Recovering previous versions of a file

[Anonymous]

AutoCAD closed unexpectedly before I had saved the most recent change to my drawing. How  do I recover the same drawing from yesterday, or previous time saved? 

[pendean]

Open Windows Explorer, in the folder address bar type this exactly and hit <enter>:

%TEMP%

This is your Windows log-in temp folder: sort the files list by date. Files with BAK and SV$ are files you can rename the extension to DWG to see if they contain your file in stages that were autosaved while you had it open.

And don't forget to first look for a BAK extention file with the same name as your DWG file in the folder you were working from first: if you manually saved while in your file that might be the most current yet.

Then of course you have yesterday's backup to back to: you do backup your files daily, right?

[Emmsleys · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous, 

Welcome to the forums. 

To add you can also look to Understanding AutoCAD backup and autosave files. 

Specifically: 

• AutoSave 
• Temp Files

[Anonymous]

Hey. 

I have a similar problem.. I opened my drawing this morning and realised that none of my work from last week saved. Instead of doing it all again, I went looking for a bak file. I EVENTUALLY found on from the right date (with the .sv$ extension) but when I try to open that, it can't find the file. It's telling me the drawing doesn't exist. I've opened it as is, and tried to change the extension to .dwg, but neither seems to work.  Any idea how i can get it back??

Thanks! 

sinéad

[pendean]

Did you remember to rename the SV$ extension to DWG file?
And did you remember to set Windows File Explorer to show file extensions first? Always needed.

Other ways to fix DWG files https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/AutoCA...

[Anonymous]

I thought I had changed the extension, but apparently not properly!  set file explorer to show the file extensions and it worked this time. Thank you!!!

[e_lemond]

This worked perfect for me. Saved me about 6 hours of drawing time. I learned that deleting a drawing file is completely different than replacing a drawing file. Thank you!