Recover Corrupted, Unsaved or Deleted AutoCAD File (Online & Free)

AutoCAD is a design and drawing software developed by AutoDesk to create professional 2D or 3D files. This computer-aided design program can automate the execution process, so users can create, edit and manage designs efficiently. The native files created in AutoCAD is saved in DWG format, and you may spend hours or even days to meticulously work on a project, so whenever your AutoCAD DWG files are left unsaved, deleted or corrupted, that would be a disaster.

Yet, it is lucky that we have reliable solutions to recover a corrupted, unsaved, or restore deleted AutoCAD DWG file on Mac, Windows, even external USB device.

 

Quick AutoCAD File Recovery in 2024

To find and recover AutoCAD DWG files on Mac or Windows, the easiest and quickest way is to use a piece of dedicated DWG file recovery software. Because it can scan your drive deeply, then identifies, extracts and copies the recoverable data to a designated secure location. 

Cisdem Data Recovery is a Windows & Mac program to restore files lost under different situations. It allows users to restore files from both internal and external hard drive, that’s to say, you can not only recover lost .dwg files from your Mac or Windows computer, but also from other external storage devices, like SD card, USB, HDD, SSD, etc.

There is also a filter tool built in this program to quickly locate a DWG file. Users can choose to preview the AutoCAD file, if preview is not available, your DWG file may be corrupt, Cisdem can repair and recover damaged AutoCAD files as well.

Main Features of Cisdem Data Recovery

• Recover AutoCAD DWG files after crash, after fatal error, etc.
• Retrieve AutoCAD files corrupted, missing, unresponsive, not opening, not valid, etc.
• Repair damaged videos, images, documents
• Preview files before recovery
• Apply smart sorting function to prioritize files
• Support crashed computer recovery and NAS recovery

How to Recover AutoCAD DWG Files on Mac or Windows?

1. Free download and install Cisdem DWG File Recovery Software to your Windows or Mac.
   Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 Free Download macOS 10.9 or later
2. Choose the drive.
   Go to Hardware Disk, select the hard drive where you stored the AutoCAD DWG file and click Search for Lost Data.
3. Locate the AutoCAD file.
   Go to Type > Pictures > DWG, search the AutoCAD file that you want to restore, also you can use the Filter tool to quickly find a DWG file.
4. Preview and Recover the AutoCAD file.
   You can double click to preview the .dwg files, select them and click Recover button to restore the files.
5. (Optional) Repair corrupted AutoCAD file.
   In the case that the preview of the DWG file is not available, you can still click Recover button to repair the design during recovering process.

 

How to Recover Corrupted AutoCAD File (Online Free)?

Struggling to open your AutoCAD DWG files? Often, it is simply because the file is corrupted or damaged for some reasons. If such an issue occurs, you can try to repair a corrupted CAD file online free, in AutoCAD, or with RECOVER command.

1. Repair Corrupted AutoCAD File Online Free

As for restoring a damaged AutoCAD file online and free, there are 2 recommendations for DWG repair tool.

#1. Recovery Toolbox

Recovery Toolbox offers both desktop and web tools to recover damaged AutoCAD DWG drawings. If you have just one or several files to be restored, you can do it online without installing any software. However, you should pay attention to these disadvantages:

• uploaded CAD files will be saved for 30 days on it server
• the DWG repairing may take a long time or fail, it is unknown

Steps to Recover Corrupted DWG File Online Free

1. Visit dwg.recoverytoolbox.com/online/.
2. Click on Select File to upload the corrupted CAD file.
3. Enter your email address to receive the repaired file.
4. Click on Next Step.
5. Once get the email, download the repaired DWG file to your Mac or PC.​

 

#2. OnlineFile.Repair

If you fail to recover corrupted DWG files in Recovery Toolbox, there is an alternative to fix damaged AutoCAD files online and free: OnlineFile.Repair. This repair kit is designed to repair corrupted DWG files, also covering other projects from CorelDraw, Photoshop, llustrator, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

Like using Recovery Toolbox, the uploaded file will be saved on the server for a specific period. It is also uncertain whether this online DWG repair tool can succeed or not, and it often takes a long time to finish the repairing process.

Steps to Recover Corrupted AutoCAD File Online Free

1. Visit https://www.onlinefile.repair/autocad.
2. Click Select File to upload the damaged DWG file, enter your email address.
3. Click Next step to start the recovery process.
4. Once the repair is done, download the fixed CAD file in your mailbox.

 

2. Recover Corrupted DWG File in AutoCAD

Online free AutoCAD repair tool not working? It is much likely that you have installed AutoCAD on your device, then you should try the repair tool within AutoCAD program if cannot open the file due to corruption.

1. Click the application button, go to Drawing Utilities > Recover, then select Recover.
2. Select the corrupted DWG file that you want to repair, click Open.
3. Close the following dialog box after the auditing and repairing process.
4. Save and restore the recovered file to a preferred location.

 

3. Fix Corrupted .dwg File with RECOVER Command

If AutoCAD “Drawing Utilities” also proves to be of no avail, the final option is to run RECOVER command. Check below for how to fix a corrupted file in AutoCAD with command lines.

1. Open a new and blank DWG drawing in AutoCAD.
2. Type RECOVER in CMD > press Enter.
3. Choose the damaged CAD file to be repaired.
4. AutoCAD will try to recover the selected file and open it.

 

How to Recover Unsaved AutoCAD DWG Files for Free?

If you left an AutoCAD project unsaved, don’t panic, its Auto Save may have saved your work, also there are 3 other ways to restore an unsaved DWG file free.

1. Recover Unsaved DWG File with Auto Save

You may have realized that lots of professional programs add a feature of Auto Save, allowing users to auto save files every 5 or 10 minutes to a preset location, like Adobe Photshop, Micorsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and AutoCAD is no exception.

With AutoCAD’s Auto Save feature, you can recover unsaved DWG files on Mac and Windows PC too. But first of all, you need to make sure you have enabled this feature (click the app button, then go to Options and check if AutoSave is enabled).

Steps to Recover Unsaved AutoCAD DWG Files with Auto Save

1. Run AutoCAD.
2. Click on Options.
3. Go to Files > Automatic Save File Location, copy Auto Save location.
4. Locate the unsaved AutoCAD files.
   For Windows users, press WIN+R, paste the auto save location, you will be navigated to unsaved AutoCAD DWG files.
   For macOS users, go to Apple menu > Go > Go to Folder, paste the auto save location.
5. Then open the unsaved DWG file in .dwg or .bak format with AutoCAD, save the file.

 

2. Recover Unsaved AutoCAD File with DWG Recovery Manager

DWG Recovery Manager would come in great handy when you need to recover AutoCAD file not saved due to any unexpected crash or system failure. It’s a panel in AutoCAD that displays a list of drawing files that can be recovered after a crash, which automatically detects files that were open at the time of failure, including .dwg, .dwt, .dws, etc. 

How to Recover AutoCAD File After Crash?

1. After crash, you will get a notification when reopening AutoCAD, click the Open panel link.
2. In Drawing Recovery Manager panel, click the arrow to find your unsaved AutoCAD file. It’s recommended to choose the .SV$ file since it’s likely to have the most recent version of your drawing.
3. Right click to open it, and save it properly.

 

3. Recover Unsaved AutoCAD File with .BAK File

AutoCAD embeds rich features for better user experience, including the one “Create backup copy with each save”, which allows you to recover an unsaved AutoCAD DWG file with backup .bak file. If you have enabled this feature, you can follow the steps to recover your unsaved AutoCAD DWG files.

How to Recover Unsaved AutoCAD File from .BAK?

1. Go to the location where you save the DWG file.
2. Find the file with .bak, then rename to change its extension to .dwg.
3. Click the Save button to save the file to finish.

 

4. Recover Unsaved AutoCAD DWG from Temp Folder

You can also go to Temp folder to check if the unsaved AutoCAD DWG files are there, if above 3 methods failed to recover your unsaved DWG files back.

For Mac users

1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities.
2. Run the program Terminal.
3. Input “open $TMPDIR” to Terminal. 
4. Then press Enter to run the command, you will be directed to the Temp folder and go to TemporaryItems. 
5. Find the AutoCAD files in .tmp format, open with AutoCAD, save the files for recovery.

 

For Windows users

1. Open Windows Search.
2. Enter “%temp%” into the search box.
3. Now check to see if the unsaved AutoCAD files are in the temp folder.

 

How to Recover Deleted or Lost AutoCAD DWG File for Free?

So you’ve deleted an AutoCAD file by mistake, or you just cannot find some DWG files, they are gone for unknown reasons. Now, you need to know how to recover them.

You’ve got several options to do the recovery, range from simple free to advanced, including the quick solution of using Cisdem that we mentioned in the beginning. Here we will talk about 2 simple and free solutions.

1. Restore from Trash Bin

You should check the trash bin first when you realize your files are deleted or lost, it is much likely they will be moved there and wait for putting back, if you didn’t empty the trash bin.

For Mac users

1. Open Trash bin.
2. Select the DWG files and click Put back.

 

For Windows users

1. Open Recycle bin.
2. Select the DWG files and click Restore.

 

2. Recover via Backup

If you have the habit of backing up files on your Mac or Windows to an external storage device, you can recover a deleted or lost DWG file even easier.

For Mac users

1. Click Time Machine icon in the menu bar, and Enter Time Machine.
2. You'll see a list of backups arranged by date, use the timeline to select a DWG file and click Restore.

 

For Windows users

1. Enter Restore your files with File History in the Windows search box and open the utility.
2. Search the DWG files by inputting keyword, preview the file information and select the one that you want to restore, click Restore.

 

Conclusion

We will feel stressful when mistakenly deleting a file or realizing a document get lost, even damaged. If you have a backup, you can recover data such as AutoCAD DWG, photos, videos and others super easily. But most of times, we don’t have a backup. Whereas, with some patience and right tools, we can still recover an unsaved, corrupted or deleted AutoCAD DWG, like Cisdem Data Recovery.