I was working on a Sketchup file on my Sketchup 2020 and my PC crashed and there is no autosave of the file in the folder “C:\Users<Username>\AppData\Local\SketchUp\SketchUp 2020\SketchUp\working\SKETCHUP\RecoveredFiles” even though I have autosave turned on and set to save every 5 mins.
I have lost an entire days work.
Is there anywhere else the file might be located?
As a test I created another file and crashed sketchup on purpose and I can see that this did autosave to the above folder.
As a follow up to this, if my file was called “Filename”, there is a file in the same folder called “Filename-0.skp” that is 0kb in size that was saved late in the day that would have all my work, if it was not 0kb in size.
I assume SU created an Autosave of the file in “C:\Users\AppData.…\SKETCHUP\RecoveredFiles”
If it did, I assume SU thought that the file was now saved the files documents folder and deleted the autosave version from RecoveredFiles.
On this assumption, I went through the hard drive with several file recovery programmes, and even searched for all deleted files in the RecoveredFiles with no luck. I also went through all SU files on the drive searching for the signatture Hex values for the file, and I could not find a later version of the file anywhere.
It may have been overwritten as the drive was fairly full.
The old system whereby Autosaves were saved in the same folder as the file was much better, as the file would be in a users documents/desktop/server folder and you are far more likely to have a cloud or backup based solution targeting this folder.
Nobody is going to have a cloud/backup targeting a hidden \AppData folder.
Is there any way to change this?
FWIW, the Autosave was never intended to provide a ‘version-history’ of your model, just for Backup when something went wrong.
The reason why it didn’t show on that location could be that the temp memory wasn’t enough (guessing here) It might be an extension and or combination of
Best practices (old timer, here)
Start a model
Name it and save to a location that is not synched automatically (eg iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc)
Continue working, save the file on a regular base by hitting Cm+S (mac) or Ctrl + S (windows)
especially before executing an extension that requires some heavy math.
‘Save As’ when I get to a turning point
Purge and check the model in ‘Statistics’
Set up an endview for the thumbnail view in the Explorer or Finder
‘Save and Close’ when done
Get back in control, don’t rely on software settings
I had simillar case
sKetchup 2021, windows 10
sKetchup autosaves work fine and I know where to find the files…
I mean if sKetchup crashes… I had few situations when my PC crushed and there was no autosave file… It is strange cos I thought autosave is always there and it is deleted if sKetchup exits correctly…
But now it looks more like it is saved when it exits incorrectly and since in case of PC crashing, sKetchup has no time to do anything (even exit) it doesn’t leave the autosave?
I am saving the filename on opening a new cession or model.
I make cntrl-S regularely and if I get in trouble or change idea,
I use Cntrl-N and re-open same file with Cntrl-O that pops-up as last file saved.
Back in business!
This is part of University of Life
I’m not sure this is exactly on topic, but this is the most recent posting of anything close to events I experienced tonight. Autosave works fine for a SketchUp crash, or bug splat…but it does NOT work when the operating system crashes for reasons not attributable to SketchUp. Something went wrong with my low battery warning on my laptop and out of the blue, the system just shut down with a brief 1 second warning. When I was up and running again, there is no autosave file.
Of all the various software I use, SketchUp is the only one that makes ephemeral autosave files. One package I use even gives subsequent autosave files incremental numbers.
But yeah, I read the sage comments that I should take control and manually save or save-as so I can keep incremental backups. Well, I dunno about most of you guys, but when I’m on a roll, I’m thinking about the project, not the software. Or its idiosyncratic methods of “protecting” against a crash, meaning a crash of the software? Hmm…
Your case is slightly different in that the laptop’s battery indicator might not work properly anymore.
Software cannot anticipate on power outage, or the things you are about to do (like heavy demanding stuf)
I usually get a warning when 10% is left of the battery.
While tempting to add just one more wall or object in the model, I have also learned the hard way to loose stuff.
If your project matter’s, you should consider protecting it, don’t you think?
When you’re ‘on a roll’ , turning on autosave is maybe the best option for possible crashing of SketchUp, but system failure cannot be insured…
What you say does not sound right. The auto save is done every five minutes, or a different time if you changed that. It should not matter whether SketchUp or the system crashed, the file from a few minutes ago should still be there.
Hello-
Sharing a hard learned lesson: Autosave only works from the laptop or PC’s drive. Autosave does not work on documents that you are saving on a USB or other external drive. If you need to rely on autosave then you must, at least temporarily put your project on the laptop/pc itself. Sketch Up has been crashing a little too often for my taste (small project under 150,000 KB)- lots of available memory) therefore I strongly suggest not working from a USB even if you need to save your work to one afterwards.
The general wisdom is to always work on and save to a local (internal) drive and when finished working on the file for the day, copy to the USB drive or to a cloud location.