Imagine the following: You have been working with Illustrator for a few hours. You've had several mishaps and it finally seems that the design you had in mind is coming true. You have focused so much on that work that you have forgotten to save, and you have very little left to finish it. But suddenly your power goes out. And now? How to recover unsaved files in Illustrator?
If it has ever happened to you and you have felt that you have wasted your time for nothing because in the end you had to repeat the work (and it also did not turn out as good as the first one), what we are going to talk to you about may help you. help solve the problem. And it is that There is a way to recover unsaved files in Illustrator. Do you want to know how? We leave you a tutorial.
The temporary folder, the salvation of many
When working with Illustrator, as well as with other programs, there is always a folder in which the work being done is temporarily saved. However, when the computer or the program closes, or the power goes out, etc. what is normal is Go to this folder to try to recover the work you have done instead of thinking that you have lost everything.
To do this, the normal thing is to go to the following address: C:/Users/UserName/AppData/Local/Temp.
When you open the folder, look for files that have to do with Illustrator. Of course, for them to work for you, they will have to change the file extension to Illustrator and you will be able to open them.
Tutorial to recover unsaved files in Illustrator
As we told you at the beginning of the article, there is a way to recover unsaved files in Illustrator. Of course, we must warn you that This is only available starting with the 2015 versions of Illustrator. So if you have a previous one, the logical thing is that you cannot do it.
Using a Mac as an example (you already know that the program changes slightly if it is Windows or Mac), we must go to Illustrator CC, from there to Preferences and then to Manage files and clipboards.
When this window appears, you will see that, at the top, it has a small section about recovering data and it allows you to recover data automatically by having the program save your work every two minutes. This means that, even if you don't click save, the program will do so by default, at least temporarily. Of course, it can be changed to save them every 30 seconds, every minute, every hour... In fact, you will see in that part which is the folder where those copies are saved, and you can change it to whatever you want to have greater control about those files if you want and have it more localized in case there are problems.
Of course, there is a little trick. And before You have to save it the first time and then, every x minutes, it can be saved.
Thus, if at any time the program suddenly closes, the power goes out, the computer turns off... you will have a lifesaver in the sense that, when you start Illustrator again, you will get a message that will warn you that the closed unexpectedly and that information could be recovered. You have to click OK to start the process. Depending on the weight of this document, it will take more or less, but in general you should have saved the work you were working on (at most you have wasted only a few minutes of your time). Don't forget to save it (since we are talking about a temporary save and it is important that you do so so that the autosave is activated again every x amount of time (just in case something happens again).
Below we leave you a video in case you need something more practical to know what you have to do.
Use third party tools to recover
Another option you can try to recover unsaved files in Illustrator is to use third-party tools. That is, programs that are responsible for recovering deleted or deleted files. In this case, we cannot tell you what will be the solution, because it will depend on the program to use. But one that usually works very well is Wondershare Recoverit, which is responsible for locating all the lost Illustrator files. Another tool is Cisdem Data Recovery, which is highly recommended by Adobe.
Tips to prevent data loss
When working with a computer, with programs, you must have a series of important routines to avoid the problem of file recovery. Above all because it may mean recovering or not recovering the work you have been doing.
Among the tips you should follow are the following:
- Save regularly. It is the most basic and what you should have as a routine. It's best to save whenever you make any important changes to keep an up-to-date copy of your work. If you don't usually remember, you can set a notification so that, every x minutes, an alarm sounds so you can save it.
- Use the history function. As you know, if you use Illustrator often, it has a history function that allows you to do or undo different actions. You can take advantage of this to correct errors and also to recover previous versions of the work (you can even take advantage of it to save different versions of the files).
- Have a battery handy. For situations such as power loss, or your laptop running out of battery, you can opt for extension cords with battery or similar that, even if the power goes out, allows you to keep the computer on for a few minutes to give you time to save without losing any of the power. work you have been doing.
Did you know this trick? Now you know how to recover unsaved files in Illustrator. Do you have another way to achieve this? Remember that, if you don't have luck with these methods, you could always write to Illustrator support to try to get them to help you recover those files and the work you have been doing. We read you in comments.