crashes, we suggest trying the troubleshooting steps outlined in this help article (https://adobe.ly/4jKdegg) to see if it resolves the problem.

To avoid similar situations in the future, we 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

[nickt53978232]

The method works well. Thanks a lot :ukraine:

[0_xMx_0]

Same here, illustrator is greyed and cannot be a choice on how ot open the file

[Anubhav M]

Hello @0_xMx_0,

Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind sharing a link to a sample file after uploading it 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.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[connorbohannan]

Hello @Anubhav M I would very greatly appreciate it if you could check to see if you can recover one of my files. I did go in the DataRecovery folder and found an .aid file along with a folder of documents.

I've uploaded the .aid file and the folder to this google drive - 

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/13CFuzU_uIJ69cyk22NnGNqtPz6yD0pZ0

I would greatly appreciate any help. 

[Zamfir286010883278]

Ok, but for the people using Windows?? ctrl+I is not working and I have not idea how to open the aid file.

[sovanmonyrath318748546bhm]

Thank you so much for this, you saved my life big big time!

[Mike_Gondek]

The keyboard command you are likely encountering is under your system preference >> keyboard >> shortcuts tab >> Input Sources

Was happening to me with Arabic, when that language installed.

I also recommend to change this,

so you can see and confirm up on top right in finder you language options.

[Martha5F98]

I have tried to recover a file that was unsaved when illustator crashed. I followed the suggestions on this thread to open the .aid file, it was trying to open the .aid file on illustrator but then stopped spinning and I watched the file disappear. Illustrator hasn't actually crashed and I haven't had any pop ups but the file has gone. Is there any way to retrieve it or atleast try to prevent this happening again? I am running the programme on a new MacBook Pro M1 Big Sur 11.1 with plenty of storage but illustrator is crashing reguarly.

Any help would be great!

[Lise James]

Illustrator is regularly crashing on me as well and I can not recover the [Recovery].ai files. I bought this Mac laptop because it was supposed to be a workhorse for graphic designers. In actuallity I wish I could find out the reason for all of the crashes instead of constantly losing my time-consuming hard work. Ugh... Makes me question why I am working with a program that resides on the cloud, but does not have the capability of actually saving my work to the cloud with an easy to recover option after these numerous crashes. I have not been able to open the .aid files either. 
Here is a screen shot from the latest wheel-of-death crash. 

[Monika Gause]

Please contact Customer Care and have take a look at it. I have Macbooks as well and Illustrator is regularly running on them for days.