"File Does Not Exist" Error message Illustrator

[JNKAJ7]

Hello, 

Yesterday, I went to open a couple of files that I was working on and they've disappeared. I'm getting "The File Does Not Exist" error message. The files and the folder they were saved in are completely missing. They were on the home screen and I got the same "file does not exist" message when I clicked on the file both on the home screen and on "open recent files". I searched the entire computer with the Finder button and they're not on the computer anymore. I even looked in the Trash and nothing there. Today, when I went to open another file under "Open Recent Files", another file in a completely different folder has also disappeared and I'm getting the same "the file does not exist" message. My last backup to an external hard drive was last week. This is a Macbook and there's no other TimeMachine or backup running. The file that disappeared yesterday has only been created within the last couple of weeks. The file that disappeared today was a file that I created last year. 

Illustrator 26.3.1

OS - MacOS 12.4

Please help as files can't keep disappearing!

[Bill Silbert]

Do you have a cloud account to which you might have acidentally backed the files up to instead of your hard drive?

[JNKAJ7]

Hi Bill, 

Thank you for your reply. I checked the icloud account and the missing files aren't in there. 

[Monika Gause]

Exactly where was that location?

[kglad]

the files still exist (unless they've been overwritten). deleting doesn't really delete, it just makes a slight change to the file and marks the memory it uses as empty (but it's not).

just about any file recovery software will recover files that have not been overwritten.  some are pretty good at recovering files that have been overwritten (with some limitations).

https://7datarecovery.com/best-recovery-apps-mac/

[JNKAJ7]

Thank you for your reply and apologies that I'm only just replying, I don't consistently get emails when someone replies to my question on the Adobe forum for some reason so I only just saw your suggestion. 

I downloaded DiskDrill and ran the app to see if I could recover the files or the folder but had no luck. 

I think I'm just going to recreate the files rather than spend anymore time trying to find them. Such a mystery that I can't find the entire folder anywhere on the computer. 

Thanks again for your suggestion! 

[kglad · Accepted solution]

you're welcome.

p.s. save your work periodically with increasing version number appended to prevent significant loss of work in the future.  eg, for project1.xxx, save as project1_v000.xxx, project1_v001.xxx etc. occassionally close and reopend the latest version to confirm it exists and isn't corrupted. only then should you delete previous versions.

[JNKAJ7]

Yes I will! Thanks for that suggestion. 

[kglad]

you're welcome