Document recovery not working on Mac in InDesign 2024

[Ady80]

InDesign document recovery used to work fine for me after a crash, but now that I'm using InDesign 2024, files that were open during a crash cannot be recovered. I have tried to follow instructions to locate the document recovery folder (variations of Library>Caches, etc), but no recovery folder seems to exist. I am using Mac OS 13.2.1. Any idea what is going on?

[Barb Binder]

Hi Adrienne:

Just confirming that you checked the location listed in InDesign > Prefs > File Handling: which defaults to Users/[User Name]/Library/Cache/Adobe InDesign/Version 19.0/InDesign Recovery? Was the location changed in the dialog box? 

~Barb

[Ady80 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for that! I followed your suggestion and discovered that the location listed in preferences was the same as you described, but that location didn't exist on my computer. I tried to manually create a folder in that location, but that resulted in InDesign repeatedly crashing on startup. I ended up updating to version 19.0.1, and that fixed the problem! 

tl;dr: if you're having this same problem on Mac, try updating InDesign to the latest version

[Barb Binder]

Hi Adrienne:

Thank you for coming back to let us know that the upgrade to 19.0.1 fixed it!

~Barb

[Emily339850779seq]

Hi,

I'm having the same issue, though i was on version 19.0.1 already. I tried downgrading to 19.0, still didn't work, and then I updated back to 19.0.1 and it still isn't working. I cannot find the folder listed as the data recovery folder on my mac after over an hour of searching for it, and when I launch InDesign it prompts me to recover the lost files, but then it says that they cannot be found.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Ady80]

Hello,

I thought updating to 19.0.1 had fixed the problem, but then I started having the same issue again. 

If you are trying to recover a specific file, it's probably lost unfortunately.

But if you want to avoid future losses, these steps worked for me:

1.  Go to InDesign Preferences>File Handling. Under Document Recovery, choose this folder (which is different than what Barb described): Macintosh HD>Library>Caches>Adobe InDesign>InDesign Recovery.
2. Re-start InDesign.
3. The next time you have a crash or force-quit, there should be a backup file. (I tested this with a test file that I left un-saved for a few minutes and then force-quit the application. It's important to wait a few minutes because the backups don't generate instantly.)