"File not found."

[Matthew M]

Could someone please suggest some help.

I have been working on a massive project that I am 2 years into working on. All of a sudden, the finale file has disappeared from a folder in my Documents/File Explorer on my computer, but still appears under my Recent Files. When I go to open the file through my Recent Files, Finale itself will open, but upon the program opening, the screen opens that has those "Create New Music" and "Open Existing Music" options. Even when I try to open my file Finale through this method, an error message appears that says...

"[file name]
File could not be found.
Check the file name and try again."

I don't really know what else to try other than what I have stated here. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I am seriously hoping that two YEARS of work didn't just go down the drain. Thank you to those willing to help.

[motet]

Sounds like you accidentally deleted it. Look in the Recycle bin. There also might be a .bakx or .asvx file that will help. I hope you've made backups during those two years.

[Matthew M]

I was like 2 paragraphs into writing a response while simultaneously doing some experiments. I was extremely lucky to find that the file was saved as a backup as a .bakx file. I did not know those existed.

I'm genuinely so, SO thankful for your response. Even though I have made several pdf's of my score over time, that would be a tremendous amount of work to copy in every note for the whole piece I'm working on haha.

I am happy and lucky to say that it has worked out. Thank you for your help!

[motet]

Oh, good. You should be backing up your computers, though.