Up until now I have saved editable files for around 4 months before deleting them. It is now the second time that a client comes back to me to edit the file for reprinting… or to change images…
For now I am doing a cut and paste kind of job, but should I keep all files in the future to avoid such scenarios. How do others do this?
Thank you so much for your support
I think 4 months is giving it too little to delete. I would keep it for at least 3-5 years…
My work has folders from years ago and its very worthwhile because clients do come back every so often asking for small changes…
Thank you @Breindy-S . I have learnt from my mistake for the future!! Do you think I need to offer some kind of reimbursement for those who I do not have their files on hand and certain changes can’t be done?
I guess you don’t really owe them a reimbursement but they hired you possibly thinking to come back a further date so maybe it would be nice if you would give them a discount or not charge so much…
you deleted all your work?!??
I sometimes take little things that I have used in the past and use for new projects, Always good to have on hand.
Never worth deleting anything.
Invest in a good harddrive and keep it organized by date / client so you always find what you need.
Also, very often you can re-use a previous template / project as a base for a different one.
Up to this date I kept a seperate file for each client, but was not so diligent about it. Meaning I only kept the final version in editable format. In this clients case, I seemed to have kept the final file but without embedding the links, and deleted the images I had used for her. Bh I went through my emails and work computer and found them all, so could now embed and work on it properly. But I am happy to have learnt from my mistake and organize myself for the future.
You can try editing through acrobat, sometimes the little changes they need can be done there off the files you sent them for print.
I use backblaze which automatically uploads to my cloud everything on my computer incase my computer crashes that way I dont have to remember to upload it
Whenever I finish a project I pull that whole folder into a folder called old projects. You never if they need something and sometimes I go back for inspiration or other material I have kept in those folders
Uch that’s so annoying!
But yeah for the future definitely no deleting files. I have dropbox so I’m not worried about space, and it’s always good to have it since you never know when the client will come back. Hatzlacha!