Inkscape Recovery: How to Recover Lost/Unsaved Inkscape Files

This is a complete guide for Inkscape crash recovery in Windows & Mac OS X. One, find Inkscape autosave location so you can recover lost Inkscape work closed without saving; or download an Inkscape recovery software to recover lost Inkscape files due to crash or other disasters.

How to Recover Lost/Unsaved Inkscape Files

This post shows you the practical ways to recover unsaved and deleted Inkscape files. Look down for details.

"Last night, I was in the middle of drawing a picture, and Inkscape crashed all of a sudden, only giving me three options: search for a solution to the crash and close Inkscape, close Inkscape and determine the solution. I chose the third one, and Inkscape closed with my word unsaved. After I resumed the program, my previous work did not show up. My work has closed without saving because Inkscape crashed! Is it possible to recover unsaved Inscape files after the crash?"

Being a professionally qualified vector graphics editor software, Inkscape allows users to create or edit vector graphics such as illustrations, diagrams, line arts, charts, logos and more, and most of which are large. For this reason, Inkscape crashes a lot with dire horrible consequences that users will lose the Inkscape file unsaved. If you are looking for a way for Inkscape crash recovery, follow the guides in Part 1. If you need to recover the deleted Inkscape file, you can use the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard in Part 2.

Part 1. How to Recover Unsaved Inkscape File

Since Inkscape 0.48, you can easily rescue the unsaved files from the Autosave backup file if the Inkscape Autosave feature is activated. If you're editing a file while the software shuts down unexpectedly, Inkscape will attempt to save the document when it crashes.

To check if the Autosave is in use, go to "Edit" > "Preferences" > "Input/Output" > "Autosave".

If Inkscape saves documents successfully, the automatic backup location is C:\Documents and Settings

The documents are called: "New document 1.2019_03_03_12_34_29.0.svg"

1. On Unix (Linux, Mac OS X, *BSD, etc.), Inkscape Autosave location is:

• Your home directory as filename..#
• /tmp/filename..#
• The current directory as filename..#

2. On Windows, Inkscape tries to save in %UserProfile%:

• XP/2003: C:\Documents and Settings\
• Vista/7: C:\Users\

Part 2. How to Recover Deleted/Lost Inkscape File

If you have lost some saved Inkscape files by accidental deletion, hard drive formatting, virus attack, or other reasons, you can't resort to the Autosave function anymore but ask for help from a professional file recovery tool.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a professional data recovery program that supports hundreds of file formats of files, including Inkscape, and Illustrator. In the same way to recover lost Illustrator file after a crash, you can recover deleted or lost Inkscape files after the crash without effort.

Step 1. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Choose the drive where you lost files and start scanning. This software allows you to recover lost data from all devices, including HDD, SSD, USB drive, SD card, pen drive, camera, etc.

Step 2. Browse the full scan results. You can choose the file type you need by clicking on the file type filter. EaseUS data recovery software supports 1000+ file types like photos, videos, documents, emails, audio files, and many more. 

Step 3. Select the files you want to preview. Click "Recover" and set a storage location to save the recovered data.