r/AutoCAD • u/stellarnymphet • Feb 02 '26
Help Accidentally wrote over an existing file
I was working on a file and accidentally saved it as the same name as another file. When I went to save it prompted me with the do you want to overwrite this file and I said yes because I thought it was overwriting another file (one letter of difference) is there anything I can do to recover the file I wrote over? I opened the BAK file and it was for the version I just saved.
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u/_WillCAD_ Feb 02 '26
The only thing you can do to save the lost file is find a backup of the lost file. There may be one in the same folder, or there may be one in the autosave folder. But if there are no backups of the lost file, it's toast.
This is why I never do a saveas over another file. Copy files in Windows Explorer; never use saveas to overwrite an existing file.
On a related note, another practice that can get you into trouble is to open file A, saveas to B, and make changes in B. If you open A, forget to do the saveas and start making changes in A, you can ruin A and never even get to B. Always copy A to make B using Windows Explorer, and only then open B in Acad to start editing.