Illustrator cannot open files from autosave backup folder after crash

[popperoffer]

Illustrator crashed whilst working on an important project. I found some files in the autosave location:

/Users/<user name>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator <current version> Settings/en_US/Adobe Illustrator Prefs.

There are some files that are 87mb with names like: 6c0082f8-183f-4d1f-89eb-ae76a851cd54

With no file extension.

These files cannot be opened in illustrator. Changing the extension to .ai or .svg etc does not help.

Are the files corrupt, can my project be recovered?

[Monika Gause]

When Illustrator is relaunched after a crash, it will look for recovery files. If it finds some, it will ask you what to do. You must then click on "Try to recover" or the files will be gone for good,. Then Illustrator will try to recover the files. If it cannot, then that is that.

Renaming that file won't help you.

Remember to make backups. Always. And make more backups. And save regularly. Recover can fail, it's not meant as a replacement for a proper backup strategy. It's not autosave.

Maybe @Anshul_Saini can help you with the recovery file.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @popperoffer,

I am sorry for the delayed response, as I was not getting any emails or notifications since 22 July. If you still have those files, would you mind uploading them on Creative Cloud and sharing the download link here or via DM? We will try our best to recover the files. I must also inform you that file recovery can't be guaranteed with 100% success. We'll surely try our best.

Looking forward to your response.

Regards,

Anshul Saini