How to AutoRecover Your Unsaved Files in MS Word
© Ugur Akinci
You can autorecover at least a part of your unsaved files if you lose power in the midst of a writing session or you close the file without saving it.
There are two steps to the process.
1) Configure your Autosave setting:
a) Select File > Options > Save from the menu to display the Save Documents screen:
b) Select the Save AutoRecover information every … Minutes check-box and set the time interval to something like 10 min (default).
c) Select the Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving check-box.
d) Browse and select another location if you do not like the default autorecover file location.
e) Click OK to save the settings.
2) Recover your autosaved document:
a) If you close a file without saving it, select File >Info > Manage Versions > Recover Unsaved Documents.
This will open the AutoRecover folder that you’ve configured in the previous step.
b) Select the autosaved file and click Open to open (recover) it.
NOTE: Even when you configure the AutoRecover option you still need to save your document regularly to make sure all of it will be saved.
When, for example, you set your AutoRecover Information interval to (once in every) 10 minutes, and your computer crashes 9 minutes after the last AutoRecover, then you will lose everything you did during those 9 minutes — unless, of course, you manually save your document.
Usefull
Thank
HAH!!
Thank you so much!!!
Saved me some serious stress.
Thank you thank you thank you – life saver today!!!
Bennie, glad to be of help. Have a great day! Ugur
Thank you so much! I was sitting here freaking the hell out. THANK YOU.
Renee, happy to hear that solved your problem. Take care! Ugur
i saved the file multiple times n now i check it just didn’t save, autoreovering isn’t working and i clicked the review tab and it showed nothing. its a lot of work! what now????
If you save a Word file multiple times and it’s not saving, that means the Word is not working properly. The directions provided here assume that your Word is working properly but is shut down suddenly either by mistake or due to power outage. Autorecover is supposed to work if you reconfigured it properly, as explained in Step 1. Especially important is selecting the “Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving” check-box. However, after all is said and done, sometimes nothing works. It happens. In those cases I either shut down everything and restart both my machine and the Word. And if that doesn’t work either, I uninstall and reinstall Word (assuming the Word is installed on your machine and not on a network server). However, when doing that, there is always a risk of losing the part of the file that you’ve edited but couldn’t save. Nothing is perfect in life. We can only try our best.
thans a lot!!
Helped me a lot.
Thanx a lot. It sure helped me to recover a lost file.
Pedro, HaJeBe and all our other readers, glad to hear this tip worked for you. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Ugur
Mine is literally nowhere to be found 🙁
I lost an unsaved document. Usually word displays such documents on restart, or on recent files / unsaved files. But nothing. None of the .tmp files on my computer were appropriate either.
But looking at the autosave settings as suggested on this page I see where the .asd (autosaved document?) file for the document that I lost was hiding in the autosave folder, as stipulated in the word options save autosave settings, and I have got my hands on the file! At first word would not open it but, fortunately I manage to open the .asd file with by stipulating a (more recent) version of a Word.
I felt sure I had lost a morning’s work but thanks to the hint here it was saved. Thank you.
Glad to be of service. Best regards, Ugur