My project folder has been on my iMac desktop for 12 years. It has disappeared since the last time I edited it on July 2, 2017. I haven’t emptied my trash since before that, and it is postively, absolutely, without the slightest possibility of a doubt, no longer extant on my hard drive. I no longer care why or how it disappeared. Now, I just want to have a working version. I downloaded the project folder from my FTP site via Fetch but RW 5.4.1 does not recognize it. IOW, it doesn’t appear in the project window and I can’t seem to open it from within the app by using the Open command from the File Menu or by using the Open Other button in the Project window. If someone can tell me a way to get it back into the Project Window or to simply open it so that I can edit it again, I would greatly appreciate the advice.
Thanks for your reply. I already searched for .rsrw and found some irrelevant files. As I wrote, there is absolutely no doubt the project is no longer on my HD. If you know how I might open the files in the folder I downloaded from my FTP site, I’d appreciate knowing. Thanks again.
The ‘Project’ file (needed to open an RW site) is not stored with your website on your server, that was only introduced recently. If you have not emptied your Trash and the file was there since you last emptied the Trash then it has to be somewhere on your HD. Easyfind has many options, try changing some of it’s parameters.
Well, I was able to restore a 3-month old version from a Time Machine backup, which is not optimal but a lot better than nothing. I still would like to know if the current folder I downloaded from my FTP site can be utilised. If you know, please let me know. Thanks.
Yes, that’s exactly what I thought. But it just isn’t. As Holmes kept trying to get Watson to understand:
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
And in this case the improbable truth is that it ain’t on my HD. 
John: It’s unclear what you really mean. Did you download from your server the exported files from RapidWeaver? If so (and that’s how I interpret what you are writing) then I know of no easy way to convert back to RW format. After all RW “converted” to HTML, CSS, etc. before exporting.
A strategy that some folks use for additional backup and safety is to upload the RW project file to a dedicated location on their server (e.g. a folder named zBackups). That’s a great strategy! If you take that approach you’ll want to zip the project file first, then upload it. In turn it makes downloading and unzipping and then using very easy.
I’m assuming you did not zip project file and upload to your server. But if you did then it should work just dandy when you download and unzip.