Earlier in the day, SketchUp unexpectedly closed. When I reopened it, the file still appeared under Recovered Files, and I was able to access it.
Later that same day, SketchUp froze again, this time right after importing a model from the 3D Warehouse. I had to force quit the application.
After this second crash, the file no longer appeared in the recovered files list and completely disappeared. I can’t find it anywhere (not in Finder, nor in the default AutoSave location).
Using Disk Drill, I found a file that matches the name and timestamp, but after restoring it SketchUp says: “This does not appear to be a SketchUp model!”
So it seems to be corrupted or incomplete.
I’d like to understand how a file can first still be available through SketchUp’s recovery list but after a second crash completely disappear, and whether there’s any way to retrieve a working version of the file.
When a file is successfully saved, the recovery version is deleted. If you then have a new crash before the next auto save happens, there will be no recovery file. The actual working file should still be there. The previous save of the model would be in the same folder, and have a ~ at the end of the name.
Hopefully you can find a viable copy of the file based on Colin’s direction.
Going forward, take advantage of the unlimited storage on Trimble Connect that is included with your subscription. In addition to saving the file on the internal drive on your computer, save a copy to Trimble Connect. Each time you save to Trimble Connect an incremental save is done making it possible to go back to an earlier version of the file if you need that.
Sadly I didn’t find the correct file searching for ~. Do you maybe know why I do find a file with Disk Drill that (looking at the date and time) looks like the correct file, but after recovery doesn’t open in SketchUp?
File recovery software isn’t flawless. When a file is deleted from a drive, the space it used is marked as free. Recovery software can find files on these “empty” parts of a drive, but they cannot restore the part of the data that has already been overwritten, it just takes what happens to be there, resulting in random data.