3 Ways for How to Recover an illustrator File on Mac

"How do I find illustrator file on Mac? Illustrator crashed before saving the file. where are illustrator recovery files location on Mac? Or any suggestions, please help me!"

Adobe illustrator is a well-known graphic editor used by designers to create posters, logos, drawings, and illustrations. However, the software sometimes slows in reaction and maybe crash during the working process. Or some people even lost the illustrator file when the Mac freeze or power off. In this case, to avoid losing the illustrator files, you must learn how to restore unsaved illustrator files on Mac or how to recover illustrator file after crash on Mac. Here in the article, we offer 3 ways for how to get back illustrator files on Mac.

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Method #1. Recover Unsaved illustrator Files on Mac with AutoSave

Method #2. Find Lost AI Files by illustrator Recovered Files Location on Mac

Method #3. How to Recover Deleted/Lost illustrator Files on Mac

Method #1. Recover Unsaved illustrator Files on Mac with AutoSave

Like other Adobe products, it has the autosave feature. It saves the editing file within a specified time interval. In this case, if the illustrator quite unexpectedly, it might have saved the file within a time interval and you can Adobe illustrator recover unsaved file when it pops up a dialogue, with the file recovery information.

How to do Adobe illustrator restore unsaved file by AutoSave

1. Relaunch illustrator again on Mac.
2. When a pop-up appears, click "More Info", open it and click File > Save As, save the file on Mac again.

Please note that the currently recovered illustrator file might not be the last version you were editing. Forgive it! it! It’s still a good result for the illustrator to quit unexpectedly recovering files on Mac.

Many Mac programs have built-in "AutoSave" options, like Office, Pages and more. So you can rely on it to recover unsaved PowerPoint files on Mac.

Method #2. Find Lost AI Files by illustrator Recovered Files Location on Mac

illustrator has a data recovery mode. If you have enabled it, you can get the AI files back by illustrator autosave location on Mac. Here, before you get down to the task, you need to ensure whether you have enabled "Data Recovery" in illustrator or not:

1. In the spotlight window, type in "<your username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator [your version of Adobe Illustrator] Settings/en_US/Adobe Illustrator Prefs".
2. Open the Preferences file with a text editor on your Mac.
3. Locate the text in the Preferences file opened now with the text editor "/aiFileFormat {/PDFCompatibility 1enableATEReadRecovery 0 /enableContentRecovery 0/enableATEWriteRecovery 0/clipboardPSLevel 3}".
4. If you have enabled the data recovery feature before, the value of "enableContentRecovery" should be 1. If not, it is 0. In this case, please change the "enableContentRecovery" value from "0" to "1".
5. Save or close the Preference file.
6. Launch illustrator on Mac, click File > Open.
7. Choose the file you want to restore, highlight it but do not open it. Hold on Command, Option and Shift keys simultaneously on Mac and click "Open". Close the opened window, and navigate to the directory where the file you want to recover once saved to. Open the folder and look for a copy of the file. That’s it!

Method #3. How to Recover Deleted/Lost illustrator Files on Mac

If you failed to recover unsaved illustrator file after crash with the Autosave or data recovery feature in illustrator, try the last resort: get back deleted or lost illustrator files on Mac with illustrator recovery program. Only with the best recovery software for Mac, you can make sure it will help you recover illustrator file successfully. Here, you can download iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac to restore files from illustrator on Mac.

1. Install the illustrator data recovery software on Mac

First, download and install the recover deleted file Mac software. It’s fully compatible with all the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and all versions of macOS. Feel free to install it on your Mac. Do not try to search for illustrator recovery file tool in the Mac App Store. Apple officially denied data recovery software distributed in its store.

2. Select illustrator files to recover

Launch the illustrator recovery software for Mac. From the first start-up window, please select the file you want to recover. Here, by default, all supported files are selected. Since you’re going to recover deleted illustrator files, you need to select "pictures" and "other files" and click "Start". It will save time for the whole scanning process by only selecting needed file types to scan.

3. Locate where the illustrator file was

Next, in the new window, please locate where the illustrator file was. After then, select the hard drive where the file was saved and click "Scan". You know, the file is where it was as it is the rule it has to follow.

4. Retrieve illustrator files on Mac

Last, let the illustrator recover file software scan your Mac, looking for the unsaved, lost or deleted illustrator files. Be patient for the software to finish the whole scanning process. After that, you can see all found files are sorted into categories. Click the left panel to select file extension, and check out the details on the right side. When find the unsaved, lost or deleted illustrator file, select it and click "Recover" to save them on your computer.

Though it’s the last resort, the default scanning mode is not the last opportunity while the powerful "Deep Scan" is. The recover illustrator file tool can scan your Mac more carefully, looking for files you need. You can try it in the scanning result window.