How to Recover an InDesign Document That Reverted to a Previous Version

[Jack245236099azy]

I am in the middle of putting together an extremely important document. I've been working on it throughout this week, saving, opening, and closing it with no issue as my work developed. Today, I restarted my computer to do system updates, making sure to close all my documents before I did so. When my computer restarted, my indesign document was suddenly a version from a week ago, all of my work this week having disappeared.  

Is there anything that I can do to recover my work? No auto-recovery menu popped up when I booted up Indesign - so the file was not closed improperly. My company's IT can't seem to find anything in the server where the file is located. The Recovery folder in my Cache shows some files listed with today's date - but it seems like there's nothing I can do to access whatever that stuff is. 

Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to have to do so much rewriting

<Title renamed by MOD>

[leo.r]

Does your company's IT run any incremental backups? Also, is the file saved on any kind of cloud service that has its own backup system? At last, is it possible that you have incremental backup enabled on your machine (whether Time Machine on Mac or File History on Windows)?

[Steve Werner]

Were there any other files which were lost at the same time? For examples, images which were referenced in the InDesign file?

If other files were also lost, it may be a server-related failure, not an InDesign problem.

[Bill Silbert]

Have you been saving the documents directly to a server? If that is the case it would be a very good idea to keep a copy of each day's work on your hard drive as well. Also using an external hardrive as a Time Machine or File History device would virtually guarantee the prevention of future file loss.

[Eugene Tyson]

File Reversion due to Sync Issues
If the document was stored on a server or synced with cloud storage, sometimes changes aren't fully uploaded or synced before a restart, causing you to revert to an older version.

System Updates or Restarts
Some system updates might interrupt normal workflows or affect file handling, although you did save and close the document properly. However, updates could have interfered with the temporary or auto-save files that InDesign relies on when trying to create the recovery documents.

Cache/Temporary File Corruption
You mentioned seeing files in your Cache folder dated today. These may be auto-save versions or recovery files, but something might have gone wrong preventing InDesign from recognising them.

No harm in trying to salvage them - so here's what I'd try:
Do you use a server? Check for Previous Versions on the Server
If you're working on a server, try asking IT if they can look for previous versions of the file.

Search for Temporary or Recovery Files
Go to the Cache/Recovery folder location: `~/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version [X.0]/InDesign Recovery` (on a Mac) or the equivalent on Windows X:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version [#].0\en_US\Caches\InDesign Recovery

You mentioned today's date correspond to your lost work. If there are, try copying these files to a different location and renaming them with a `.indd` extension. Sometimes InDesign will not auto-load them, but you may still be able to open them manually.

You never know you might get lucky.

Have you any backups, check their locations?
Time Machine (on Mac)

Windows has a 'Previous Version' automatic backup (but sometimes it is not setup correctly by users)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/recover-lost-or-deleted-files-7bf065bf-f1ea-0a78-c1cf-7d...

Are you using cloud backup services (like Dropbox, Google Drive, or SharePoint), check if these services have their own version history.

Corrupted Cache File Renaming
Sometimes recovery files get stored as "incomplete" or "corrupted" versions. If you find files with strange extensions in the recovery folder, try copying them elsewhere and renaming them with the `.indd` extension to see if they open.

Look for Temp Files
Sometimes InDesign leaves behind temporary files (e.g., files with a `.tmp` extension) that could contain recent data. Searching your system for `.tmp` files may lead to a recent copy.

To avoid future issues:
Enable InDesign's Auto Save feature, and make sure it's set to save frequently

Backup regularly to an external drive or cloud storage.

Hopefully, one of these steps will help recover your lost work! Let us know if you'd like more guidance with any specific part of the process.