Thanks for the suggestions...but still no dice.
I had only opened the file from Windows Explorer AFTER trying it the "normal" way through the application (both from the tile & then File+Open). In any of those cases, no data appears in the "Step by Step" part of the application. Per #3 below, the filename always appeared on the main screen of the application, but when I open the file it's totally blank & I'm prompted to start from step1 to build my return.
My file was never on an external USB drive. Nor do I have an SSD on my laptop.
I truly believe that the updates I installed when I launched Turbotax on July 14 caused the problem. The really odd piece of this story is that the data is actually still intact - I can see it when viewing the .tax2018 file in notepad. It's just not populating in the Step by Step view - nor did it transfer to the State download.
