Jan 16, 2020 Part 1: How to Retrieve Lost Word Files on Mac Microsoft Word is one of HotApps on whatever kind of operating system, such as Windows, Mac, Lunix Sometimes when you are composing a novel or making an urgent report or project for your company, the computer shuts down suddenly without saving the document or you have saved it but deleted it. Describes a range of methods to locate and recover lost Microsoft Word documents. Discusses Word 2002, Word 2003, Word 2007, and Word 2010 under various versions of Windows. How to recover a lost Word document - Office Microsoft Docs.
All of you might have lost Word files saved on your computer at one or the situation; you would have saved your very important Word document of your research on Mac system. But one day you find many unnecessary files on your Mac and you decided to delete them. However, while deleting unwanted files, you carelessly selected your Word file and moved them to Trash. Later you immediately emptied the Trash Bin to delete trashed files permanently from Mac hard drive. Then you noticed that you have mistakenly selected and deleted crucial Word file deleted along with unneeded files.
How Word documents are deleted or lost from Mac system
- File system corruption due to which the Word files becomes inaccessible
- Unexpected shut down of system while you are working on Word document
- Application Malfunction which not only results in Word file loss but also other files present in the system
- Accidental deletion of important Word documents while trying to delete unneeded ones
- Emptying Trash Bin without checking for important files
- Unintentional formatting the Volume containing your Word file
This kind of situation can upset you a lot if the deleted Word file is very important to you. But after losing or deleting files, your first and most available method to restore your Word file is by using “Time Machine” utility. If you keep a Time Machine backup and make sure that you always allow Time Machine to back up data before shutting off your Mac. Then you might easily restore your Word file back by using “Time Machine” application. But if your Time Machine backup has failed or if the file was located on an external hard drive then you may need some third party recovery tool to retrieve back your files back.
Overview MS Word recovery tool
However due to the advancement in technology, you no longer have to worry about the deleted Word file. Employing suitable file recovery software for Mac like Yodot File recovery will rescue your valuable files deleted or lost from Mac system and makes it usable again. Irrespective of the reasons, this software can get back erased or missing Word files (DOC and DOCX) files from Mac machine in simple and easy steps. Other than Word, you can restore PowerPoint, Excel documents created using different Microsoft Office versions such as 2001, 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2011. You can be rest assured to download this software as it is 100% virus free and rescues Word document without affecting the original file content during the file recovery process.
Follow the steps given below to recover word files on Mac
- Download Yodot Mac File Recovery and install it to your computer
- If you want to recover files from any external drive, then connect it to your Mac computer
- Now open the software and start the recovery by following the steps displayed on the screen/li>
- As you open the software, you can see two options namely “Deleted File Recovery” and “Lost File Recovery”
- Choose any one out of the two to recover Word file
- After you choose suitable option, you can see all the drives present in your Mac Machine You can also see the external drive connected to the system
- Pick the Volume from where you want to recover the Word document
- The application now displays all the files types present in your computer
- Just click on the file type you want to recover. Otherwise choose the option “Skip” to select all the files by default
- The utility now searches for deleted and lost files by scanning the drive you have selected
- Wait till the scanning process ends, and once the scanning gets completed, click on “Next”
- You can now view recovered files in two view types i.e. “Data view” and “File Type View”
- Make use of these two tab options which helps you in your recovery procedure
- Preview the files prior to saving and at last save the recovered files in a desired location
Suggested Tips
- Do not empty “Trash Bin” unless you check it properly
- Cross check your selection files before deletion
- If data loss happens then immediately stop using your Mac machine
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Frequently Asked Questions
Searching For Lost Microsoft Word Files On Mac Free

To recover permanently deleted Word documents:
Microsoft Word And Excel For Mac
- Install and launch Disk Drill on your Mac.
- Select the disk that contained the lost Word documents.
- Click Recover to begin scanning the disk for deleted docs.
- Preview the documents the app has found and select those you want to be retrieved.
- Click Recover to restore the selected Word documents.
It is possible to recover an overwritten Word document on your Mac by restoring a previous version of the file. Microsoft Office keeps previous versions of all the files that it creates and allows you to recover them if necessary. This feature offers added protection and enables you to return quickly and easily recover from inadvertently overwriting a Word document.
Get Word For Mac
To recover an overwritten Word document on Mac:
- Open a Finder window and navigate to the overwritten file.
- Right-click on the file to open it.
- Select Files from the Microsoft Word toolbar.
- Click Info > Versions and choose the version you was to use for the recovery.
- Click the Restore button at the top of the document.
Searching For Lost Microsoft Word Files On Mac Windows 10
Microsoft Office allows you to easily recover previous versions of a specific file. To use this feature, you need to right-click the file that you want to recover. Select Properties and then Previous Versions to view the available versions that can be recovered. Then choose the previous version of the file you want to retrieve and click Restore.