When I work on certain (not all) Adobe Illustrator PDF files, a “.tmp” file appears on my desktop. The file name is “Acr . . . 7 to 9 numbers . . . .tmp.” It’s a version of the original file with some, but not all, of the changes I’ve made, i.e. a “temporary” version. What’s going on here, and how can I stop these files from appearing?
They are probably working files that should disappear when you create the final document and close out of the application. That they appear on your desktop indicates a system variable is messed up.
What O/S are you using?
If you crash midway though creating a document, those temp files will remain behind, not having vanished with the shutdown of the application like they ought to. In which case you can either use that file to replaec a possibly corrupt or incomplete saved file, or you can just delete them, as they really are meant as fleetingly temporary.
The probably appear on the desktop because that’s where the original file is. .tmp files are usually created in the folder where the original file exists.\
You can’t stop them from appearing and, as Guanolad points out, you wouldn’t want to. If the bother you, move the original file into "My Documents’ and work from there.