File Won't Open: What's the point of autosaving then?

[braddewald]

So I was just working on a file and Max crashed. When I went to open the file back up, it says that it can't open it. My guess is that it tried to save and then max crashed, creating a corrupt file. My question is why does max interrupt my work to autosave every 10 minutes if I can't recover the file. Is there any way to get my work back?

[Jonathan Sanchez]

Bradley... check your autoback folder for the auto backups that max is supposed to create. Check your folder options and it will show you where max periodically creates the autoback files according to the intervals you specify. You can control in your settings how many autoback files 3ds creates and how often and where. It is a lifesaver, it's saved me many times.

Edited July 15, 2010 by sancheuz

[-MerlyN-]

It happens often and there's nothing you can do to prevent it, at least nothing that I can see. Every now and then MAX will willingly and with upmost pleasure destroy your backup file when you need it least.

 

For that reason I have mine save every 5 mins and keep up to 20 backup files...

[Jonathan Sanchez]

It happens often and there's nothing you can do to prevent it, at least nothing that I can see. Every now and then MAX will willingly and with upmost pleasure destroy your backup file when you need it least.

 

For that reason I have mine save every 5 mins and keep up to 20 backup files...

 

Yeah, I thought I had alot and I have mines set up to 10 backup files ..lol, but hey, better safe then sorry!

[-MerlyN-]

Yeah, exactly. Especially since the set interval only seems to be a general idea. I noticed that setting it to 5 minutes will result in autosaving somewhere between 5 minutes or 20 with no real hint when it will actually save a new backup... Geez, this thread makes me wishing for some software that just works again... -.-

[wasteland giant]

really? AutoBak normally works good so I don't know... Unusable autobaks happen only once in a bluemoon. Maybe 1 every 2-3 months?

[CJI]

Yeah im lucky enough to have mostly avoided the "scourge of the failing autobackup" pollava. Only happened twice in the past 3 months, it does have a knack for doing it when you need it most. I keep my autobackups and save incrementally every 5 - 10 minutes. I rarely if ever overwrite a file, you never know when things are going to go pear shaped.

[Jonathan Sanchez]

Hey Bradley, were you able to find any other working backup files?

[jinsley]

I disable the autoback option and just make sure that I save my work with dates and running numbers if neccessary... having max decide to autosave in the middle of a complex operation or when I happen to have all my layers turned on for a test render is more often than not a guarenteed crash. I got tired of losing more time to crashing during automatic saves than I did to saving the work myself every 10 mins or so...

[BVI]

yeah, it's a pain. You can try the import trick, where you try import rather than open (at least get some of the assets back).

 

You could also save incremental files while you work, every couple of hours. As in fileA, File B etc. Then delete them when the folder is getting filled up.