How to recover unsaved Give-and-take documents

  • Article
  • 5 minutes to read
  • Applies to:
    Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Discussion 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010

You tin try to recover an unsaved Give-and-take document by:

  • Searching for Word documents
  • Searching for Word backup files
  • Checking the Recycle Bin
  • Restarting Word to open AutoRecover files
  • Searching for AutoRecover files
  • Searching for temporary files

If you're looking for information about how to recover other recent Function files, see the following manufactures:

  • Recover your Office files
  • Detect lost files after the upgrade to Windows x

If you can't open up the document, or the content in the document is damaged, see How to troubleshoot damaged documents in Give-and-take.

To find a lost document:

Search for Word documents

Endeavour searching for the document in Windows:

  1. Select Start, type the document name (in Windows 8.1, type the name in the Search box), and then press Enter.
  2. If the Documents list (or Files listing in Windows 8.i) contains the document, double-click the certificate to open information technology in Word.

If the search results don't comprise the file, get to the next method.

Searching for Discussion fill-in files

Discussion backup file names have a ".wbk" extension. If yous have the "fill-in copy" choice selected in Word, in that location might be a backup copy of the file.

To check whether this selection is on, selectFile >Options >Advanced, scroll down to theSave department, and and then selectAlways create backup re-create.

If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, check these two folder locations for a fill-in file:

  • C:\Users<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word
  • C:\Users<UserName>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Part\UnsavedFiles

Note: In these paths, supercede <UserName> with your username.

To find the backup copy of the file, select Outset, enter .wbk in the Search box, and and then press Enter. If you find any files that have the name "Fill-in of" followed by the name of the missing file, double-click the file name to open it.

If y'all don't find a backup file for the document, get to the next method.

Checking the Recycle Bin

If you deleted a Word document without emptying the Recycle Bin, you lot might be able to restore the document.

  1. Double-click the Recycle Bin on the Desktop.
  2. Search through the listing of documents to see whether the deleted Word document is yet there. If you don't know the file name, look for file types such as .doctor, .docx, and .dot.
  3. If you find the desired Word file, right-click the file proper name, and and so select Restore to recover the file.

If you lot don't observe the desired file, get to the next method.

Windows File Recovery Tool

If you are using Windows 10, version 2004 or after, you can endeavor the Windows File Recovery tool. Windows File Recovery is bachelor from the Microsoft Store. You tin use it to recover files that take been permanently deleted. For more than information about this tool, see Recover lost files on Windows 10.

Restoring documents saved to SharePoint and OneDrive

For documents that you saved or synced to SharePoint, encounter Restore items in the recycle bin that were deleted from SharePoint or Teams.

For documents that you saved or synced to OneDrive, see Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive.

To discover missing content or a newer version:

Word takes different actions to protect your changes in Word documents:

  • If Word opens a document from SharePoint or OneDrive, the plan uses AutoSave to save changes to the "cloud" document. Nosotros recommend that yous leave the AutoSave feature set to On. Image shows the AutoSave option in the On position.

  • If Word opens a document from your local disk or network shared folder, Word uses AutoRecover to save changes to an AutoRecover file. The default AutoRecover save interval is 10 minutes. We recommend that you leave the AutoRecover feature set to On.

    Screenshot shows the Save Documents section of Word options, with Autorecover set to every ten minutes.

Restarting Give-and-take to open AutoRecover files

Discussion searches for AutoRecover files every time it starts. Therefore, you can attempt using the AutoRecover feature past endmost and reopening Word. If Word finds whatsoever automatically recovered file, the Document Recovery task pane opens, and the missing document should be listed equally "document proper name [Original]" or every bit "document name [Recovered]." If this occurs, double-click the file proper noun in the Document Recovery pane, select File > Salve as, and so save the document equally a .docx file. To manually change the extension to .docx, right-click the file, and select Rename.

Annotation In Microsoft 365 Subscription, when Word starts, it searches for AutoRecover files. If whatever recovered files are establish, Give-and-take opens them by having a Bulletin Bar. Select Salvage to save the recovered file as a .docx file. If there are many recovered files, Give-and-take usually opens the last-changed files, and puts the remaining files into the Document Recovery job pane. Screenshot shows a header that reads, Recovered Unsaved File. This is a recovered file that is temporarily stored on your computer. There is a Save button next to it.

Searching for AutoRecover files

If yous take a Microsoft 365 subscription, check the following folder locations for backup files:

  • C:\Users<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word
  • C:\Users<UserName>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

Annotation: In these paths, supersede <UserName> with your username.

If you don't find the missing file in these locations, open Word, and select File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents.

Screenshot shows the Manage Document option, with Recover Unsaved Documents selected.

If you lot still haven't found the file, try manually searching for AutoRecover files. To practice this, select Start, enter .asd in the Search box, then press Enter.

If y'all notice any files that have the .asd extension, follow these steps:

  1. Open Give-and-take, and so go to File >Open >Browse.
  2. In the files of type list to the correct ofFile name, selectAll Files.
  3. Right-click the fill-in file that you plant, and then selectOpen.

If there are no .asd files, get to the adjacent method.

Searching for temporary files

Temporary file names accept a .tmp extension. To find these files, follow these steps:

  1. Select Start, type .tmp (in Windows 8.1, type .asd in the Search box), and so printing Enter.
  2. Select the Documents tab.
  3. Roll through the files to search for file names that match the concluding few dates and times that you edited the document.
    • If yous find the missing file, go to step 4.
    • If you don't find the file, echo steps 1 through iii, simply search on the tilde character (~) instead of .tmp (temporary file names start with a tilde).
  4. In Word, become to File > Open, and so select the Folders tab.
  5. Navigate to or search for the folder where you constitute the .tmp file, and so select the folder proper noun to open the folder contents pane.
  6. At the peak of the pane, select the proper name of the folder. This opens File Explorer.
  7. In File Explorer, change the file type (next to the file name field, almost the bottom) to All files.
  8. Open the .tmp file.

References

  • What is AutoSave?
  • How Word creates and recovers the AutoRecover files