If none of these work, the file may be permanently lost – but or a cloud backup (Dropbox, iCloud) is your final hope.
If Illustrator crashes or you close a file without saving, your best chance for recovery is the Automatic Recovery folder or the AutoSave data. 1. The Primary Recovery Folder (Most Common) The location depends on your macOS version and Illustrator version, but the standard path is: adobe illustrator recovery file location mac
/private/tmp/ or /private/var/folders/
Same "Go to Folder" method – paste: ~/Documents/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator 27/AutoSave/ If none of these work, the file may
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator [Version]/[Language]/Recovery/ If none of these work
These files usually have the original name plus _recovered or a timestamp. Illustrator may also write temp files to: