AutoCAD Autosave

[JamesPowell7164]

My Autosave is set up for every 10mins.

The "Automatic Save File Location" is set to - C:\Users\James Powell\App Data\Local\Temp

However, there are no sv$ files in the Temp location stated above. My AutoCAD crashed today and I went to find the sv$ file but there was nothing. My drawing file was 4,396KB in size but the recovery file was 718KB and when I tried to recover the file it had nothing in it.

Can I ask my friends what is going on? I have lost all my work this morning.

Thanks in advance.

[Valentin-WSP]

@JamesPowell7164 , 

I suggest you read the entire link:

• Understanding backup and autosave files in AutoCAD

Note a portion:

[pendean]

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@JamesPowell7164 wrote:

My Autosave is set up for every 10mins.

The "Automatic Save File Location" is set to - C:\Users\James Powell\App Data\Local\Temp

However, there are no sv$ files in the Temp location stated above.

...My AutoCAD crashed today and I went to find the sv$ file but there was nothing. My drawing file was 4,396KB in size

...but the recovery file was 718KB and when I tried to recover the file it had nothing in it.

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Those two statements contradict themselves. Did you just select any random SV$ or did that have a time stamp closer to your time of crash?

Also...

1) Did you manually save at all? If yes, there is a BAK file where your DWG is located that should not be too much older and you can rename that BAK to DWG.

2) Do you have file extensions turned on/set to be seen in your Windows OS' File Manager? if yes, it makes the above tip easier to perform.

3) If you never manually saved at all... that's an unfortunate omission, possibly even catastrophic, but their might be a BAK file next to that SV$ that you might be able to rename to DWG and open to see if it helps.

[JamesPowell7164]

The recovery file was saved by AutoCAD when it crashed. However it was about 1/10th the size of the original file and was in the folder that the original file was in.

There was no sv$ file in the Temp folder at all (not for the date and time of my crash).

File extensions are turned on so I can see the filetypes.

I did manually save (but maybe not as often as I should have? :-()

I dont see the logic of auto deleting the autosave files - apart from saving disk space, but maybe an overwrite would be more acceptable.

I am sure in the past the sv$ files were left in the nominated folder - am I mis-remembering?

[pendean]

@JamesPowell7164  AutoCAD's autosave has never EVER been a substitution for a manual save. Sorry.

Every single AutocAD user since the 1980s has had the big fat painful lesson you just did too, which lead to many of us being overly paranoid and manually save probably too often and have managed to never lose more than a few minutes without ever relying on AutoCAD to save the day. Sure it should not be so, but it is, and we all have been stung by it.

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@JamesPowell7164 wrote:

...I dont see the logic of auto deleting the autosave files - apart from saving disk space, but maybe an overwrite would be more acceptable....

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They are an absolute last resort recovery tool. Always have been. you need to ensure you created for yourself other venues for recovery sadly.

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@JamesPowell7164 wrote:

...I am sure in the past the sv$ files were left in the nominated folder - am I mis-remembering?

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Only if you made an effort, well ahead to time, to pre-program some instant backup tool, or have opted to only use cloud-based storage which have versioning built in and can take the edge off a dramatic loss. OOTB, that's never been a thing.

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@JamesPowell7164 wrote:

...I did manually save (but maybe not as often as I should have? :-()

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Renaming the BAK file in the same folder as your DWG file then opening it will tell you if you should try harder to be more frequent about it or not.

I wonder why your PC crashed in the first place: might be worth exploring to find out, there may have been something else going on like an unstable AutoCAD session or just a login session in general. Did you rule out a corrupt file yet? RECOVER command is a good place to start (RECOVERALL command if your file contains XREFs).