Illustrator did NOT save my progress, even though I manually saved.

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

Graphic Design student here. I was working on a class assignment on the latest Illustrator version. I was working for about 3 hours. I periodically save my work, probably every 15-20 minutes. I got to a good break point, saved my file, and exited Illustrator. When I reopened the file later, about 90 percent of my progress was GONE. It has reverted to a save point that was only about 15 minutes into my process. 

This is extremely frustrating, as this is probably the 2nd or 3rd time this has happened to me. I've gotten lucky so far that it has not been more than a couple hours of work. But I am concerned that this could happen on an even larger scale! Adobe software is supposed to be industry standard, so why do myself and others keep encountering terrible bugs such as this? Its really quite infuriating. 

If anyone knows a way to recover my progress, I would greatly appreciate your input. So far, I haven't been able to find any solutions, even though I have found other people who encountered the same issue. Adobe, PLEASE fix your buggy software. Thank you. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Where do you save your work? Local hard disk, Server, cloud/sync folder?

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

I save my work to my local hard disk, I don't usually save to creative cloud, because I have had friends who used cloud autosave features, and lost entire documents. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Do you save it to something like dropbox? 

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

Not yet, I think I'll start doing that from now on, even though I'm not sure that will solve this problem. That will probably save me from other heartaches tho. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Saving on you local hard disk is the safest way. Saving directly to a Dropbox folder will add another weak spot.

If saving to your hard disk gives problems, maybe Adobe support can help, they can have a look into your system.

You can try this and ask for an Agent:

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

Ok, thank you Ton!! This is very helpful actually

[Doug A Roberts]

Did you change save formats at any point? Is the file a PDF or AI?

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

I did not change formats at any point, its an .ai file. 

[Larry G. Schneider]

In Preferences, is Save in Background checked or unchecked? 

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

Save in Background is checked, here are my other preferences as well if this is any help

[Monika Gause]

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@Ruth_Stalcup0749  schrieb:

Save in Background is checked, 

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Better turn it off. It has caused your issue for other people.

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

Oh ok, I shall do that! Thank you! Hopefully the issue won't come back now. 

[Larry G. Schneider]

Concur with Monika. If you have it on, you can think the save has taken place when it is not finished.

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

Thanks! If that's what caused my issue, then I wish that Illustrator would let you know if the file hasn't finished saving. That would probably have saved me some trouble. 

[jodmcc49]

Just a thought but did you do a search of your hard drive for the name of the file, just in case it got saved in a different location?

[Ruth_Stalcup0749]

I searched my entire hard drive, but unfortunately it wasn't saved anwhere else. Some other responses told me my progress loss was probably cause by the "save in background"  functionality, which makes it seem like illustrator has saved even if it hasn't

[creative explorer]

@Ruth_Stalcup0749 I also save different versions as well. So version 1...vers2, vers3...If I get up to take a coffee break or stretch my legs, I save a file and name it vers??. I know it sounds like a pain, but at least I have a back-up to a back-up!