Microsoft Word Mac Recover Unsaved Document

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Sep 11, 2019 Recover Unsaved Word Doc on Mac with Auto Recovery. Ensure the Word application for mac is not running. On your Mac, click on “Finder.”. On the Finder menu, click on “Go” and then select “Home.”. Once you are in the Home menu, click on the “documents” option and then select and open the “Microsoft. In Word 2003, double-click the file in the Document Recovery task pane, click Save As on the File menu, and then save the document as a.doc file. Note If an AutoRecover file in the Recovery pane does not open correctly, go to the 'How to troubleshoot damaged documents' section for more information about how to open damaged files.

FonePaw - Solution - Recovery - Recover Word Document on Mac

Losing a word document could give you a heart attack. The lost document may be an assignment, a report or article that you have been working for days, weeks or even months. Sometimes, the Word crashed or your Mac suddenly shut off, leaving the Word document you are working on unsaved. Or you accidentally saved over a Word document on Mac, thus the document is overwritten. Even worse, the lost Word document might has been deleted by mistake.

Whether you need to recover an unsaved or deleted Word document on Mac, this article can give you some hints. Read the methods below to recover Word document on Mac.

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How to Recover Unsaved Word Document 2019/2017/2016/2011 on Mac

The good news is that by default, Word on Mac enables an autosave feature which automatically save the document you are working on every 10 minutes in the AutoRecovery folder. It is very likely that you can recover the document that you didn't save with the autosave files.

Note: The prerequisite for Word AutoRecover to work on Mac is that you have saved the document for at least one time. That is to say, if you just create a Word file, make some edits and then close the file by clicking Don't Save, there is no available AutoRecover file to recover the unsaved document.

If Word or Mac system crashed

After an application(such as Microsoft Office) crashes or macOS freezes, the next time you open Word, an AutoRecover file will be automatically opened and you can save it and pick up where you left off.

In the ideal world, you should see the unsaved document right after you relaunch Word. However, if things doesn't work as expected, you can find Word's autosave location on Mac and automatically recover the unsaved document.

AutoRecover files in Word 2011 for Mac

To recover unsaved Word document on Word 2011 on Mac, there are two ways.

1. Open AutoRecover files

Step 1 On Word, click File > AutoRecover.

Step 2 You should be seeing a list of AutoRecover files. According the saving date, open the unsaved file you are looking.

2. Locate AutoRecovery folder on Mac

Microsoft word mac recover unsaved document download

Step 1 Open Finder.

Step 2 Press Alt key while clicking Go to reveal Library folder.

Step 3 Go to the Word autosave location: Library/Application Support/ Microsoft/Office/Office 2011 AutoRecovery.

AutoRecover files in Word 2016/2017 for Mac

There are also two methods to recover a Word document that was not saved on Mac for Word 2016, 2017 or newer.

1. Go to Microsoft User Data folder

Step 1 Close Microsoft Word on Mac.

Step 2 Open Finder > Documents > Microsoft User Data folder.

Step 3 Look through the files that are named 'AutoRecovery save of' and find the autosave files you need.

If you have problem in opening the AutoRecover Word files, rename the files and add '.doc' to the file extension.

2. Go to AutoRecovery folder

Step 1 Open Finder. Click Go > Go to folder.

Step 2 Enter the path as follow:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.

If you fail to recover unsaved Word documents with AutoRecover files, you can also check temporary folder on Mac, which may contain the files you are looking for.

Recover unsaved Word document with Mac Temporary folder

Step 1 Launch Terminal with Spotlight or go to Applications > Utilities.

Step 2 Enter the command line: open $TMPDIR. Hit Enter.

Step 3 The temporary folder will be open. Check if there is the Word document that you didn't save.


Accidentally Saved Over a Word Document on Mac

When you accidentally saved over a Word document that you actually need on Mac, you can try to recover the Word document from AutoRecovery folder. And if it doesn't work, try to recover the previous version of the document from Time Machine backups on Mac.

Unsaved

Step 1 Open Time Machine with Spotlight.

Step 2 Find the files you want to restore.

Step 3 Click Restore to restore the Word file.


How to Recover Lost/Deleted Word Documents on Mac

If you have Word documents that you have deleted mistakenly, FonePaw Data Recovery can recover the deleted Word documents for you. And sometimes, when you cannot find the unsaved documents from AutoRecovery folder, you may use the program to see if it can scan out the files that you need.

And after a Word document is deleted or lost, you should run FonePaw Data Recovery as soon as possible because the deleted document can be covered by new data on your Mac anytime. A rule of thumb for successful data recovery is Act Fast.

DownloadDownload

Step 1 Run FonePaw Data Recovery for Mac.

Step 2 To recover deleted Word documents from Mac drive, click Documents and select the drive that the deleted Word files were saved. Click Scan.

Step 3 The program will begin to scan and find the deleted documents on the drive, which include deleted Word, Excel, PDF, PPT and more.

Step 4 When the scanning stops, click DOC or DOCX and view if the deleted files you need are found. If not, click Deep Scan to find the deleted files are buried deeper.

Step 5 When you see the Word files you want to recover, click Recover.


Tips: Avoid Data Loss in Word for Mac

Set a shorter AutoRecover interval. By default, Word automatically save a copy of the Word document you are working on every 10 minutes. You can shorten the interval. On Word, go to Preferences > Output > Sharing > Save > Save every XX minute. For example, enter 5 to save a Word document every 5 minute.

Enable AutoSave if you are subscribed to Word for Office 365. With AutoSave enable, Word saves the changes you made every few seconds so you don't need manually click the Save button. Even if Word crashes unexpectedly, most changes on a document are saved automatically.

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Microsoft Word Mac Recover Unsaved Document Free

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.

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.

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.

Microsoft Word Mac Recover Unsaved Document File

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

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