topic Re: I can't find my read only documents in Fusion Support Forum

I can't find my read only documents

hcwesterveld — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 11:22:50 GMT

I have a personal license and 5 editable documents. When I go to my resent data I can see the read only documents flash by and disappear. For a project I would like to take one document and make some small changes before putting it on my mill. But I can't get to it...

I wonder if it is linked to the 2 new updates I recently received or if something else is wrong?

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 21:08:06 GMT

Hi,

Can you please look on the Editable Documents list? It looks like this:

Re: I can't find my read only documents

hcwesterveld — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 09:48:54 GMT

Thank you Phil,

Under editable documents, I see only my editable documents. When I don't need a document, because a project I work on is on the back burner, I put it in Read Only mode. These documents are not visible under Editable documents.

When I go to My Recent Data, I see them appear and disappear in a flash and only the editable documents are left on the screen. So every time I put a document in read only it seems to disappear...

Not sure if you can access this, but this is a short video how my screen looks like when I go to My Recent Data...

https://www.dropbox.com/l/scl/AAAEUrJLs1IUYhm7E4jBbZLuJhuJOBvQwkY

I really appreciate your help.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 17:42:45 GMT

Sorry for the wrong instructions, I misunderstood.

Does this condition persist after restarting your computer?

Re: I can't find my read only documents

hcwesterveld — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 18:04:02 GMT

Yes, after restarting Fusion and after restarting the computer. I haven't try to reinstall Fusion as I am afraid to lose it for good...

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 18:16:23 GMT

Have you tried to browse to the location of the files? Recent data is just a view of recent activity, but your files are stored in projects and folders (which are stored in the cloud, not on your local machine)

Re: I can't find my read only documents

hcwesterveld — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 18:16:01 GMT

Ah, no is the sort answer... would that be in My Documents? What would be the file extension?
I can do a full scan tomorrow, to check whether they are there and where they are.

Thank you, Phil.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 18:41:31 GMT

Hi,

I'm referring to the Fusion 360 designs you are saving to the cloud. All Fusion 360 design data is saved in a safe cloud location that you can access from any computer logged into Fusion 360.

These designs are always saved into what is called a Project. This is a way to separate your major projects into containers. You can invite people to share your Projects on a project by project basis, to limit access to your overall file storage.

Inside a project is where your designs are stored. As you can see, I have browsed into a project called Hardware Library and am looking at the Read Only files that are stored here.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

hcwesterveld — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 19:23:29 GMT

Hi Phil,

Sorry for the slow response. We had to attend a funeral 😞

Anyway, I tried to look online (learned something new here, so thank you). This is the picture:

These are my editable documents, The same as I see on the desktop...

I have done a full search on my desktop, but there I can't find the file. So not sure how it is saved locally.
I had changed the status of another document and that seems to have disappeared too... So I am now trying a some order of actions to see if I can replicate that. Too me it looks all very funny... 🙁
[....]

Ah! While looking if I could link you to my web pages, I found a trash in the online project and there I found - what I think is most of - my documents...
Can it be that they are "auto deleted"??? Some I know I deleted, but certainly not all....

I will go on a recovery tour and then follow up on my experiment to see if I can replicate what is happening. In the mean time I have found them and I hope I can now recover them.

Thank you very much for your guidance and your patience!!! 👍 👏

Many thanks!!!

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 15:26:54 GMT

Sorry to hear of your loss, please accept my condolences.

Just to be clear about how Fusion stores designs:

Fusion 360 is an application that operates locally on your computer.
When you open a design, Fusion downloads* it from your cloud storage (* if it is not already held in a temporary local cache that the application uses when you have recently opened a design - in that case it opens directly from this hidden local storage cache to save time).
When you save a design, Fusion sends the data to be stored in the cloud.

Because of this, you cannot "lose" a file on your local machine. Right now you could erase your computer and your saved designs would be there after you installed Fusion again, and logged in again. And then the process listed above starts over as you open designs to work on them.

The image below shows your local Fusion 360 application "data panel project list".
- It has Projects (containers for files and folders).
- If you double click on a project in your list, you can see the designs in it. From here you can open your designs.

This is what my projects list looks like when I browse it in Fusion 360 on my local machine

This image shows what the contents of one of my projects look like. (while browsing to it from within the Fusion 360 application on my local machine.) This is also the "data panel" view, but it's what you see inside a Project.

In Fusion 360 application view of read only designs inside a project

To answer your questions:

I have done a full search on my desktop, but there I can't find the file. So not sure how it is saved locally.

Answer: Fusion does not store designs on your desktop, or on your local machine in a way that can be searched using Windows Search Tools.

Instead: Open Fusion 360 and browse to projects/folders/designs using the "data panel".

Can it be that they are "auto deleted"???

Answer: That is impossible. The Delete command is distinct from other commands and cannot run unless you select something, right click, and pick Delete from the menu as you see in the image below.

I will go on a recovery tour and then follow up on my experiment to see if I can replicate what is happening.

If you can repeat what you think you saw, it would help greatly to record it for me. I'm very interested in anything you find. If you are marking designs as read-only and these are being deleted, that's a critical issue I need to follow up on. A video recording would help. I'm testing this entire workflow as I write this response and cannot reproduce any un-warranted deletion of designs.

Thanks for responding, and helping me understand what you are experiencing. As always, glad to help.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

SETHAUGER — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 19:44:51 GMT

Had the same thing happen to me.. today.

click the "show data panel" 9 squares in a square icon in upper left

depending what menu you have open, you may have to click the home icon. If it's not there,

possibly make sure the top menu is set to "All Projects"

double click "admin project"

open the read only file from there. once it's been opened there, it seems to populate in the other menus.

--seth

that's the only place i see my fusion documents i've set to "read only"

after i open the document through that menu, it appears in my "recent data"

Re: I can't find my read only documents

2621535109 — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 05:40:16 GMT

Thanks, I'm a beginner and you solved my problem. Thank you for all your discussions

Re: I can't find my read only documents

ibmarkd — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 15:19:48 GMT

Glad that it worked out for you. I never found mine. The fact that this is a repeated issue shows the design flaw. They just need to put a single item to the drop down that lists 'Read-Only Files." I have lost months of work I did on here.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

lukecrosley — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:14:33 GMT

Ive lost all my read-only documents also, if I switch an editable document to read-only it vanishes without a trace, I dont have access to the online client and my data panel only displays recent data/editable documents/default project, none of these contain my read only files. Probably 5 years of work gone, Im absolutely stunned.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:46:01 GMT

What you are describing is not being able to see projects where read only designs are stored. When you make them read only, when looking at the Editable list, they will disappear from the editable list because they are no longer editable.

Your problem is that your designs are stored in projects that are not being displayed in your data panel.

When you browse to the Home tab, do you see a list of projects?

If you browse to one of your "editable" documents, and right click on it, what happens when you pick "show in location"? The data panel will display the project where the file is stored. Does that help "find" your non-displayed projects?

And if you could please take a screen shot or video of what this part of your screen looks like:

This will help see what is going on.

You haven't mentioned if you restarted your computer lately. Have you tried anything like that?

Re: I can't find my read only documents

lukecrosley — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:43:03 GMT

Hi Phil, thanks for taking the time to respond to my slightly vague post.

To clarify, currently I cant open any document (endless loading indicator) and I cant find any of my read only documents.

My home tab displays 'my recent projects', 'my editable data' and 'default projects', recent and default projects are both empty.

'Editable data' has 9 editable documents but none of them will load/open and they all say version 1. When I right click any of them, there is no 'stored in', 'history' or 'used in' data.

Before the May update all my documents were together in 'data'.

Since my post I have switched machine to a faster workstation but my problem persists.

Any help is much appreciated,

Luke.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:21:27 GMT

Re: I can't find my read only documents

Phil.E — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:31:58 GMT

Two more questions:

What other hubs are on your hub list?
And what do you see when you view your hub/projects on the web?

Re: I can't find my read only documents

lukecrosley — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 21:37:42 GMT

I cant right click on any of my documents, I get a double question mark at the top of the tab (see screen shot),

No other hubs are available to me only mine which I confusingly named 'Hub'.

I can view my hub on the web but it only shows 'assets' and 'default project' both are empty.

Below is when I try to right click any document:

This is my hub on the web.

Re: I can't find my read only documents

hsamiam — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:03:45 GMT

I'm having all the same issues you're describing. Not sure if you're able to open any of your editable documents, but I can't even do that. When I try, the screen flashes like the program tries to open it, but doesn't find any data. When I click the menu arrow at the lower right of the file, I get a spinning wheel indefinitely.

Two other points that might help point to the problem:

1. My Data Panel (where my editable documents appear) only shows up after I start a new design (when I have an active design open).

2. With the Data Panel open, if I click on Refresh, I get an error saying "Read access denied".

Thank you for everyone's help in advance.