Why has illustrator split a string into individual characters

[richardj35000612]

I have a .ai file with a text string in it, say "abc". I saved it in the default format, "Illustrator 2020". When I reopen this file, I find that the string has been split into (a group of) separate Compound Paths, "a", "b" and "c", making it impossible to edit the text. I wonder why this has happened? On the other hand, a copy of the file saved as "Illustrator 2020 EPS" has retained the text as a single editable string.

FWIW I recently opened an old file (from 2011, produced by Illustrator CS3) and found that that had also split blocks of text into separate characters.

Is there any way to recover editable text from these groups of characters?

Richard

[Monika Gause]

That old file, how did you save it? Always use "Save as" for old files.

The new file looks like for some reason the embedded PDF has been used when opening the file.

This is usually due to:

- opening a file with an older version of Illustrator

- the file got corrupted when saving or transferring

Do you save your files directly to a network?

Do you save your files in a synchronized folder such as Google Drive?

[richardj35000612]

Thanks for all the advice. A few responses.

> That old file, how did you save it? Always use "Save as" for old files.

With "Save as" a PDF. At this time (2011), it was not an "old" file but brand new, and being saved with the latest version of Illustrator, ie CS3. 

But I'll try the script that MikeGondek suggested. 

> The new file looks like for some reason the embedded PDF has been used when opening the file.

> This is usually due to:

>- opening a file with an older version of Illustrator

>- the file got corrupted when saving or transferring

> 

> Do you save your files directly to a network?

> Do you save your files in a synchronized folder such as Google Drive?

It was "Save"d to my MacBook's SSD, and then committed with svn (but that only changes the file permissions). A few days afterwards, I opened the file with the same (latest) version of Illustrator. 

[Monika Gause]

With "Save as" a PDF. At this time (2011), it was not an "old" file but brand new, and being saved with the latest version of Illustrator, ie CS3. 

By @richardj35000612

I'm sorry I really don't get that part? CS3 is not the latest version. Far from it.

[Mike_Gondek]

As mentioned, sounds like the pdf half of the file is being opened. If you are using the latest version of illustrator and this cannto be fixed and is still happening, then a script can be used to merge the text.