Recover a PowerCADD File Lost on a MacOS Server

Twice now I have had a client lose a PowerCADD file on a MacOS server. This has happened at two different offices, using different versions of PowerCADD and MacOS Server.

Days Worth of Work Lost

In both cases the users opened a file directly from the server by double-clicking the file icon; then had saved and closed the file, and reopened it a number of times over a period of days. In one instance the user had been using the "Recents" menu in PowerCADD for these subsequent accesses — perhaps both had, but I can't verify in the other instance.

At some point the users went back to the server to open the file, only to discover the file on the server showed a last modified date days prior to the last known save; in both cases the last time the file had been opened and saved was only hours earlier the same day. None of the server backups showed a version of the file later than the last modified time on the server (both using Time Machine, configured by default to backup hourly).

Nowhere to Be Found

After desperately searching both server and local computer (using Spotlight, but also randomly searching possible places it might have been stashed), no other version of the file could be found. To their knowledge, neither user ever copied the file to their computer, nor moved the file.

This first time this occurred, I blamed it on the server. But I spent quite a while searching cache files, etc., on the server — thinking that the file must have gotten lost during the last save. No joy.

The second time this occurred, I abandoned the server theory and focused on the user's Mac. I decided NOT to do a regular search. Rather, I went to the Command Line in the Terminal to do a comprehensive search. All I needed was a "piece" of the file name. The client gave me a partial file name, and this is what I entered into the terminal:

sudo find / -name “*Example*”

After a couple of minutes, the command returned a matching file, which turned out to be the missing last-saved version. The location was a hidden system directory:

/private/var/folders/xx/somerandomcharacters/etc

The xx/somerandomcharacters/etc were system generated folder names that will be unique to every case. If you poke around these folders, there is lots of stuff about which you will have no idea, and should be avoided.

How to Find the Missing File (If Possible)

The take-away is this: If you lose a file that you _know_ you were saving to a MacOS server (perhaps any server), and you know at least part of the file name, do the following:

1) Open the Terminal (Applications/Utilites)

2) Enter the following:

sudo find / -name “*filename*”

Replace filename with the part of the file name you are looking for. Be sure to put the replacement inside the quotes (") and the asterisks (*). Bear in mind that this command is Case Sensitive. If you aren't sure about the case, you need to try different variants of your file name.

3) Hit Enter.

4) You will be required to enter your computer login password.

5) Wait... the output will be a list of complete path-names of the files, showing the location and name of each found file.

6) IF your file is found, select the text of the path name you want; select from the left up until the file name (do not copy the file name part). Example:

/private/var/folders/36/cbkgp7812mz6_n3kyxcsbq1r0000gn/myfile.PC9

Select and COPY only what is in red in the example (yours won't be in red).

7) Go to the Finder, and choose Go->Go to Folder... from the main menu.

8) Paste what you copied into the Go to the folder: field, then hit Go.

9) Find your file, and drag it to your desktop (or preferred location).

You're welcome.