How to access "off-artboard" content after saving to PDF format?

In some versions of Adobe Illustrator, there might be a bug where saving a PDF with a single artboard actually captures the entire file, including off-artboard elements, when you reopen the PDF in Illustrator itself. This isn't the intended behavior and might not be reliable across different PDF viewers.

 

I saved my .ai as .pdf in order to send a proof to client.

 

I then made another days worth of changes and hit "Save" and then "close".

 

Now I've realised that because I most recently saved as PDF, that was the file I then saved over.

 

My major issue now is that all the important content is sitting off the artboard, but because I've saved as PDF - I cannot access it.

 

I can see the data displaying within the PDF in the preview thumbnail of the document (In Illustrator's recent file list).

But when I open it, it asks me to specify an artboard and only opens the artboard content. Is there anyway that I can get to the "off-artboard" content?

 

To access "off-artboard" content in a PDF:

1. Zoom out to see more of the page.
2. Check page thumbnails for additional content.
3. Look for options to uncrop or expand the view.
4. Use an object inspector tool if available. If content is missing, revise the original design file.