It's just a matter of time until you accidentally close an Office application without saving its content. Or your computer or app crashes unexpectedly while working on that important project due at the end of the day.

1. Last Word Document Unsaved
2. Powerpoint Document Recovery
3. Document Recovery Excel
4. Microsoft Word Unsaved Document Recovery Mac Os
5. Microsoft Word Unsaved Document Recovery Mac Pro

However, when the unexpected happens, no everything is lost. Whether you're using a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, or standalone version of Office 2019, Office 2016, or earlier, there's a good chance to recover your work as the apps offer a few ways to recover unsaved documents.

How To Recover an Unsaved Microsoft Word Document Read about recovering a Microsoft Office document if it was closed without saving because of the program freezing or crashing. We’ll have a look at MS Office built-in file recovery tools and third party utilities. Recuva - Features File Recovery Restore unsaved Word documents. Did Microsoft Word crash or did you forget to save that important Word document. No problem with Recuva! As it can intelligently rebuild Word documents from their temporary files.

In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to recover unsaved Office documents and the things you can do to avoid getting into this situation.

We'll be focusing this guide on Microsoft Word 2019, but the instructions work pretty much identical with older versions, including for other apps, such as Excel and PowerPoint.

How to recover unsaved document in Office

If you close an Office application without saving its content, or your device or app crashed unexpectedly, then you can recover the unsaved document in more than one way.

Using Document Recovery pane

To recover a document that wasn't saved correctly, use these steps:

1. Open the Office app that you created the document. For example, Word.
2. Create a new blank document.

3. Under the Document Recovery section, in the left pane, click the down-arrow button for the document to recover, and select the Save as option.

4. Select the folder to recover the unsaved document.
5. Click the Save button.

Once you've completed the steps, you can open the recovered document from the folder you selected.

Using Recover Unsaved Documents option

If you don't see the 'Document Recovery' pane, then use these steps:

1. Open the Office app that you created the document. For example, Word.
2. Create a new blank document.
3. Click the File menu.
4. Click on Info.
5. Click the Manage Document option.

6. Click the Recover Unsaved Documents option.

7. Select the unsaved document to recover.
8. Click the Open button.

You can also access unsaved documents using these steps:

1. Open the Office app that you created the document. For example, Word.
2. Create a new blank document.
3. Click the File menu.
4. Click on Open.

5. Click the Recover Unsaved Documents button.

6. Select the document.
7. Click the Open button.

Once you've completed the steps, make sure to save the recovered document before continue adding new content.

Using the AutoRecover file location

If the UnsavedFiles folder is empty, then you can use these steps to recover unsaved documents.

1. Open the Office app that you created the document. For example, Word.
2. Create a new blank document.
3. Click the File menu.

4. Click on Options.

5. Click on Save.

6. Under the 'Save documents' section, select the AutoRecover file location path, right-click the selection, and select the Copy option.

7. Open File Explorer (Windows key + E).
8. Right-click and paste the path in the File Explorer address bar and press Enter.

9. Right-click the .asd file of the document that you want to recover, and select the Open with option.

10. Select the appropriate app to open the files.
11. Click the OK button.

In this folder, you will only find the documents for the app that you're using. If you're looking to recover a document created with another Office application, then follow these steps with the correct application.

How to avoid unsaved document recovery in Office

Although Office includes a mechanism to recover documents that you didn't save, the feature doesn't always work as we would like, as such we'll outline below several tips to avoid having to use the recovery options.

Create a new document before opening Office

When you open an Office app, you always start with the startup experience, which allows you to create a new blank document or a document using a template. Instead of using the startup experience, make a habit of creating the file manually before opening the app.

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Navigate to the folder where you usually save your documents.

3. Right-click on a space, select New, and click the document that you want to create (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

4. Type a name of the document and press Enter.

After completing the steps, double-click the file, and you'll start with an already saved document, which means that you'll reduce the chances of losing the file and hours of work as the changes will now save automatically.

Enable document recovery

Although auto recovery should be enabled by default, you can avoid losing hours of hard work making sure that the AutoRecover feature is enabled on all the Office applications using these steps:

1. Open an Office app. For example, Word.
2. Click on File.
3. Click on Options.
4. Click on Save.

5. Under the 'Save documents' section, make sure that these options are checked:

   • AutoSave OneDrive and SharePoint Online files by default on Word.
   • Save AutoRecover information every X minutes.
   • Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving.
6. Confirm that AutoRecover file location has a valid path (no empty).

After completing the steps, you want to repeat the instructions in Excel and other apps you may use.

Adjust the autosave settings

Office apps usually save changes every ten minutes automatically, but you can adjust the autosave settings to reduce the amount of work you can lose as a result of the ten minutes gap.

1. Open an Office app. For example, Word.
2. Click the File menu.

3. Click on Options.

4. Click on Save.

5. Under the 'Save documents' section, change the Save AutoRecover information every 10 minutes option to 1 minute.

6. Click the OK button.

Once you've completed the steps, changes you make to the document will save automatically every 60 seconds, which will minimize the amount of work that you may lose if the app crashes or something goes wrong with the file.

Turn on real-time AutoSave

If you're an Office 365 subscriber, you can turn on AutoSave, which saves new content in real-time.

1. Open an Office app. For example, Word.
2. Click the File menu.
3. Click on Save.
4. Select a name for the file.
5. Click the Save button.

6. Turn on the AutoSave toggle switch in the top-left corner.

After completing the steps, changes you make to the document will save immediately automatically.

If you use other apps, such as Excel and PowerPoint, make sure to repeat these steps on all the apps you use.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

If you're looking for recent Word document recovery info, see:

• Recover your Office files (For versions through Office 2019)

For more on earlier versions of Word, see:

Resolution

To fix this problem, use the following methods in the order in which they're presented, as appropriate for your situation.

Method 1: Search for the original document

To do this, follow these steps, as appropriate for the version of Windows that you're running.

Windows 10 and Windows 7

1. Select Start, type the document name in the Start Search box (.doc or .docx), and then press Enter. If the File list contains the document, double-click the document to open it in Word.
2. If the File list does not contain the file, go to Method 2.

Method 2: Search for Word backup files

Word backup file names end with the .wbk extension. If the Always create backup copy option is selected, there may be a backup copy of the file.

Note

To locate this option:

• Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013:Select File, then Options, and then Advanced. Scroll down to the Save section and select Always create backup copy.
• Word 2010:Select File, then Options. In the Save tab, select Always create backup copy.

To find the backup copy of the file, follow these steps:

1. Locate the folder in which you last saved the missing file.
2. Search for files that have the .wbk file name extension.

If there's no .wbk file in the original folder, search the computer for any .wbk files. To do this, follow these steps:

Windows 10 and Windows 7

1. Select Start, type *.wbk in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
2. If the File list contains the backup file, repeat the steps in step 2 ('Search for files that have the .wbk file name extension') to open the file. If the File list does not contain the backup file, go to Method 3.

Last Word Document Unsaved

If you find any files that have the name 'Backup of' followed by the name of the missing file, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Word that you're running.

Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013

1. On the File menu, select Open, and then Browse. (In some versions, select Computer and then Browse.)
2. In the Files of type list (All Word Documents), select All Files.
3. Select the backup file that you found, and then select Open.

Word 2010

1. On the File menu, select Open.
2. In the Files of type list (All Word documents), select All Files.
3. Select the backup file that you found, and then select Open.

Method 3: Search for AutoRecover files

AutoRecover file names end with the .asd extension. By default, Word searches for AutoRecover files every time that it starts, and then it displays all that it finds in the Document Recovery task pane.

Powerpoint Document Recovery

1. Use Word to automatically find the AutoRecover files. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Right-click the taskbar, and then select Task Manager.

   2. On the Processes tab, select any instance of Winword.exe or Microsoft Word, and then select End Task or End Process. Repeat this step until you have exited all instances of Winword.exe and Word.

   3. Close the Windows Task Manager dialog box, and then start Word.

      If Word finds the AutoRecover file, the Document Recovery task pane opens on the left side of the screen, and the missing document is listed as 'document name [Original]' or as 'document name [Recovered].' If this occurs, double-click the file in the Document Recovery pane, select Save As on the File menu, and then save the document as a .docx file. Manually change the extension to .docx, if necessary, by right-clicking the file and selecting Rename.

2. If the Recovery pane does not open, manually search for AutoRecover files. To do this, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Word that you're running.

   Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013

   1. On the File menu, select Open, and then Browse.
   2. If you don't see your document listed, select Recover Unsaved Documents.

   Word 2010

   1. On the File menu, select Recent.
   2. If you don't see your document listed, select Recover Unsaved Documents.

3. If you can't locate an AutoRecover file in the location that is identified in the Folder name list, search your whole drive for any .asd files. To do this, follow these steps:

   Windows 10 and Windows 7

   1. Select Start, type .asd in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
   2. If the File list does not contain AutoRecover files, go to Method 4.

   If you find any files that have the .asd extension, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Word that you're running:

   Word 2019, Word 2016, or Word 2013

   1. On the File menu, select Open, and then Browse. (In some versions, select **Computer **and then Browse.)
   2. In the Files of type list (All Word Documents), select All Files.
   3. Select the .asd file that you found, and then select Open.

   Word 2010

   1. On the File menu, select Open.
   2. In the Files of type list (All Word Documents), select All Files.
   3. Select the .asd file that you found, and then select Open.

Note

If you find an AutoRecover file in the Recovery pane that does not open correctly, go to 'Method 6: How to troubleshoot damaged documents' for more information about how to open damaged files.

Method 4: Search for temporary files

Temporary file names end with the .tmp extension. To find these files, use one of the following procedure.

Windows 10 and Windows 7

1. Select Start, type .tmp in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
2. On the Show only toolbar, select Other.
3. Scroll through the files and search for files that match the last few dates and times that you edited the document. If you find the document that you're looking for, go to 'Method 6: How to troubleshoot damaged documents' for more information about how to recover information from the file.

Method 5: Search for '~' files

Some temporary file names start with the tilde (~) character. To find these files, follow these steps:

Windows 10 and Windows 7

1. Select Start, type ~ in the Start Search box.

2. Select See more results.

   Scroll through the files, and look for any that may match the last few dates and times that you edited the document. If you find the document that you're looking for, go to 'Method 6: How to troubleshoot damaged documents' for more information about how to recover information from the file.

For information about how Word creates and uses temporary files, see Description of how Word creates temporary files.

Method 6: How to troubleshoot damaged documents

For information about how to troubleshoot damaged Word documents, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

More information

Document Recovery Excel

You can lose a Word document in certain situations. For example, the document may be lost if an error occurs that forces Word to close, if you experience a power interruption while editing, or if you close the document without saving your changes.

Note

The whole document may be lost if you have not recently saved the document. If you have saved your document, you may lose only the changes that you made since the last save. Be aware that some lost documents may not be recoverable.

The AutoRecover feature in Word performs an emergency backup of open documents when an error occurs. Some errors can interfere with the AutoRecover functionality. The AutoRecover feature is not a substitute for saving your files.

Microsoft Word Unsaved Document Recovery Mac Os

We do not provide any utilities to recover deleted documents. However, some third-party utilities to recover deleted documents might be available on the Internet.

For more information about AutoRecover, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft Word Unsaved Document Recovery Mac Pro

The third-party products that are discussed in this article are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.