preventing indesign files from disappearing?

Report · Sep 24, 2023

Hi Folks -

Ive been having troubles with indesign files disappearing. Recently I had a file saved to google drive, and the next day I got the "file cannot be found" error. So I recreated the file and saved it to my desktop. The same thing happened - after a day's work, when I went to open the file, it gave me the same error message. I went to the InDesign Recovery file and tried to open the DMTmp file with the most up to date time signature, and it also gave me the same "file cannot be found" error.

At this point, I am resigned to the file being lost, but I want to make sure this doesn't happen again. I'm not sure how to fix this - all of the obvious things seem to not be relevant. I thought by saving the file on my desktop it would be safe.

Any tips to prevent future issues? Is there some sort of file corruption that is more likely to happen from saving to a cloud and then saving to desktop?

Any pointed

Report · Sep 24, 2023

Which platform?

Which OS - version?

Which InDesign version?

We are not mind readers...

Report · Sep 24, 2023

Sounds odd. Files don't just disappear.

Probably need a lot more information before we can help.

Report · Sep 25, 2023

I should clarify - the file is still there on my desktop, but the error message appears when I try to open it, and it cannot be recovered. My operating system is Windows 11 pro, and i'm working from indd version 18.5. I'm less concerned with opening this file now, then why it is happening frequently that files i've saved are giving me this error message and then can't be recovered. If there is a reason? And yes, clearly backups are a good idea, but I'm hoping that there is a way to identify why saved files on my system are frequently giving the "cannot be found" error message. Thanks!

Report · Sep 25, 2023

Rollback to a previous InDeisgn version

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html#:~:text=Open%20the%20Cr....

Report · Sep 24, 2023

I also don't know why your files would disappear.

What I do know is that you should never be in a situation where after a day of work you don't have any backup of your work. You must run an incremental backup solution at all times (such as Time Machine on Mac). And it should back up to a different drive than the one you work from.

Ideally, you'd want to run at least two backup solutions. For example, one local backup system (such as Time Machine) plus an online backup service.

A proper backup strategy is your best guarantee that you won't lose your files in the future.