Preview just deleted my file. Completely.

[tomjam]

Hello, I've been a Mac user for 17 years, but this is the first time I'm registering here — and unfortunately, it's to share a rather frustrating bug.

Today, I attempted to duplicate a very rare PDF file (sheet music for a cello concerto I’m scheduled to perform soon). After clicking "Duplicate" in Preview I briefly saw both the original and the duplicate appear, but within moments, both files disappeared — and now they’re nowhere to be found.

Has anyone experienced something like this before? This file was the only copy I had, and it's quite irreplaceable. I am reading about Preview bugs, but non of them is describing DELETING the files.

Thanks!

 

[webbga]

Apologies in advance if you have already tried this, but with the Finder active look at your menu toolbar at the top and select "GO>Recents" and see if your file is listed.
Good luck. Hope you find it.

 

[Gregg2]

Are you sure that you did not save a backup on a removable disk, flash drive, or any other external device?

I had a similar experience and thought I had lost several years of financial records, but discovered a copy on a flash drive that I had made before an OS upgrade and never erased.

Good luck!

 

[Fishrrman]

This may help, maybe not.

Do you remember THE NAME of the file that now cannot be found?
You don't need to remember it exactly, but at least a word or two.

I'd suggest you download this small free app named "EasyFind":

DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things

A little collection of free utilities for the Mac to make your life easier.

www.devontechnologies.com

Once you have Easyfind, open it.
Set it up on the left as such:
- search for: files and folders
- operator: [either] all words [or] phrase
- comparison: ignore case
- include: invisible files & folders

On the right there's a popup menu to choose WHERE to search.
Set it for your entire drive.

Then enter into the search bar the word (or phrase) that you remember.

Click the magnifying glass and let it search.
Does it find anything?

If it DOES come up with "a hit", you can click ONE time on it, then type "command-R" to "reveal" the file in the finder.
Can you see it?

Now, GRAB IT with the pointer and DRAG IT TO THE DESKTOP so you know where it is.

I suggest that next time you want to duplicate a file, you do this:
a. click ONE time on the file (in the finder) to select it.
b. type "command-D" to duplicate it.
c. give the duplicate a different name so you won't get confused.

Hope this helps.

 

[Honza1]

Try going into TimeMachine and see if the file is there. Even when not used with external drive, by default TimeMachine runs on local drive and makes snapshots every hour or two. If the file was on system SSD which has TM enabled for long enough time, it should be in prior snapshot.
If this was on USB disk or other external medium, then this will not work.

 

[buggz]

I used EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard in the past to recover data, the free version found the files I was interested in on an external NVME SSD for my M4 Mac Mini Pro.