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Question

Accidentally deleted an .indd file and now it's not in the trash. Help!!!!

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 13, 2019
8 replies
3700 views

Hi everybody,

I'm using macOS mojave 10.14.5. It's fully updated, as is my 14.0.2 InDesign.

Last night, after spending over a month to create the latest issue of our newspaper, I accidentally deleted the original .indd files for the project. Please don't ask how, or why; it was 1 A.M. and I thought that I was deleting extraneous copies of the files—not the original (and only) files, as it later turned out.

Still, it didn't strike me as too big a problem. I'm an experienced Mac user. In this situation, my first instinct was to go to the trash. I figured I'd simply pull the files back out into my finder—no harm no foul. But when I opened the trash, they weren't there!!

The files I had just dragged into my trash were nowhere to be found, and 24 hours later they still haven't appeared in the trash. Since last night I have relaunched Finder, researched different downloadable file recovery systems, read a couple dozen of these forum posts, and pulled out. . .oh, around 80% of my hair.

In the trash, I see other .indd files that I've discarded over the past few months; I see the duplicate PDFs that were made from the missing .indd files before I lost them; I see .jpgs and .psds and .pngs; I see all kinds of trash. everything else is present, as it should be. Yet, I see no .indd files from yesterday—nothing to suggest that the files I had just dragged into the trash ever existed. I even considered that the date stamps could have been from before yesterday, so I opened every .indd file in the trash. I can confidently say that none of the files in the trash are the ones I seek.

Is this an Adobe glitch? And—more importantly—can it be fixed?! Can I recover my 9 missing .indd files? I dearly need them for my work and am truly baffled by this situation.

Help—please.

Thanks,

Nat

This topic has been closed for replies.

rob day

Community Expert

In the trash, I see other .indd files that I've discarded over the past few months;

That indicates that you haven't actually emptied the trash for months—is it possible you moved the files via dragging, but missed the trash? Have you carefully checked the entire contents of the Desktop Folder in a list view (Finder>Go>Desktop)?

Also, this is a long shot but you might try a utility like invisibliX, which lets you see hidden files in the finder:

https://invisiblix.read-write.fr/

hidden folders that start with . are revealed

Also, going forward Bob suggested working out of a Dropbox folder, which syncs files to their cloud server where deleted files can be retrieved. Your CC account has a similar feature, any files you save into your /Users/username/Creative Cloud Files folder get sync'd to Adobe’s server and accidentally deleted files can be retrieved.

rayek.elfin

Legend

https://forums.adobe.com/people/rob+day wrote
Also, this is a long shot but you might try a utility like invisibliX, which lets you see hidden files in the finder:
https://invisiblix.read-write.fr/
hidden folders that start with . are revealed

Since Sierra hidden files can be displayed (press again to hide them) with CMD + SHIFT + .

rob day

Community Expert

Thanks.

Peter Villevoye

Community Expert

Oh dear, you must be feeling terrible

Where did the file originally reside, on a local volume or on a server ?

Some server protocols (the rude ones) tend to be a bit messy with deleting files, especially when they use dynamic addressing behind the scenes. They have worked out pretty well by now how to deal with mere morals and their files, but yeah cans are still a bit unpredictable...

Are you sure you closed (and saved) the file before you started your spring cleaning ?

If files were still open and unsaved, then the might be some idlk ghost file somewhere on the volume. Not that it beats much useful information, but it might give you a clue of the folder where the missing file might have been.

The only thing which might have happened is that you've somehow overwritten a file with an alias of the same name (granting its replacement) and deleted the alas we well, thinking that you still had the original file.

For the rest, a Mac system doesn't deleted files on its own, not even from the Trash...

Do a volume search in the Finder for files with an ind extension, and look in the list for recently edited ones.

Good chance you just misplaced it into some folder.

Fingers crossed !!

M

Martlet ProcoAuthor

Participating Frequently

It was on an external hard drive. I’ve lost hope I will recover it. Thank you for your concern. It was not misplaced; I 100% dragged them into the trash, thinking that I was trashing copies (not the original). They simply weren’t in the trash when I went looking, which is the oddest part of all for me. This is an Adobe-specific problem for me. It’s a shame. Their software is so great to use, but if disaster strikes, the Adobe files are harder to recover than most, mainly because of their size and format.

Im bummed. My answer has not been solved. I should maybe try on some Mac forums instead. It’s such an Adobe-specific problem though. Thank you all for all of your great help. I’m sorry it didn’t work for me.

rob day

Community Expert

It’s such an Adobe-specific problem though.

How is not backing up your work an Adobe problem?

M

Migintosh

Legend

Where I work, we all have Mac workstations, but we work from a PC server. If I drag something local to the trash, it's there until I empty (and get this message):

But, if I drag something from the server to my local trash, I get this message:

…so my server files aren't safe in the trash, even if I haven't emptied it. Not sure if this is related, but I thought I'd chime in.

rayek.elfin

Legend

If all else fails, the only thing left to try is to attempt to undelete the files. This is only guaranteed to work immediately after you've deleted the files, and the longer you wait, the less the chance to successfully retrieve them.

Deleted files are actually not truly deleted, and the space with deleted files is marked as 'empty' by an operating system. But the more time you spend on your Mac, the less your chances of recovering the files, because your Mac may overwrite that space with new data (even browsing the web may ruin your chances).

What you need is an undelete utility such as Disk Drill: How to Recover Deleted Files on Mac. 100% Working in 2019

However, anything you download and install may very well overwrite the deleted INDD files, so ideally you would NOT touch the drive (meaning: do not use the Mac, keep it turned off).

Create a boot drive with Disk Drill, and boot your Mac from that USB drive:

Create Data Recovery Boot Drive for Mac OS X. Disk Drill

You MUST PERFORM THESE STEPS ON A DIFFERENT MAC THAN YOURS!!!! After reading this response, take note of the link above, and shut down your Mac. Then create a boot disk with Disk Drill on a different Mac, and boot your mac with it. Then undelete the files (if any are left).

Dov Isaacs

Legend

To directly answer your question of whether this is an “Adobe glitch” – no, InDesign doesn't go into the MacOS trash folder and delete files from same.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

M

Martlet ProcoAuthor

Participating Frequently

Not sure if my last post sent—I don’t see it.

Sorry, are you saying that .indd files can be dragged into the Mac OS trash folder but won’t appear in the trash? I’m unsure of what you’re suggesting.

Luke Jennings

Inspiring

I assume you have tried File> Open recent, and have tried a Spotlight search for your file name, in case you accidentally moved it.

If you added a period to the start of the file name, the file would turn invisible, but is still there.

If you have a recent PDF from your file, you could try converting it back to InDesign.

PDF to Indesign

M

Martlet ProcoAuthor

Participating Frequently

I have tried searching for it, I‘ve also looked through every file in the trash. I didn’t change the file name Or move it. I dragged them to trash, realized they actually weren’t copies, but instead my original files, and immediately went to trash to pull them back out. But they didn’t show up in the trash.

BobLevine

Community Expert

Can't help with something that's gone. If you're not keeping backups, you might want to give the old blog post I wrote a read to avoid this ever happening again:

https://www.boblevine.us/why-i-always-save-files-in-dropbox-and-why-you-should-too/

The interface and a few other things have changed in Dropbox, but it's all for the better. OneDrive has improved as well.