Lost indesign files

[._natalie_.]

I've been working on a web document on indesign, but when I opened it today, several of my files were gone including the document. I tried looking through the recovery file but it won't open on indesign and I'm really not sure what else I can do. It has been regularly autosaved and indesign hasn't notified me of any missing or corrupted files. Does anyone have any advice?

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @.natalie.,

Just to clarify, are you unable to find the entire document, or is the file there but missing its content (like objects from the spreads)?

Also, were your files saved locally on your computer, an external drive, or Creative Cloud? Could you try searching for the file name in your system’s search bar to see if it may have been moved? Additionally, could you share your InDesign version and OS details?

Looking forward to your update. 

^
Abhishek

[._natalie_.]

Hi, thank you for replying, I'm unable to find the whole document. I think
they were saved either on my computer or creative cloud. I have tried
searching my computer, but those files don't turn up. I have InDesign 20.0,
and MacOs Sequoia.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@._natalie_.

Unfortunately, if you don't have a proper backup copies...

[jmlevy]

I'm really not sure what else I can do.

Don't you know where you saved your files? Did you try to find them using file explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac)?

[._natalie_.]

I've tried searching my computer (macbook) for the files, but only a
document from last year shows up when I do that.

[Barb Binder]

Hi @._natalie_.:

I know this is stressful but InDesign doesn't delete files so let's try to figure out what happened. Sharing additional details would be very helpful: 

• What does "It has been regularly autosaved" mean? Are you referring the about-every-minute mini-save to the InDesign Recovery folder? Those temp files are deleted when we save so we typically only access them after a crash. Did InDesign crash with the file open?
• If you did crash, you may not see the list of recent files on the Welcome screen—which makes some people think the files are gone. You just need to locate them on your drive and reopen them manually. 
• Letting us know where the files were saved will also be helpful, as will seeing what error message comes up when you try to open the file in the recovery folder.

~Barb

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

You say it was regularly autosaved, but did you actually SAVE it? That's not the same as autosave.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

You say it was regularly autosaved, but did you actually SAVE it? That's not the same as autosave.

By @Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Sorry, can't upvote your post...

[._natalie_.]

It might not have been saved then, although I haven't had trouble with this
before. If it's lost, then I might just restart.

[BobLevine]

Right. There is no such thing as autosave in InDesign. It'll do a great job of recovery after a crash but once you quit InDesign normally, it all goes away.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

[...] It has been regularly autosaved and indesign hasn't notified me of any missing or corrupted files.

By @._natalie_.

Unfortunately, there is no "autosave" in InDesign.

[._natalie_.]

I think they might just be lost then, but I haven't had trouble with them
disappearing before.

[leo.r]

Is it possible you were using the discontinued Creative Cloud Sync services:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/eol-creative-cloud-synced-files.html

[._natalie_.]

I think you might be right, so i probably won't be able to find it. I've
started redoing it, but thanks for replying

[BobLevine]

You should get into a habit of using Dropbox or OneDrive. Even if you delete a file you can easily recover it with one click or go back to any version you've recently saved.

[Barb Binder]

Hi @._natalie_.:

We've all lost work, and we know how painful it is, so this is the time to purposely consider your workflow.

I teach my students to save a new file immediately upon creating it, and then to associate "oh, that looks good" or finishing a specific sub-task with "I better save this", so that they remember to save on a regular basis. 

As per @BobLevine's suggestion, I save directly to Dropbox because it's cloud-based, so I can access my work from any location (i.e., office, hotel room or customer site) and it offers automatic version history, so that I can access earlier versions. OneDrive is Microsoft's version. 

If you prefer to save to a local drive, be sure to back that file up to a different drive daily, at a minimum. Another good habit to adopt when working on a local drive is to regularly save your file under a new name so that you can create your own manual version history. For example, you might initially name your file Project.indd. You might save it next as Project_3Apr_8am.indd and Project_3Apr_12pm.indd, etc. Back up all of those files too so that if something goes wrong with the latest version, you can just open up an recent version and not have to start over from the beginning.

~Barb

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

As an add-on to Bob's and Barb's posts, I prefer Microsoft OneDrive. Since most people use Microsoft Office, you can get a subscription as low as $99 US for the suite and it includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage (appx. 1000 GBs). For $130, you can share the subscription with up to 5 others and each person gets their own 1 TB of storeage (technically, you can create multiple Microsoft accounts and share with yourself).

In comparison, Dropbox charges $120 for 2 TBs of storage (but no other features) and has a free 2 GB plan; Google Drive charges $168 for 2 TB and offers 15 GBs free with every Gmail; Box offers charges $180 for unlimited storage and has a free 10 GB account. There are other services but these are the ones I use. 

Theses all offer desktop software for Mac or Windows that syncs anything saved in their folder to the cloud. You can also download it on other computers automatically or, to save drive space, just download certain files as you need them.