I have created and been editing an .svg file in inkscape and then one day it said "Failed to open from [location on laptop]". Can someone help me determine whether my file can be recovered, if not, help me make sure this doesn't happen again? I have tried restarting my laptop, uninstalling and reinstalling Inkscape, converting the file to .jpg to then convert back to .svg (was unable to convert file) and have tried opening and importing the file into Inkscape. 

Also, with this project, it started as a hand drawing which I scanned into a .jpg and then converted to an .svg before importing it into inkscape. The picture on this file as able to be 'ungrouped' and what not and then was able to edit the nods and neaten my hand drawing without recreating the lines ontop of my drawing. When I went to redo the work I had done because the above-mentioned file suddenly wasn't opening, I was unable to repeat this process. Inkscape wasn't able to 'read' the lines on the images, was unable to 'ungroup' lines to then edit them etc. Can anyone tell me why I was able to do this the first time around but unable to do it again when I started with the exact same .svg file imported into inkscape?

Hi and Welcome to the forum.  I'm not an expert on this, so while waiting for someone else to come along that can help you better, may I suggest that you look in your edit>preferences area to check to see where your backups are created, then check that folder to see if perhaps your pc crashed and maybe you could have a backup that could be saved.  Worth taking a look.

I have gone into edit>preferences but where am I checking after that? Have gone into input/output>system and all the information that is written there is going to a file/area on my computer that doesn’t exist.

I am unsure whether the fact I am using Windows 10 on my Mac via Virtual Box is part of this issue.

Also, the following message comes up when I open Inkscape: The preference file C: etc... is not valid XML document. Inkscape will run with default settings and new settings will not be saved.

Also can not figure out how to attach my file onto my message to see whether it is just me that can not open my .svg file.

Sorry, I have found the location of where a ‘Temporary’ file goes to and there’s nothing in there. 

Am I ment to be looking elsewhere for a backup?

Hi Disbyjp,

You can turn on the auto save function in order to automatically save files. I find it under Preferences > Input/Output > Autosave.
You have to check the enable box and fill in the directory.

Sometimes an autosave file ends up in the same directory where the original file is located. It then has a very long name.
Perhaps it is a problem when you use Windows with Virtual Box under MacOS, where everything is stored.

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I have a question: how did you convert this jpg into an svg, before importing it into Inkscape?
Did you use a different program for it on your Mac or on the internet?

You can import a jpg directly into Inkscape, but then it will not have editable nodes, as it is a raster file with pixels.