Getting started
Drafts & autosave recovery
Closing a tab by accident shouldn't cost you your design. While you work, Popcorn Editor keeps a local autosave on your device — so even a crash or a stray tab-close leaves you a way back in.
Your work is kept locally
As you edit, the editor quietly saves a copy of the current design to your browser's local storage. This happens automatically, on your device, with no button to press — and it works even when you're signed out. If the tab closes before you've saved to the cloud, that local copy is your safety net.
This is separate from a cloud save. A local draft never leaves the machine it was made on; it's there purely to recover the file you had open.
The unsaved-design banner
When you reopen the editor and a recoverable draft is found, a thin banner appears just under the toolbar:
You have an unsaved design from a previous session. — with Restore and Discard.
- Restore reloads the local draft back onto the Canvas, exactly as you left it.
- Discard drops the draft and starts clean.
There's one recovery draft per browser at a time, tied to the session you were working in. Choose Restore if that last session had work worth keeping; choose Discard if it was a throwaway or you've already saved elsewhere.
Restore vs. discard
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Restore | Brings the draft back onto the Canvas so you can keep editing or save it properly. |
| Discard | Permanently clears that local draft — there's no undo for it. |
If you're unsure, Restore is the safe choice: you can always save it to the cloud and then move on. Discarding is final.
Drafts vs. cloud saves
A local draft is temporary and device-only. A cloud save is the real, portable copy of your work:
- Save design (Menu ▸ File ▸ Save design, or ⌘/Ctrl S when signed in) uploads the design to your account, where it lives in My designs. A successful cloud save supersedes the local draft — the recovery banner won't nag you about work you've already saved.
- A draft, by contrast, only exists in this one browser. It won't follow you to another device or another computer.
If you're signed in, get in the habit of saving. Drafts are a seatbelt, not a filing system. See Signing in, saving & My designs for how cloud saves work.
Closing with unsaved changes
Popcorn Editor also catches you on the way out. If you try to close the editor with edits that haven't been saved, it asks first:
Your unsaved changes will be lost if you close the editor now. — with a Discard confirm.
Choose Discard to leave anyway, or cancel to stay and save. Even if you do leave, the local autosave usually still has your work waiting behind the recovery banner the next time you open the editor.
Drafts vs. version history
Don't confuse the two:
- Drafts are crash-and-close recovery for the file you currently have open — one per browser, automatic, local.
- Version history (the clock button in the toolbar) is a list of saved snapshots of a design you can browse and roll back to. Those live with the design in the cloud.
Drafts get you back to where you were; version history lets you travel back to earlier saved states.
Limits & tips
- A draft lives in this browser only. Clearing site data, or switching to a different browser or device, removes it.
- It is not a backup or a substitute for saving. For anything you care about, use Save design and, if you're collaborating, share it.
- Signed out? Your work is still autosaved locally — but sign in and save to make it portable and safe.
Next
Learn how cloud saves and My designs work in Signing in, saving & My designs, or get oriented first with a tour of the workspace.