How to recover unsaved Word documents

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

You can attempt to recover an unsaved Word certificate past:

  • Searching for Give-and-take documents
  • Searching for Give-and-take backup files
  • Checking the Recycle Bin
  • Restarting Give-and-take to open AutoRecover files
  • Searching for AutoRecover files
  • Searching for temporary files

If you're looking for information virtually how to recover other recent Office files, encounter the following articles:

  • Recover your Office files
  • Find lost files afterwards the upgrade to Windows 10

If you tin can't open the document, or the content in the document is damaged, see How to troubleshoot damaged documents in Word.

To observe a lost document:

Search for Word documents

Endeavour searching for the certificate in Windows:

  1. Select Start, type the document name (in Windows 8.ane, type the proper name in the Search box), then printing Enter.
  2. If the Documents list (or Files list in Windows viii.ane) contains the document, double-click the document to open it in Word.

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

Searching for Word backup files

Word backup file names have a ".wbk" extension. If you accept the "backup copy" choice selected in Word, there might exist a backup copy of the file.

To check whether this pick is on, selectFile >Options >Advanced, scroll down to theRelieve section, and and so selectAlways create backup copy.

If you take a Microsoft 365 subscription, check these two folder locations for a backup file:

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

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

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

If you don't find a backup file for the document, become to the next method.

Checking the Recycle Bin

If y'all deleted a Discussion document without elimination the Recycle Bin, you might be able to restore the document.

  1. Double-click the Recycle Bin on the Desktop.
  2. Search through the list of documents to encounter whether the deleted Word document is still there. If y'all don't know the file name, look for file types such equally .doc, .docx, and .dot.
  3. If you observe the desired Word file, right-click the file name, so select Restore to recover the file.

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

Windows File Recovery Tool

If you are using Windows ten, version 2004 or afterwards, you tin try the Windows File Recovery tool. Windows File Recovery is available from the Microsoft Store. You can utilise information technology to recover files that have been permanently deleted. For more data about this tool, run across Recover lost files on Windows x.

Restoring documents saved to SharePoint and OneDrive

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

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

To find missing content or a newer version:

Give-and-take takes different deportment to protect your changes in Word documents:

  • If Word opens a document from SharePoint or OneDrive, the program uses AutoSave to save changes to the "deject" document. We recommend that you exit the AutoSave characteristic set to On. Image shows the AutoSave option in the On position.

  • If Word opens a certificate from your local disk or network shared folder, Give-and-take uses AutoRecover to save changes to an AutoRecover file. The default AutoRecover save interval is 10 minutes. We recommend that y'all leave the AutoRecover feature set to On.

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

Restarting Word to open up AutoRecover files

Word searches for AutoRecover files every time information technology starts. Therefore, y'all can try using the AutoRecover feature by endmost and reopening Discussion. If Discussion finds any automatically recovered file, the Certificate Recovery job pane opens, and the missing document should be listed as "certificate proper name [Original]" or as "certificate name [Recovered]." If this occurs, double-click the file name in the Document Recovery pane, select File > Save every bit, so save the certificate as 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 whatsoever recovered files are plant, Word opens them past having a Bulletin Bar. Select Salve to salve the recovered file as a .docx file. If there are many recovered files, Discussion normally opens the last-inverse files, and puts the remaining files into the Certificate Recovery task 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 have a Microsoft 365 subscription, check the following binder locations for backup files:

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

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

If you don't discover 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 all the same haven't establish the file, effort manually searching for AutoRecover files. To exercise this, select Start, enter .asd in the Search box, then press Enter.

If you find any files that have the .asd extension, follow these steps:

  1. Open up Give-and-take, and then go to File >Open up >Browse.
  2. In the files of blazon list to the right ofFile name, selectAll Files.
  3. Right-click the backup file that you establish, and so selectOpen.

If in that location are no .asd files, get to the next method.

Searching for temporary files

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

  1. Select Get-go, type .tmp (in Windows 8.1, type .asd in the Search box), and then press Enter.
  2. Select the Documents tab.
  3. Scroll through the files to search for file names that match the last few dates and times that you edited the certificate.
    • If yous find the missing file, go to step 4.
    • If you don't find the file, repeat steps ane through three, but search on the tilde character (~) instead of .tmp (temporary file names start with a tilde).
  4. In Give-and-take, become to File > Open, and and then select the Folders tab.
  5. Navigate to or search for the folder where you found the .tmp file, and and so select the binder name to open the binder contents pane.
  6. At the summit of the pane, select the name of the binder. This opens File Explorer.
  7. In File Explorer, modify the file blazon (next to the file proper noun field, virtually the bottom) to All files.
  8. Open the .tmp file.

References

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