File Recovery when AutoSave fails?

[DXDT]

I have autosave in Photoshop 22.0.1 (on Mac Mojave) set to save every five minutes.  Despite this, about half the time that PS closes abnormally (usually bc the software freezes, occasionally bc of power interruption), AutoRecover has NOT saved a copy of all the modified-but-unsaved files open at the time of the crash.  According to some third-party websites, it is possible to recover work files even in these circumstances, through various methods including use of software that these same websites sell. My questions are these:

1>  Is there any method that works to recover files not saved by autosave?

2> Are any of these software reliable and useful?  Several developers offering solutions also offer "clean my mac" software, and according to Apple power users mac-cleaning software is never necessary and is often dangerous, so I'm hesitant to trust these developers. 

3>. According to one commenter in another thread, Autosave only saves your work when you are not working.  This sounds like an unbelievably stupid way to design an autosave function, but since this is Adobe, I have to ask: Is that true?     

4>. Is there any way to configure Photoshop so that Autosave reliably saves working documents in the background without further user action?  (it is not a solution to this problem for the user to do "save" or "save-as" every x minutes)

[kevin stohlmeyer · Accepted solution]

Autosave works even while you are working or not. (Ignore no. 3)

Autosave works once you initiate an initial save. It has to have a document to backup.

Autosave will not work if you have not saved your file at all.

Its a temp file until you save to a location, then autosave kicks in.

[DXDT]

Thanks you for answering questions 1 and 3 and almost answering number 4.  Re number 4, from your answer it sounds like the proper procedure to ensure that autosave will be engaged and working on a particular document in the manner i chose in my settings is: A. Create or import file then B. immediately save file to a location on my computer or an external drive then C. get to work.  <-- At this point, autosave will be engaged and saving the file in the background as often as I directed it to in my settings.  And if i set autosave to save every five minutes then *typically* if the software crashes I will be able to continue work from an autosave file that five minutes old or less.  Is that correct?  Please let me know of any steps or factors I have left out.  

Such as:  Is autosave every five minutes too often?  Let's say it takes a full minute to autosave a file.  That would mean that 20% of the time, autosave is in the process of saving.  Which means that a software crash has a 20% chance of occuring during the saving process, which I imagine creates a risk of losing ... [the file itself? just the autosave backup of the file?].  Whereas if I autosave every half hour, the chance that a crash occurs during an autosave drops to less than 4%, while the potential loss of a half hour of work is still manageable. <-- Does this hypothetical accurately represent what happens in actual use with autosave?  If so, how long does an autosave take and -- in your opinion, free from blame if you're wrong -- what is the best setting to use for autosave to minimize catastrophic loss while still benefitting from autosave as a feature?

[kevin stohlmeyer · Accepted solution]

You are correct. Save the file then autosave engages in the background.

5 minutes depends on your computer's ability to keep up.

A slower, older processor may tend to cause response lags while backing up.

Newer, faster computers wont notice anything.

I personally have mine set to 15 minutes.

I also never rely on the auto save feature in lieu of saving often. I have two mental prompts:

1. If I am about to do something "experimental" where it may damage my image, I save before I try anything.

2. If I just completed a complicated piece of work I save.

Anything other than that I consider 15 minutes acceptable if I have to recreate something.

[DXDT]

Thank you very much!  Really helpful!

[caseyjay_48]

I too have been wondering about this feature as I just lost some unbacked up work.  I went to my prefs and found autosave every 5 min checked, but nothing in it.  I then set up a test with a ps file open, edited and then saved, I watched the folder /Users/myusername/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop 2021 for the autosave file.  And there it was.  However, I then closed my edited ps file without saving and the autosave went away.  Now if I had mistakenly not saved my work and looked to autosave to provide a recovery copy, it has just trashed it.  Is this working properly?  What good would autosave be if it only keeps a backup while your file is open?  Any light you can shed on this will be appreciated greatly. Thanks

[kevin stohlmeyer]

It is working properly. You have to save your file first to initiate the auto save feature. It wont save temp/unsaved files.

When you close your file and choose not to save, that is telling autosave to clear caches and removed the autosave file.

Autosave is for when PS crashes, not for when you choose not to save. If you crash, PS initiates the Autosave recovery and brings your file back to the last autosave state.

[JooYoungChoi]

My PS project just chrashed and PS did not initiate audo save recovery. I had it set up to save every ten minutes, and the stupid thing hadn't saved it for the last hour and half! I have been working on this project for a number of hours and I finally was making some progress, and now it's all GONE. I hate how unstable adobe programs have become over the years. I wish they'd make a version that has less bells and whistles and WAS MORE STABLE. If anyone knows how to recover a file after a sudden crash please let me now. I already checked the stupid autosave file which as EMPTY. This sucks.

[JooYoungChoi]

oops auto, not audo.

[D Fosse]

Did you read the posts above? The file has to be intially saved to disk at least once. If you haven't saved at all, autosave won't initiate.

[kevin stohlmeyer]

Please read the answers provided in this thread.

[Lumigraphics]

Photoshop shouldn't be freezing randomly. I'd work on fixing that issue first then worry about autosave.