Recovering a Adobe Illustrator file when it nuked the recovery data folder?

[Issac Liu]

Hi, recently Adobe Illustrator 27.5 crashed on me while I was working on a project. I went to the DataRecovery folder (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 27 Settings\en_US\x64\DataRecovery) but there was nothing in \x64\. What do I do? It also seemed to have just decided not to save my work to the cloud at all around 2 hours before the crash.

[Monika Gause]

You were working on an AIC file?

Or on a file saved locally?

Or not saved at all?

If it was an AIC file, then please check in your Creative Cloud documents. 

The recovery function is not a backup. And also: when your computer (or Illustrator) crashes while saving, then all the affected files are most probably toast.

You have to make backups. And save different version. There must not be only one file.

[Issac Liu]

Yeah, I was working on a AIC file. However, the version in the cloud doesn't have the work that's gone missing. I had autosave to the cloud on for every 5 minutes, so I was confused as to why it didn't autosave to the cloud.

[Monika Gause]

@Anshul_Saini can you please help here?

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @Issac Liu,

We apologize for the inconvenience you experienced with the auto-save feature in Adobe Illustrator for Cloud Document. We understand how frustrating it can be to lose progress on your work.

We assure you that our engineers are constantly working to improve the auto-save feature and make it more reliable. We recommend checking that your internet connection is stable and strong, which could affect the auto-save functionality. However, in some rare cases, complex or large-size files take longer than expected to back up to Cloud, which could be the case here. Sometimes, file recovery for complex files may be disabled in order to prioritize the performance of the application. However, manual saving is still available as an option to ensure the file is saved even for cloud documents.

Also, you may check the version history of the AIC doc (https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/open-revert-cloud-document-version.html) to check if there are any previous versions available from the 2-hour window prior to the crash.

Best,

Anshul Saini

[Issac Liu]

There's nothing there from the 2 hour period since the file didn't get autosaved to the cloud

[Anshul_Saini]

Thanks for checking it out. I am sorry to hear that and the loss of your work due to the file not being autosaved to the Creative Cloud. It's frustrating when valuable progress goes missing. I recommend manually saving frequently & having a backup saved locally to prevent this from happening in the future.

Remember, saving your work frequently and utilizing multiple backup options to safeguard against data loss is always a good practice.

Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience caused. If you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know. I'm here to assist you.

Best,

Anshul Saini

[Mark23634075p61l]

These answers are so dissatisfying. How is the auto-save for AIC files so incredibly poor that, despite hours of being open, not a single update is synced to the cloud version. For me this has meant a crash has lost me work carried out between Tuesday morning and Friday night. 
We don't want apologies, we want actual explanations as to how this is even possible?

And yes, I could and should have been making manual saves, but one of the claimed benefits of AIC saving is continual saing and version history. 

[Antea259428938hdz]

Please help me and recover this file.

[Monika Gause]

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@Antea259428938hdz  schrieb:

Please help me and recover this file.

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I can't help you with your file.

Now is the time to come up with a backup strategy. Save your files often. Save different versions on different volumes so that when this happens you can just open another copy of the file and don't have to rely on the recovery file. 

Recovery is not a backup.