Participant

Question

How to open .aid file? Unable to recover/ lost multiple Illustrator files after the crash

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
April 21, 2019
3 replies
9256 views

So about an hour ago I was doing work for a client and my illustrator crashed, went to a black screen and I had to restart my computer. When I reopened it I got no option for recovery. Now I've gone to my recovery folder I can see all the recovery files there. How can I open these .aid files? Everywhere I've searched says you can't but that seems really dumb. all these files are the proper size and they should work, they're saved. It;s mind boggling to me that Adobe would have an option for recovery if there is no way of actually opening the files when illustrator doesn't prompt you. I don't see the logic in saving recovered files in an extension that does not allow you to open them in the program they were made. I've tried changing the extension to .ai and that doesn't work. Could anyone help me?

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Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the crashing! I can understand your frustration. Could you please a few more details like:

Operating system and the exact version of Illustrator
Did it crash after performing a particular action? (saving, exporting, using a tool, applying an effect, etc.)
Could you please share the recovered .aid files? We will try to recover it. You can upload it to the Creative Cloud (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/share.html) and share the download link here or via DM. But I must inform you that file recovery can't be guaranteed with 100% success. But, we'll surely try our best.
Where were you initially saving these files (CC Cloud Document/ Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System/ External HDD)?

In addition to the suggestion shared above by @Monika Gause, you may try and prevent this from happening in the future by Unchecking "Turn off Data Recovery for Complex Document" and check out the most popular solutions that we compiled in the help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/crash-file-data-recovery.html). Also, you can try saving the files as Cloud Documents (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/cloud-documents.html#create-cloud-doc), and you can get back to your previously saved version of the documents (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/open-revert-cloud-document-version.html).

Thanks & Regards,
Anshul Saini

H

hoshimoto0916

Participant

Can you try recover some of my .aid files please ?

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hello @Subterranean Wolf,

I truly understand how frustrating it can be to lose hours of work, and I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I appreciate your proactive approach in reaching out to explore potential solutions.

Please go ahead and share the.aid files that you need help with. While I can't guarantee a full recovery, I'll do my best to explore and see if there's anything that can be done to salvage your work.

You can upload the files to Google Drive, Dropbox, or a similar service and share the link here or via DM with me, and I'll take a closer look. If you have any additional details or context about when the issue occurred, that information could be helpful as well.

Thank you for reaching out, and I'll do my utmost to assist you in recovering your files.

Best,

Anshul Saini

Hi @Subterranean Wolf,

I've shared the recovered files via DM. Please check and let me know if they open up on your end.

Best,

Anshul Saini

R

RobsonINC

Participant

There needs to be more information on how to open an AID file. I have 8 of them from a crash and 8 different AI files.

Can't open them, at all.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Somehow the links I posted do not work. Here they are again:

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/recover-work-illustrator-39270.html

https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-recover-lost-data-from-adobe-illustrator/

https://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-illustrator-file.html

That is all there is at the moment. The Recovery file will be used when Illustrator starts the next time after the crash. Sometimes the recovery did not work. Especially when There is a power outage involved. If the recovery file does not work, then that's that.

Also: When Illustrator starts and reminds you of the recovery present, you have to recover it. If you don't , the file will be deleted. You have only one possiblity.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Some websites have some hacks for you.

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/recover-work-illustrator-39270.html

https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-recover-lost-data-from-adobe-illustrator/

https://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-illustrator-file.html

Might or might not work.

Make proper backups next time.