The recovered version of this file is newer than the file.
Open the recovered version instead?
This keeps popping up on one of my models. If I click yes I get an older version and no I get my latest one. I have hit save but I close the model and re-open and still get this error. Where is it saving these versions?
The way it’s presented is a little confusing, and at the very least the modified date could include the time as well.
The auto saved files, which then become your Recovered files in the Welcome window, are in this folder:
~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2019/working/SKETCHUP/RecoveredFiles/
You can do a test where you have set auto save to 1 minute, then watch that folder as you work on a currently saved file. Don’t do any changes, and no auto save file will appear. Do a change but don’t save, and within a minute an auto save file will appear. Do a save now, and the auto save file is removed.
In theory, the only time there is an auto save file is when you have made changes, and it’s more time since your auto save setting since you last saved.
If you Force Quit at that point, and open SketchUp again, you’ll now see the Recovered file in your recent files area. That thumbnail seems to represent both the last saved version and the recovered version, so you’re asked which of the two you want to open. Looking at the thumbnails is a good idea. If you choose the last saved version, you’re given a warning that opening that one will delete the recovered file, and that if you really wanted the recovered file, to cancel, open the recovered file, and save as a new name.
If all of that wasn’t complicated enough, if you choose to open the file from File/Recent, you are just shown a dialog box with no thumbnails, and whatever you decide to do is instant.
So, in general, if you had a crash and you see Recovered as part of your recent file name in the Welcome window, choose that, and when asked if you mean it, look at the thumbnails to see if the things you had done since the last save are worth keeping. Think about that too, because it could be that the last thing you did is what is crashing SketchUp.
One advantage of saving the recovered file as a new name file is that you do still have the previously saved file, and you can then take your time comparing the two, to see what was changed between the last save and the the most recent auto save before the crash.
Thanks for the rundown Colin. I feel like this new system is much more complicated than the old way of an “autosave” appended file just appearing in the original file location on the drive. You highlight a real problem (apart from the inscrutable interface) which is in this new system it’s more complicated to compare the autosave with the last saved version to evaluate where to begin again. In my v18 I just open both files from the finder, have a quick look, check if the autosave is corrupted from the last action, choose one and move on. Your workaround of “saving as” after opening the autosave from the welcome window is basically replicating the way it used to work.
The autosave file next to the old one is the backup file. That still exists only now it has ~ at the end, instead of autosave_ at the start. In 2018 there also was a recovery file, that was more deeply buried. The 2019 recovery files are the same as the deeply buried 2018 auto save files. Having autosave in the name of the backup file was confusing.
At least that’s how I think it was!
This happens to me now with 2019. Never had an issue with recovering (autosave) flies up to 2016 (I skipped 17 and 18). Now it’s a little broken. Sometimes the recovered file serves, but after that it keeps popping up.
I keep the “Recovered Files” folder on my sidebar so I can dump (or review) files in there as needed.
Hmmmm… I’m sticking with 2018 (Version 18.1.1180) and I do see Autosave files generated in the original file location, triggered by a crash. There are also ˜ files which are the backups of each original and are saved alongside the primary file as you said. But the automatic autosave function is still working for me in 18.
I remembered something. It’s unsaved files that are saved elsewhere. Look in this folder, you may have some files there:
~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2018/SketchUp/Autosave
Perfect I deleted the file there and the error is gone. Deleting the file in RecoveredFiles solved it for me.
Thank you sir
Sketchup, please time stamp the recent files in the Welcome To Sketchup window! How hard can that be?
As best I can tell, and I work here, they like feature requests through the forum:
But, I will find someone on Monday (we’re closed this week) to give a hard time about it.
Thanks Colin, just posted it. But please harass them anyway! 
I got a message in Sketchup,if I wnat to open recovery version but I accidentally pressed no,how to get back the recovery version?please help me 
After the question about if you want to open the recovery file, if you say no there is another message saying that the recovery file will be deleted. Did you say yes to that as well?
If you are using SketchUp 2020, the recovery files are kept in this folder:
% Local AppData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2020\SketchUp\working\SKETCHUP\RecoveredFiles
You can copy and paste that path into File Explorer to get to the right place. Are there any files in that folder? The recovery file will have the same name as the original file.
If you do find a file with the right name, copy it to a safer location and then open the file to if it is what you want.
I couldn’t find such a file “Recovered files”. Is there any other way?
And I didn’t get message “recovery file will be deleted”, just if I wnat to open the recovery or not, I said “no”.
I see there were spaces in my text, try going to here:
%LocalAppData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2020\SketchUp\
See if there is a ‘working’ folder, if there is go into it. Then into SKETCHUP, then into RecoveredFiles.
