This would have been WONDERFUL if it was a DEFAULT setting.

UGH.

Come on... at least once a year, since I can remember,  Illustrator invariably crashes... at let's face it, nobody is expecting it...then you realize its been an hour or so since you saved anything. It gets so you can't fully concentrate, - that this is the ONE program you have to impulsively hit the command "S" button like a little monkey robot. Muse is fantastic at auto recovery. InDesign - a dream... The technology exists... for Christ's sake... think of all the lost hours... the humanity.. The whole of Adobe should not be allowed to work on anything else until this is fixed...

Adobe makes some great things... but sometimes, I think Steve Jobs was right about this company.

I lost days worth of artwork thanks to some other S****y program that made me have to restart my comp. Now I lost a ton of work. Thanks a lot, Adobe.

t(T_Tt)

ignominy.

While I keep reading here, as If someone hitting my brain.

People has tried to make actions...

Even, someone had made an app FOR SAVING DOCUMENT AUTOMATICALLY and, serviced it for 5 Euro.

omg...

I'm really bad...

My agency has been waiting to get something from me too... I'm sitting here, writing...

Today, I lost nearly 4 hours. Because of crushing. This happens and I alway forget to save document like before 2000's. In that time, our fingers stays on ctrl+s button generally. As I understand that, autosave feature is very very hard to do for Adobe. I understand that. Today, some softwares make stupid features like realtime rendering or proper snapping features. Very very unnecessary things. I think these people are very stupid too Action AutoSave / AutoRecovery After Crash - Recover File & Work - Illustrator CS5-CS6-CC - YouTube they try to solve things, I don't understand these struggling.

Beside that I totally understand why a software, which is constantly crushing not safe one, would have a recover feature, right?

I've been working on 10 letters drawing today. All of them very simple and just strokes, not shapes even. And, because of the job's creative expectations, I focused on that, I mean, draw simple things to get good result. So, I did not focus to save damn document constantly.

I think, Adobe very poor to achieve to keep something clear, safe, modern and useful. It is like windows 95a,95b, 98 etc. etc. Because of that, I'm ready to pay one more Creative Claud service. You can get double from me.

By the way, I've mentioned this before and, I will again that, is there any tester who know exactly to use Adobe Illustrator, an expert on that, an artist or designer there? do you know that there are some stupidities in this software and I'm -as a designer who HAVE TO use PS and AI every day- nearly convinced that I have to change this old craps and shift to other new solutions. Because, as I see that, they are small but, they totally understands what is expected to be seen in a new, modern software. Yes, hard to change tools but, do you, AI team there, know how is big damn hammer effect that loosing 4 hours? using a crushy tool nearly everyday?(please don't write that my system has a problem. I've formated all machine recently becuse of that. I'reinstall Adobe PS, AI ONLY. There were nothing on my machine for a while! dropbox even.) even loosing 10 minutes how much give a heard, brain and nerve pain?

I fed up with keep asking, keep asking keep asking! I fed up Adobe's every piece of things. Even Behance for instance that bought recently. Do you know what designers live there? Anyway... I just had to cry here!

Autosaviour - Astute Graphics

this plugin is great tool that really helps!

Try, licence is free.

I Found this link, and it works

all you must do is to load the action when you open a file and play it

by setting intervals such as 30 secs

and not in the post but can set two save options so it saves two versions of recent changes almost like a history

design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autosave-in-adobe-illustrator-using-the-actions-palette--vector-4698

If you participate in vector graphics forums, then you might have seen the question "Is there an Autosave feature in Adobe Illustrator?" and theorists would always say "no, there is not," more often advising to save the work through the Save and Save As commands.

These people are not familiar with these fluttering feelings of delight of a true artist, when vector is so nicely flexible and filled with the desired beauty, when you forget about the time and space, not even mentioning some trivial Shift + S. If you're one of those artists, I can teach you how to create an "Auto Save" on your own. This technique was developed by my friend Igor Tchernitsyn.

Step 1

Create a new file (File > New) and name it in the open dialog box. Open the Action palette (Window > Action). Activate the Create New Set button and name it "Autosave."

Step 2

Activate the Create New Action button and leave the name that is given by default as "Action 1."

Re-activate the Create New Action button and leave the name that is given by default as "Action 2."

Stop Action recording with the Stop Playing / Recording button.

Step 3

Select "Action 1" and start action recording, by pressing the Begin Recording button.

Select "Action 2" and click on the Play Current Selection button.

Stop Action recording by pressing the Stop Playing / Recording button.

Step 4

Select "Action 2," and turn off the Toggle Item in front of "Action 1," by removing it from the palette. Now start action recording by pressing the Begin Recording button.

Step 5

Select "Action 1" and activate the Play Current Selection button.

If you participate in vector graphics forums, then you might have seen the question "Is there an Autosave feature in Adobe Illustrator?" and theorists would always say "no, there is not," more often advising to save the work through the Save and Save As commands.

These people are not familiar with these fluttering feelings of delight of a true artist, when vector is so nicely flexible and filled with the desired beauty, when you forget about the time and space, not even mentioning some trivial Shift + S. If you're one of those artists, I can teach you how to create an "Auto Save" on your own. This technique was developed by my friend Igor Tchernitsyn.

Step 1

Create a new file (File > New) and name it in the open dialog box. Open the Action palette (Window > Action). Activate the Create New Set button and name it "Autosave."

Step 2

Activate the Create New Action button and leave the name that is given by default as "Action 1."

Re-activate the Create New Action button and leave the name that is given by default as "Action 2."

Stop Action recording with the Stop Playing / Recording button.

Step 3

Select "Action 1" and start action recording, by pressing the Begin Recording button.

Select "Action 2" and click on the Play Current Selection button.

Stop Action recording by pressing the Stop Playing / Recording button.

Step 4

Select "Action 2," and turn off the Toggle Item in front of "Action 1," by removing it from the palette. Now start action recording by pressing the Begin Recording button.

Step 5

Select "Action 1" and activate the Play Current Selection button.

Step 6

Wait until the record is complete and stop it by activating the Stop Playing / Recording button.

Step 7

Turn on the Toggle Item in front of "Action 1."

Action that works in a closed cycle is ready, now you need to check if it works.

Step 8

Select the Set "Autosave" and click on Play Current Selection button.

If you correctly repeated all the above mentioned routine operations, you will see how the Action works non-stop, irritating your eyes with continuous blinking. Now stop Action, by clicking Stop Playing / Recording button.

Step 9

Select Action 1 and start action recording, by pressing the Begin Recording button.

Now write a new action in the Action, to do this go to File > Save As.

Choose a folder on the disk to which we will save our work.

Stop recording with action button Stop Playing / Recording. Note that there is a new recording in "Action 1."

Step 10

Now select the recording "Save As" in "Action 1" and drag it to one step up, as shown below.

Step 11

Select the recording "Save As" in "Action 1," and while holding down Alt, move it before "Play Action" recording in "Action 2."

Step 12

Now let's test the created "Autosave" action to work. Select the Set "Autosave" button and start the action with the Play Current Selection.

Step 13

Start drawing, preferably something complex using a number of layers and effects, and the action will automatically save your brilliant creation. Everything is fine, but why do we need an immediate saving of all that goes out of your brilliant pen. Set the time interval between the savings. Choose the Playback Option from the menu of the Action palette.

Activate the "Pause For" option and set the time interval between the acts and action. I set the max - 100 seconds, that means the interval between the savings will be 200 seconds.

Of course, you can set time interval you like. The Action is ready, before you start working do not forget to turn it on by pressing the Play Current Selection button, and turn it off at the end by pressing the Stop Playing / Recording button.

Step 14

In order not to create an action of the autosave from the beginning each time, save it. Press the Stop Playing / Recording button and open the Action palette menu and select Save Action and save it in a convenient place.

Step 15

To download this action to the palette, open the Action palette menu and choose Load Action.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this technique is as useful for you as it is for me, and you will not be freaking out the next time your power turns off.

ENd

i tried it and it works as long as all steps are followed

Oh Illustrator, why have thou forsaken me??

How do I tell a client I lost all the changes we made? Christ

Now you can use Free Autosaviour plug-in. Also it saves a backup.

I suppose your .ai file was corrupted by unknown reason. It's possible by virus and therefore Adobe Illustrator changed it's features and opened it for you in Read-only Mode.

You may try to repair .ai file with the help of Recovery Toolbox for Illustrator

http://www.illustrator.recoverytoolbox.com/

program works with .ai files of any version of Adobe Illustrator