How to Recover Illustrator File After Crash for Free (8 Easy Ways)

Help! Can you recover illustrator file crash?

One of the most painful things that can happen when you use editing software like Illustrator is encountering a system or software crash that results in file loss.

Sometimes, you can restore deleted files from Recycle Bin when illustrator files are deleted by accident. Don’t panic if you don't find it in the recycle bin, I’ll show you how to recover illustrator file after crash. In addition, other alternative ways to recover deleted Illustrator files will be provided too. These solutions apply to any Adobe Illustrator version, including CS5, CS6, CC, version 2023 (26.3), and so on.

How to recover Illustrator file after crash (3 ways)

How to recover an Illustrator file after a crash? Just like recover Excel file after crash, or recovering Word files after crash, Illustrator also has an Autosave feature and it’s enabled by default. Besides, it also has a temporary folder that may contain your unsaved work.

📄 Recover files with AutoSave	AutoSave will initiate the auto-recovery process.
☎Recover lost files from Adobe Illustrator backup	Locate and recover the target file in the default path.
📁Recover from the temporary folder	Check the temporary folder to find your lost files.

▶ Solution 1. Restore unsaved Illustrator files after crashes with AutoSave

After Illustrator crashes, you can choose to restart this app. If it does not respond, force quit and then restart it. It will initiate the auto-recovery process process and open all the saved files with the Recovered suffix. Try it first and then check the autosave file location.

Step 1. Restart the Illustrator on your PC.

When you see a dialogue box, saying Adobe Illustrator quit unexpectedly and the unsaved documents are recovered with [Recovered], click OK.

Step 2. After opening, save the file that has been automatically recovered.

The files you were working on while the app crashed or shut down will show up with Recovered suffix in Adobe Illustrator. Click File > Save as to recover unsaved Illustrator files after crash. Please save it with a different name.

If it does not show you the unsaved file, you can also go to the Adobe Illustrator AutoSave location. Find the unsaved Illustrator files, open and save them in Adobe Illustrator.

Note: Every time Illustrator crashes, the data recovery feature turns off automatically. If you don’t want to lose your files in this app, turn it on manually.

▶ Solution 2.  Recover lost files from Adobe Illustrator backup

In case of data loss or application crash, Adobe helps you to recover lost data from Adobe Illustrator files on your computer. However, the recovery feature is not enabled during the installation process. You must activate the Data Recovery preference in Illustrator's Preferences.

You can save backup or recovery files to a specified location in a folder. If you do not specify a location in the Data Recovery Preferences, Illustrator files are saved by default to the following locations on your computer:

Step 1. Navigate to the specified location of the Illustrator data recovery file or follow the default location.

Step 2. Search for the file with the name "recovery" or "recovered". Then select the desired file and rename it.

Step 3. Next, open the file using Illustrator and click File. Select Save As to save the file.

Tips:
- If you can't find an unsaved Illustrator file in this location on your computer, it may be because
- Autosave is not enabled in Illustrator preferences, or You can set preferences to save files to a different location. Go to the specified location to recover the unsaved Illustrator file.

▶ Solution 3. Recover Illustrator files from Temp folder

You can also check the temporary folder. It’s generated when you are creating or editing a file and goes after you close the file. So the recovery rate is quite low.

For Windows:

1. Go to C:\Users\*Your User Name*\AppData\Local\Temp.

2. Find the unsaved AI file. Then, open it with Adobe Illustrator, click File>Save or Save as to recover unsaved Illustrator Files.

For Mac:

1. Go to Finder>Application>Terminal, and run this command line tool.

2. Type open $TMPDIR and press Enter to access the temporary folder in Mac.

3. Then, find and open the unsaved AI file with Adobe Illustrator. Save it with a new file name.

How to recover deleted or corrupted Illustrator file (5 ways)

If you accidentally deleted the Illustrator file or lost it due to other reasons, you can try to restore from backup image or data recovery software. If you just overwrite the original files, try to revert the file version.

▶ Solution 1. Recover Illustrator file with data recovery software 🔥

AOMEI FastRecovery is a simple and easy-to-use data recovery software for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc and Windows Server. It helps to find and recover deleted or corrupted Illustrator files quickly and successfully.

Download this simple data recovery software- AOMEI FastRecovery and install it on your computer. 

1. Open this Windows data recovery software - AOMEI FastRecovery. Hover the mouse over the disk or partition where your Illustrator file was lost and click Scan.

2. It will automatically run Quick Scan to find any deleted files. You can search, filter, preview, and select them to recover immediately. 

To retrieve deleted Illustrator files, take Illustrator PDF as an example, click Filter > Type, and select Documents, then check the scan results. Or input PDF in the Search for files or folders box.

You can search AI Illustrator (.ai), Illustrator EPS (.eps), or Illustrator SVG (.svg) based on the type of your Illustrator files.

3. Choose the lost Illustrator files to recover and click Recover. Please select a new location to save recoverable Illustrator files.

Except for Windows 10, it still can recover deleted files from Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, etc.

▶ Solution 2. Recover deleted Illustrator file from Recycle Bin

Like other types of files, the deleted Illustrator file will be moved to Recycle Bin. If you are sure your files are deleted instead of permanently deleted, check the Recycle Bin folder.

1. Just go to the Recycle Bin on your Desktop.

2. Locate the deleted Illustrator file, right-click it, and choose Restore.

▶ Solution 3. Recover Adobe Illustrator file from File History

If you are in the habit of backing up important files regularly, such as, using File History, you can choose to restore Illustrator file from backup. It saves different file versions and you can select a specific version you want.

1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security and select File History.

2. Select Restore personal files. It will open file history recovery window. 

3. Click the left arrow to locate the deleted Illustrator files, and click the Restore to original location icon to restore deleted files.

▶ Solution 4. Recover Adobe Illustrator file to Previous Version

You can also try to restore Adobe Illustrator file to its previous version if you enable File History and save over a Illustrator file.

1. Press Win + E to open This PC. Locate the folder which is used to save the deleted Illustrator file.

2. Right-click it and then select Properties > Previous Version.

3. Select the previous folder version and click Restore to restore Illustrator files to previous version.

▶ Solution 5. Recover Illustrator file with Revert & Recent Files

If you accidentally save your Illustrator file but don’t want to keep the change, you can try to revert it to the last saved version.

Revert illustrator file:

Open Adobe Illustrator and click File > Revert. Then, it will automatically revert your Illustrator file to the last saved version.

Check the Recent file:

In Adobe Illustrator, go to File > Open Recent Files. You will see the files you recently working on. Open it in Adobe Illustrator and save it with a new file name.

Further reading: How to repair corrupted Illustrator files

If your Illustrator Files are damaged, you can try to repair them after recovery. It may happen due to different reasons, such as interruption due to a power surge or computer crash, improper editing, converting, or formatting, virus attack, etc.

▶ Solution 1. Repair AI Illustrator file

If you create AI Illustrator File with Create PDF Compatible File option, you can convert .ai file to .pdf file and it’s recoverable.

1. Open the damaged .ai file in Adobe Illustrator.

2. Click File > Save as and select .pdf as file type. Then, click Save.

3. Open the converted .pdf file in Illustrator and save it with .ai file type this time.

▶ Solution 2. Repair Illustrator PDF file

For PDF files, there are many PDF repair tools online. For Illustrator PDF file, you can try  illustrator.repair.

1. Visit https://www.illustrator.repair. Click the SELECT FILE button to upload Illustrator PDF files.

2. It requires an email address to repair your files. Type in and click NEXT STEP to run this repair process automatically. It will ask to you pay for the repair.

Bonus tips: How to prevent Illustrator files deleted or damaged

If you don’t want to lose Illustrator Files or other file types, you need to protect it well in daily life. Here are two main ways to achieve it, namely enable Autosave to keep a copy of your unsaved files and directly create a file backup with backup software like AOMEI Backupper Standard.

▶ Solution 1. Enable Illustrator AutoSave to keep unsaved files

1. Click Edit > Preferences > File Handling & Clipboard.

2. Then, tick the Automatically Save Recovery Data Every option. The default time interval is 2 minutes. You can also change it to a different time interval.  

3. Click Choose to select a new location for unsaved Illustrator file.

4. Check Turn off Data Recovery for complex document to avoid interruption of the workflow.

5.  Finally, click OK to confirm you want to make these changes.

▶ Solution 2. Create a complete copy of the Illustrator file

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a free and easy-to-use backup software for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc. With it, you can create a complete copy of your Illustrator file and keep changes automatically. And it allows you to backup files to internal/external disk, USB drive, cloud drive, network drive or NAS.

1. Download and install Windows backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard. Then, click Backup and File Backup to backup your Illustrator files.

2. Set the Task Name to distinguish this backup task from others. Click Add File or Add Folder to choose Illustrator files you want to backup.

3. Select a location to store your data. It can be internal or external disk, USB flash drive, network drive, NAS device, Cloud Drive, etc.

4 (Optionally). Click Schedule Backup and enable Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event triggers or USB plug in to backup Illustrator files automatically.

5. Confirm the operation and click Start Backup. By default, it will enable incremental backup to backup only new or changed Illustrator files.

Besides you still need to keep your drivers up to date and scan for viruses and malware regularly to prevent data loss.

What causes Illustrator to crash?

Adobe Illustrator crashes can be caused by various factors. Here are some common reasons:

Conclusion

This article introduces you to 8 effective ways how to recover Illustrator file after crash, deletion, or corruption as well as repair damaged Illustrator files. If you have problems dealing with them, please follow the methods above. AOMEI FastRecovery can be a nice assistant for file recovery. Hope it will help you.

Besides, you still need to take some precautions to protect your Illustrator file. For unsaved files, please ensure the Auto-save feature is enabled. For deleted or corrupted files, the best practice is to create a complete copy of them in advance.

FAQs on Illustrator crash file recovery