How to Restore Illustrator Files [4 Solutions]

Adobe Illustrator is a popular editing software used by designers to create graphics, logos, and drawings. One of the most painful things you can go through when using editing software like Adobe Illustrator is losing a file you’ve been working on for hours, days, weeks, or even months.

However many designers have been complaining of losing their illustrator files. We’ve discovered that the usual causes are software or computer crashes, unsaved work, accidental deletion, outdated software, incompatible versions, software bugs, or virus attacks.

Have you also encountered an abrupt loss of illustrator files? This article explains 4 effective solutions to recover illustrator files in the simplest way.

Table of Contents

What Illustrator Formats Does Adobe Generate?

Before introducing the Illustrator file recovery, let’s learn the Illustrator file formats first so that you can identify your lost formats and quickly retrieve them; Actually, Adobe Illustrator saves files in 4 major formats. They are:

AI Illustrator (AI): This is the native file format of Adobe Illustrator. It’s sometimes called the “illustrator file” because it supports all the features provided by Adobe illustrator.

Illustrator EPS (.eps): Encapsulated PostScript is a format used to represent an image on a page. EPS is used to place the graphic elements on a page.

Illustrator PDF (.pdf): This is the most common format available, especially for Adobe Acrobat readers. Portable Document Format (PDF) supports many features, such as notes, search options, annotations, and hyperlinks.

Illustrator SVG (.svg): This format is popularly used on the World Wide Web (WWW). The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format allows you to save a part or the whole font.

How to Restore the Adobe Illustrator File?

Explained below are the 4 effective solutions for how to recover an illustrator file. Follow the instructions and get your missing files back.

Restore to the Previous Versions to Recover Unsaved File in Adobe Illustrator

If you often backup files through File History, you are in luck. File History is one of the strategic solutions for how to recover unsaved illustrator files.

When File History is turned ON, it saves different versions of your file, allowing you to restore to a previous version. For example, restore a previous version of Excel files.

👉Here are the steps for how to recover unsaved file in Adobe illustrator via File History:

Navigate to Control Panel > System and Security > File History.

Click on Restore personal files to open the file history recovery window.

Select the unsaved illustrator file you want to retrieve and click on the green icon below to restore your file.

Recover Unsaved Files from the Illustrator Autosave Folder

By default, the Autosave feature (auto-recovery) is enabled on Adobe illustrator. When working and an abrupt system shutdown or crash prevents you from saving your work, you can use this recovery method to get back your unsaved illustrator files.

Automatically, Adobe illustrator is set to save your file data every 10 minutes, but you can adjust this according to your preference. You can choose between 1 minute to 60 minutes.

👉For how to recover unsaved illustrator files through Autosave, follow these steps:

Reopen the Adobe Illustrator app.
A dialog box will appear, informing you that there is an open document that’s yet to be saved. Click OK to accept.

The illustrator file you were working on when the system abruptly closed will show up with the Recovered suffix.
Go to the File menu and click on Save As to save the recovered illustrator file with a different name.

In case you close the file with the Recovered suffix without saving it, you can still get your files back through this process:

🖥️Windows:

Go to the Windows search bar and input %AppData%
Navigate to Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator [version] Settings\en_US\x64\DataRecovery
To recover your work, open the file with the .aid extension.

🍏Mac:

On the menu bar, click on Go. Select Go to Folder.
Input ~ /Library/ and press the Return button.
Navigate to Preferences/Adobe Illustrator [version] Settings/en_US/DataRecovery
To recover your work, open the file with the .aid extension.

Use Data Recovery Tool to Recover an Illustrator File

The most effective solution for how to recover files on illustrator is to use a professional data recovery tool, such as TinyFrom ONERECOVERY. This tool is capable of restoring lost illustrator files no matter the loss scenario whether Illustrator software bugs, corruption, operating system issues, hardware problems, accidental deletion, etc.

ONERECOVERY is revered worldwide because of its high efficiency and user-friendly interface, which allows both tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy designers to easily restore their missing illustrator files. It is compatible with various operating systems, including Windows and Mac. And its capability extends to recovering files from several storage devices, including SSD, HDD, memory card, USB flash drive, etc.

You can also trust this illustrator file recovery tool to recover unsaved Photoshop files and restore Procreate files on iPad. It has an advanced scan mechanism that thoroughly searches and recovers all lost artwork without hampering its original quality.

👉For how to restore illustrator file via TinyFrom ONERECOVERY, follow these steps:

Download and install ONERECOVERY on your computer.
Connect the storage device from which you lost the illustrator file to your computer.
Launch the ONERECOVERY app on your computer and click on the storage where you lost the illustrator file.

Automatically, ONERECOVERY begins to scan for all missing illustrator files, including the unsaved, deleted, corrupted, and overwritten ones.
Preview the results, select the file you want to restore, and click on Recover.

Recover Unsaved Illustrator Files from Temporary Folder

Illustrator creates temporary files of your work when designing. They are stored in the Temporary Folder to recover illustrator file after crash. The files may not contain the most recent actions performed on your work, but it’s better than starting from the beginning.

👉Here are the steps to recover illustrator file from the Temporary folder:

Go to the Search bar and type %temp%
Press Enter to launch the temporary folder.
Check for any Illustrator temporary file that ends with .tmp

Check for any Illustrator temporary file

Rename the temporary file by replacing the .tmp extension with .ai
Open the file using Adobe Illustrator and save it to a different location.

Conclusion

Losing an illustrator file can be frustrating, particularly after putting in a lot of effort in the design. We hope the solutions explained above, you can get back your missing illustrator files. The most reliable way however is TinyFrom ONERECOVERY. It resolves all illustrator file problems, including deletion, corruption, and overwriting.

FAQs on Illustrator File Recovery

After finding out how to recover illustrator file, these are additional information you need to know:

1️⃣Where are Illustrator Recovered Files Located?

Illustrator recovered files location is the same as the original file. It’s important to know that if the Autosave feature is enabled on your computer, the recovered file will pop up on your screen when you open the Adobe illustrator app. You need to manually recover and save it to your preferred location.

2️⃣How to Enable the Autosave Feature in Adobe Illustrator?

The Autosave feature is enabled by default in Adobe illustrator.

👉However, this is how to check if it is enabled on your computer and if it is not, enable it by following the steps below:

Open the Adobe illustrator app.
Navigate to the Edit menu and click on Preferences > File Handling & Clipboard > Data Recovery.
Tick the Automatically Save Recovery Data Every: box.
Select the time interval to save a backup of your file.
Click Choose to select the location to save the backup file.
Tick the Turn off Data Recovery for complex documents box to prevent interruption of workflow.
Click on OK to confirm you want these modifications.