Gregory, I see you already found the main bug report on the pencil problem, good. I am told it’s been investigated, and the problem is most probably on the Apple’s side.

As for the data loss during this — let’s hope it gets resolved once this major problem gets resolved. Were you trying to work with a local or a cloud file? Or was it unsaved at all at that point?

Checking these forums is what is happening already. It’s just a ton of debt the team has accumulated over the years.
The Ai iPad code is relatively new though, only three years old. It’s way to early to drop it.
But I can agree with the general mood and the Stockholm syndrome notion... I even had a feeling I met this statement here before. Now it’s a dejavu-induce syndrome, which is even worth!
However, some positive changes are definitely happening, thanks to this place. It’s been monitored and actually helps to prioritize the efforts.

I used to work for Adobe and I pleaded with them to take Figmas lead in checking these forums for free user feedback and research on what needs to be fixed. I’ve always had problems with Adobe products. The only thing they create for me is frustration and anxiety… All that said, I finally decide to give Illustrator a try on my iPad. I open it, I go through all the “what’s new” and I’m excited to try it out. I use my Apple Pencil to select the pencil tool and BOOM! The app crashed. I’m so used to this occurrence with any tool I’ve used from them aside from Express, that I think nothing of it.

I try again and repeat the steps thinking it’s probably a freak accident. Nope. Happens again. I did that about 9 times before I tried to select with my finger. That worked. Okay cool, remember to stop using the pencil to use my finger to touch the screen because THAT’s intuitive and a smooth experience…(not)

It worked about three times until I needed to switch tools and was in the flow of using my pencil to draw you know, like artists do, and guess what? You got it! The app crashed. I thought, no problem. It’s 2023, surely my work is saved automatically like EVERY modern app does, I can just re-open it and start where I left off.

NOPE! When I went back, the file was there but NOTHING was on the canvas. Okay, that’s got to be another freak accident. I’ll try it again. I did that another 6-7 times and realized that I’d forgotten what I was inspired to draw and wasted an hour of my life doing absolutely nothing.

This has been my experience with all my Adobe products and I have the subscription on auto-pay. When we had to buy the products and update them, they cared about updating and taking care of us, but now that they have that annual recurring revenue, there’s no need to focus on the users. We don’t matter because we pay for the torture.

This is starting to look like a virtual version of Stockholm syndrome. Sigh… I’m putting all this here and it doesn’t matter because no one cares, but someone needs to say it.

Ditch the old system and start over, stop patching the old code!

Mine is an existing PDF. When you back out of the file, the save circle shows up making you think it’s saving, but opening the file back up does not have any of the recent work. It was opened from Adobe cloud. There’s no save button and it will not save my work. How are we supposed to use this app?

I found a work around to this bug- export the file to my files on the ipad and then once I did that, the auto save seemed to work fine after that.

I’m glad its not only me who has this problem. I’ve lost days of work because of autosave not working, impacting my job and productivity at work. Can we add a manual save? Right now I’m manually exporting every few minutes which is tedious.

This is the 4th time I have lost my work due to the autosave feature not working. For instance, I spent this afternoon vectorizing some hand drawn images and when I went back to the illustrator home screen I noticed the file was not current. I went back into the file to double check and- it was all gone.

It basically went back to when I originally created the file last night. I checked the version history and it had only one saved version and that was it.

I’ve always used Adobe products and I understand this is a new app but this keeps happening and time is money. So I guess one suggestion would be to have the ability to manually save the file within the workspace without having to back out to the home page.

This is the 4th time I have lost my work due to the autosave feature not working. For instance, I spent this afternoon vectorizing some hand drawn images and when I went back to the illustrator home screen I noticed the file was not current. I went back into the file to double check and- it was all gone.

It basically went back to when I originally created the file last night. I checked the version history and it had only one saved version and that was it.

I’ve always used Adobe products and I understand this is a new app but this keeps happening and time is money. So I guess one suggestion would be to have the ability to manually save the file within the workspace without having to back out to the home page.

Hi. It’s been happening a lot. Once I end my design and go to the starting screen of the illustrator iPad app, my work was not saved. This iS very annoying. I’ve have resolved this problem my exporting my work via airdrop to my Mac.

The starting state does not matter for me. It happens all the time. Even with files started in AI on my ipad.

It is very frustrating to lose hours of work. I am filling my creative cloud with copies of files because I am exporting every 15 minutes.
Docs do not save to the same file they just keep multiplying.

So my file originated in AI on my desktop. Once I was completed with the file there I saved it to the cloud and opened the file up in AI on my iPad. As described in a previous post, I would make edits in the file on my iPad, then hit the back button. In doing so a small dialog box would appear indicating it was saving, then when I got to the main AI screen where you can choose what you want to do (open recent files etc.) the file I was working on had a date/time of the original file I had from my desktop; Changes were not saved.

It was a bizarre bug because I only experienced this issue probably 85% of the time. There was also one instance when it looked like my changes saved, as the date/time were updated, however, when edited it again and clicked the back button I would get the saving dialog box but then see a date/time of the original file.

I ended up uninstalling AI from my iPad, reinstalling, and reconnecting my CC account. Since doing so I have not experienced the issue again. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Same here _ I keep working on an illustrator file and illustrator app will not save... VERY ANNOYING. Basically renders the app useless. I've redone The same illustration 3 times and im losing money and patience

~~Hi,

I would like to understand more about the starting state of the document. Is it a PSD document, if yes please share the document. ~~

My file started as a Desktop AI file. That seems to be a key component. If it starts as the iPad Illustrator file, it saves. But if it started as a desktop .ai file that you open and edit on the iPad, it has issues with certain tools.

My workaround has been to used the pen tool instead of the blob brush, even though in a lot of cases the blob brush would be quicker and more efficient.

I also believe that if you export the .ai file instead of just hitting the back arrow, it will end up saving. But then you’re working on a whole new file, not just editing the one you already have.

It doesn’t auto save

https://www.behance.net/videos/1fa07b46-d2c9-4415-80d6-fef646b1bb81/Livestreaming-with-Hema-Puran-from-Illustrator-on-iPad

I streamed so I could provide you with proof of this happening.
In the end, you can see the problem.

I found a common area with this problem for me
First, make my sketch in fresco.
Then import it into Illustrator (desktop) since iPad version isn't available
I save it as a cloud file on Illustrator desktop so I can open it on my iPad.
This problem hasn't happened to me if I start a file from the iPad app itself.

All my programs are up to date.

Same issue. Literally just happened to me, again. Have worked on multiple cloud documents and when I hit the back button in the upper left the file doesn’t save to the cloud like it should. Have wasted many many many hour working on things to then not have it save in the end. Very very frustrating.

https://www.behance.net/videos/1fa07b46-d2c9-4415-80d6-fef646b1bb81/Livestreaming-with-Hema-Puran-from-Illustrator-on-iPad

I streamed so I could provide you with proof of this happening.
In the end, you can see the problem.

Same as the others, significant work lost due to this glitch, which just became really bad today. Imported psd file, worked with blob brush for a while, and then headed to home and lost everything. No updates in auto save history either. I now export as AI in order to not lose my work, but if I get distracted or forget to do that fall-back measure my work can well be lost. This is sending me back to the desktop, which is sad.

Same problem with the blob issue as well:

File is an .ai file.
- I use the blob brush, hit the back arrow. A loading (circle) animation loads for less than a second without any prompt or confirmation of a save taking place. Once I’m back at the menu, previewing thumbnails of my files, no changes are apparent. When accessed, previous changes with the blog is not present.
- If I make a change via selection or another tool, auto save is successful (confirmed via prompt, thumbnail preview, and return to file)
- When performing the steps above but with saved to iPad with and without WiFi, no save continues when making edits to the file with the blob tool.

Was working on a file that started on my desktop so I could draw with my Pencil. After about an hour of work, I went back to the Home Screen and noticed in the thumbnail that NOTHING saved; it even says the last time I edited the file was three days ago. I also noticed another file I worked on recently didn’t save any change I made either. When I open a file, make a change, and back out I see the “Saving” text briefly show, but no change is ever saved.

So....why would I keep using this app? I’ve lost hours of work.

I'n not Greg, but here is a screen recording of the experience I've had, as well as the file I was working on. As you can see, no error, and the auto-save process seems to engage before sending me back to My Work, but none of the changes "stick".

For reference, iPad Pro 2015, 12.9 inch running iPad OS 14.1 using the Pencil.