Recover data after a crash

If Maya crashes, it saves scene files in a temporary directory:

Environment variables and saved scene files

Maya saves scene files using the value of the TEMPDIR environment variable. This variable specifies the directory location Maya LT uses for various temporary files.
  • If you're using Windows: set both TEMP and TMPDIR.
  • If you're using Mac OS X: set TMPDIR. The value can be checked by running the following in a Terminal window: echo $TMPDIR

If the TEMP variables are set, Maya saves the recovery file is saved to the path stated in the variable instead.