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

[Martlet Proco]

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

[Grant H]

Are you using Time Machine?

Time machine will back up automatically on your hard drive for a few days so maybe you can restore the file like (with using it) that.

[Martlet Proco]

I haven’t checked that! It’s a work computer. Thanks, I’ll let you know.

[BobLevine]

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.

[Luke Jennings]

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

[Martlet Proco]

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.

[Dov Isaacs]

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

[Martlet Proco]

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.

[rayek.elfin]

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).

[Migintosh]

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.

[Peter Villevoye]

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 !!

[Martlet Proco]

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]

It’s such an Adobe-specific problem though.

How is not backing up your work an Adobe problem?

[Martlet Proco]

Thanks for your concern Rob Day. I haven’t had this problem anywhere else—despite decades of computer work in different applications—so it seemed an oddity to me. If you have an actual solution to help me prove my still-elementary Adobe theory wrong, I would be all ears.

[rayek.elfin]

Re-connect your drive, and trashed files should show up.

How Mac Trash Handles External Drive Files​

If not, use the aforementioned undelete utility to inspect your external drive - since you mentioned you were working off an external drive, they might still be there, even if you inadvertently deleted them.

[Martlet Proco]

Thank you Rayek! Wouldn’t it be awful if it turned out to be a matter of “unplug and plug back in”? I will try it today and post back here with results.

[Martlet Proco]

I actually did use a free download for file recovery software. For free, I could scan the disk and external HD. However, the .indd files I saw on there (a different number from those missing) had encrypted names that I didn’t recognize, were missing time stamps, and (as usual) showed no preview. I’m sure these aspects are usual for file recovery software, but I had no way of knowing what there was to gain and I didn’t think downloading it on my work computer was worth the potential risk. Still a good suggestion though.

[rayek.elfin]

In any case, always integrate versioning and regular backups in your workflow. I use various tools for this myself. For example, one utility I installed (on my Windows machine, though) is to automatically mirror the contents of project folders on two different drives, just in case.

I've lost too many files in the past, and have become somewhat paranoid 🙂

[Martlet Proco]

Thanks Rayek! You’ve been extremely, topically helpful. I will post again if any of these suggestions has solved my problem.

[Steve Werner]

Following getting some good advice I got early on, I use two forms of backup. I use Dropbox like Bob does. I also do a backup using Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac utility) to an external drive incrementally once a week. I can boot from the external drive if I need to.

[Martlet Proco]

Bob, Rob, Steve; thank you all—these are wonderful preventive steps for the future! I will see which works best for me, and implement it immediately.

[rob day]

Decades of experience and no backup?

Your CC subscription offers an effortless cloud backup solution, all that is required is saving files inside of your Creative Cloud Files folder which is installed in your OSX User folder.

[BobLevine]

What seems odd to me is having decades of experience with computers and never losing file.

[Martlet Proco]

To Bob and Rob: I make copies, I’m careful. I keep a copy of anything irreplaceable on my external hard drive as well as on my local disc. Sometimes in more places. I have lost files—that is how we all learn—but never anything so important. I guess I’m lucky. I fail to see the advice either of you are offering though?

[BobLevine]

I wrote this years ago. It still holds.

Best way I know of to avoid any loss of important files: https://www.boblevine.us/why-i-always-save-files-in-dropbox-and-why-you-should-too/