How to Recover Illustrator File After Crash [Unsaved & Deleted]

Help! Can you recover illustrator file crash?

Illustrator is one of the most popular editing software, but sometimes the system or software crashes during use, even without time to save your Illustrator file or find it deleted.

How to recover unsaved Illustrator file after crash (3 ways)

Here we'll show you 3 simple and effective methods to recover unsaved Illustrator file after crash.

▶ Solution 1. Restart Adobe Illustrator 

Just like recover Excel file after crash, or recovering Word files after crash, you can recover Illustrator files after crash with AutoSave feature. It's enabled by default. 

1. Restart Illustrator to trigger the auto-recovery process.

When you see a dialogue box, saying,"Adobe Illustrator quit unexpectedly and the unsaved documents are recovered with [Recovered]", click OK. If it does not respond, force quit and then restart it. 

2. Save the automatically recovered file.

It will open the unsaved file with the Recovered suffix in Adobe Illustrator. Click File > Save as to recover unsaved Illustrator files after crash. Please save it with a different name.

Alternatively, if it does not show you the unsaved file, go to the Adobe Illustrator AutoSave location to find it, You can then open and save it in Adobe Illustrator.

▶ Solution 2.  Check the Illustrator data recovery location

Adobe also provides users with a Data Recovery feature to recover Illustrator file after crash. Note it's not enabled during the installation process. You must activate it in Illustrator's Preferences and specify a location to save backup files. If not, your files will be saved in the following path by default.

P.S. In different Illustrator versions, CrashRecovery is also equal to "DataRecovery".

1. Navigate to the default Illustrator data recovery file location. If you specify a new location, please go there.

2. Search for the file with the "recovery" or "recovered" word. Then, select the desired file and rename it to a new one. 

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

▶ Solution 3. Check the Temp folder for Illustrator file

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 lost Illustrator file (5 ways)

Here are 5 useful methods to recover deleted or lost Illustrator files. 

▶ Solution 1. Recover deleted Illustrator file with 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 lost Illustrator files quickly and successfully due to software or system crashes, accidental deletion, virus attack, and so on.

Download this simple data recovery software- AOMEI FastRecovery and install it on your computer. Don't save it to where Adobe Illustrator files were as it may cause data overwriting. 

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

2. It will automatically run Quick Scan to find deleted files within 3-5 seconds. It only display the deleted files instead of all data, greatly saving your time. 

3. You can directly type the Illustrator file name or extension in the Search box to find it quickly. Then, double-click to preview and recover it immediately

Alternatively, you can wait for the best results. Choose deleted Illustrator files and click Recover. Please select a new location to save recoverable Illustrator files. Retrieving files to their original location may overwrite deleted Illustrator files

It is also able to recover files from formatted hard drive, external hard drives, USB drives, SD card,s etc.

▶ Solution 2. Check the Recycle Bin (Immediate action)

Like other types of files, the deleted Illustrator file will be moved to the Recycle Bin. If your files are deleted recently, 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. Restore Illustrator file from File History

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

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

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

3. Check if the Illustrator files are there and click the Restore to original location icon to restore deleted files. If not, click the left arrow to locate deleted Illustrator files.

▶ Solution 4. Restore 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. Revert Illustrator file to last version

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.

#1: Revert illustrator file:

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

#2: 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.

How to repair corrupted Illustrator files (2 ways)

If your Illustrator Files are damaged due power surge or system crash, improper editing, converting, virus attack, etc., you can try the following methods to repair them. 

▶ 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 about recovering Illustrator files 

In this part, you'll get the possible reasons and prevention measures in detail. 

What causes Illustrator to crash?

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

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.

Backup Illustrator files to avoid deletion

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a free and easy-to-use backup software for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc. With it, you can automatically backup your Illustrator file and its changes. 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 Illustrator files. 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, or Monthly 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.

Conclusion

This article introduces you to 8 effective ways how to recover unsaved or deleted Illustrator file after crash. 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