I have lost word document

Applied to: Microsoft Office Word 2020, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, and 2003

Closing the Word accidentally or a program/system crash may cause the unsaved Word document to disappear. Luckily, there is still a chance to recover unsaved Word documents in Windows 10/11 from Temporary Files, AutoRecover, or Word Document Recovery.

Besides, if your saved Word document gets deleted, you can restore deleted Word documents from the Recycle Bin or by using one of the best data recovery software. 

Have you accidentally closed your Word application without saving the document you had been working for a few hours? Have you lost the Word file unsaved due to a sudden program crash? Or mistakenly deleted some saved and essential Word document? If you are looking for an effective solution, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we will show you the most useful ways to recover unsaved Word documents. Furthermore, we also introduce you to a renowned office file recovery tool — EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to help you restore deleted or permanently deleted Word documents in a few clicks. It is also competent to repair corrupted DOCX/DOC files as well as other documents.

Solution 1. Recover Unsaved Word Document from Temporary Files

Unsaved Word documents vanishing is a very unpleasant problem. Take it easy. There are three possible ways to find a Word document that is not saved. The following operations use Word 2016 edition as an example. The steps for Word 2013-2019 are similar.

Recovering unsaved Word documents requires you to turn on AutoSave in advance. If this feature is turned on, you can find the unsaved files through the following path:

C:UsersOwnerAppDataLocalMicrosoftOfficeUnsavedFiles

Or you can follow the steps given below to do it.

Step 1. In MS Word, click the «File» tab in the upper left.

Step 2. Click «Manage Document» and select «Recover Unsaved Documents» from the drop-down list.

Step 3. Check for your missing File in the dialog box. If it was a recent loss, it should appear.

Step 4. Open the recovered Word document and click the «Save As» button in the top banner.

Additional Help — How to Turn on AutoRecover

Many of us have experienced a situation where we have created a Word document and then accidentally closed it out without saving it. To avoid this kind of situation, you’d better enable AutoRecove.

Step 1. Open Word, go to «File» > «Options» > «Save».

Step 2. Tick the box of «Save AutoRecover information every * minutes» and «Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving».

Step 3. Click «OK» to save the changes.

Excel, like Word, is an indispensable office software. If you lose an unsaved Excel document, you can use the methods we recommend to retrieve it.

Solution 2. How to Recover Unsaved Word Document from AutoRecover

Another way to get back an unsaved Word document is by using AutoRecover. AutoRecover file names end in the .asd file name extension. By default, Word searches for AutoRecover files every time that it starts, and then it displays any data found in the Document Recovery task pane. If the Document Recovery pane does not open, manually search for auto-recovered files. To do this, use one of the following procedures according to your Word version:

For Word 2010 — 2019:

Step 1. Open the Word program, and click «File» > «Options». In the left navigation pane, click «Save». Copy the AutoRecover file location path and paste it into File Explorer.

Tip: You can change the time of AutoSave interval in «Save AutoRecover information every xx minutes» and click OK.

Step 2. Go to the File Explorer, find the unsaved document, and copy the .asd file.

Step 3. Go to your Word app, click «File» > «Open» > «Recover Unsaved Documents» at the bottom.

Step 4. Paste the copied .asd file into the File Name box popping up. Open the Word file recover it.

If Word warns that «Word experienced an error…», repeat the steps and click «Open and Repair» at the open Unsaved Document window.

For Word 2002 — 2007:

Then, you can check the file content and save it as a new Word file at another secure location.

Solution 3. How to Restore Unsaved Word with Document Recovery

If your Word crashes or closes abruptly, it will automatically restore unsaved Word documents in most cases when it comes back online. You can find the unsaved Word documents on the left panel, under Document Recovery. 

Solution 4. How to Recover Word Document from Recycle Bin

If you deleted a Word document without emptying the Recycle Bin, you could undelete the Word document with simple clicks.

Step 1. Go to the Recycle Bin. Check if the deleted word file is still there. If you don’t know the name, look for file types such as DOC, DOCX, DOT, etc.

Step 2. Select the Word file and click «Restore» to recover it.

If you have emptied the recycle bin after deleting files, the deleted Word file may have been permanently removed. If you are in the same case, follow the next solution to restore deleted Word documents with a data recovery program.

Solution 5. How to Recover a Word Document with Word File Recovery Software

If you have lost saved Word documents because of careless deletion, hard drive formatting, or system errors, the above ways won’t work. At this time, you have to resort to a professional hard drive recovery software — EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

With this capable tool, you can recover deleted files in Windows 11/10/8/7 in various formats, including documents, videos, audio files, emails, ZIP, and more.

Note: This solution can be only used to recover deleted or lost Word documents that were saved on your computer before. 

Step 1. Choose the Word file location

Choose the drive or a specific folder and click the «Scan» button.

Step 2. Locate your Word files

The software will start immediately scanning all lost data on the selected drive. After the scan, click the «Documents» option in the left panel. Choose «Word» from the category bar. Then, click «Preview».

Step 3. Recover Word files

After previewing the lost Word files, select the desired Word files and click «Recover». Then, select a folder to store the Word files.

How to Recover Unsaved Word Document on Mac in 2 Ways

On Mac, AutoRecover is turned on by default. Take the two methods below to recover unsaved Word on Mac by using the AutoRecover function.

Solution 1. Restore Unsaved Word Document in Finder

Step 1. Start your Mac and open the Finder window.

Step 2. Search for AutoRecovery in the search bar. A list of files Word documents named «AutoRecovery save of» will appear. 

Step 3. Find and open the Word document you want to recover. 

Step 4. Click the «File» menu and choose «Save As». Rename the restored files and click the Save button. 

Solution 2. Restore Unsaved Word Document with Terminal

The unsaved Word document can be recovered from the temporary folder by using Terminal.

Step 1. Open your Mac and go to «Applications» > «Utilities» > «Terminal».

Step 2. Type open $TMPDIR and find the TemporaryItems folder on the list. 

Step 3. Find the file you need. Open and save it to recover unsaved Word documents. 

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you can learn five ways to recover unsaved Word documents on Windows and Mac devices. With the help of EaseUS file recovery software, you can restore lost Word documents, whether they are deleted, encrypted by malware, or corrupted when it was saved on a faulty partition. 

Hope these solutions can help you get back any lost Word documents.

Recover Unsaved Word Document Frequently Asked Questions

If you still have some Word recovery problems, you can read the following questions and answers to get more help.

How do I recover an unsaved Word document Windows 10?

Step 1. Click the «File tab», then choose «Info», then select «Manage Documents».

Step 2. Select «Recover Unsaved Documents» from the drop-down menu.

Step 3. Click «Open» when you have selected the document you want to recover.

Step 4. Click the «Save As» button and save your Word document.

How to recover unsaved Word document from USB?

If you have unsaved changes to a Word document that is stored on a USB drive, you can recover your work in two ways:

One way is to try opening the document from the Recent Documents list in Microsoft Word. To do this, open Word and click on the File menu. Then, click on Open and select Recent Documents. If your unsaved document is listed, you should be able to open it and recover your work.

Another way to recover an unsaved Word document from a USB drive is to use the Autosave feature. To do this, open the document that you were working on and look for the Autosave folder. If you find the file, you can recover your work by opening it in Word.

How to recover unsaved Word document 2016?

Try these methods to restore unsaved Word document in Word 2019, 2016, 2013, or 2010:

• Check your recently opened documents
• Try opening a temporary file
• Use the AutoRecover tool

Where are unsaved Word documents stored?

These Word files can be found via «File> Open» and click the «Recover Unsaved Documents» button at the very bottom of the Recent File List.

Maybe your Microsoft Word documents have been lost in following certain situations.

1. The document may be lost if an error occurs that forces Word to quit.
2. You experience a power interruption while editing Word document.
3. You close the document without saving changes.

If the lost word documents are important to you, you want to recover them. How can you do to recover lost Word documents?

Now the article will list 8 methods that you could use to recover lost word document in different situations, especially explain how to recover word 2010 document in Windows 7 computer.

• Method 1: Search for the original word document
• Method 2: Restart Microsoft Word to look for recovered word document
• Method 3: Search for AutoRecover files
• Method 4: Search for Word backup files to recover documents
• Method 5: Search for temporary files to look for lost word document
• Method 6: Search “~” files to find lost word document
• Method 7: Check the Recycling Bin to restore lost word document
• Method 8: Recover lost Word document with data recovery tool

Method 1: Search for the original word document

Step 1: Click Start, type the word document name in the Start Search box, and press Enter.

Step 2: If the Files list contains the document, double-click the document to open it on Word.

If the Files list does not contain the document, go to step 3.

Step 3: Click Start, type *.docx in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.

If the Files list does not contain the document you find, continue to Method 2.

Method 2: Restart Microsoft Word to look for Word document

Step 1: End all Word related processes in Windows Task Manager.

Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to open Task Manager option, select it and open Task Manager in Windows 7 computer.

On the Processes tab in Task Manager window, click Winword.exe or Microsoft Word, and then click End Process. Repeat this until you have quit all instances of Winword.exe and Word.

Close Windows Task Manager dialog box.

Step 2: Restart Microsoft Word and then see if there is missing file displayed in the Document Recovery task pane. By default, Word searches for AutoRecover files each time it starts.

Step 3: Double click the AutoRecover files one by one. Once you find the lost word file, saved it immediately.

Method 3: Search for AutoRecover files

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word, on the File menu, click Recent.

Step 2: Click Recover Unsaved Documents.

Step 3: If you find the Word document that you are looking for, double-click it to open it.

Step 4: Save it immediately.

Method 4: Search for Word backup files to recover documents

Step 1: Start Microsoft Word 2010.

Step 2: Click the File menu, and then click Open.

Step 3: Locate the folder in which you last saved the missing file.

Step 4: In the Files of type list, click All Files. The backup file usually has the name “Backup of” followed by the name of the missing file.

Step 5: Click the backup file, and then click Open.

Method 5: Search for temporary files to look for lost word document

Step 1: Just like the method 1, but now perform a search for temporary files (*.tmp files).

Step 2: Save all the temporary files to a location.

Step 3: Start Microsoft Word 2010. And click File > Open.

Step 4: Browse to the location that you saved the temporary files, and then click All files, because if you do not click All Files, the temporary files may not be displayed.

Step 5: Open temporary files one by one.

Step 6: Once you find the lost word document, save it immediately.

Method 6: Search “~” files to find lost word document

If you cannot find lost word document in temporary files, probably these temporary files are not lost word documents, or some temporary files names starts with the tilde (~) character. So you cannot find it with method 5. To find those files, follow the steps:

Step 1: Refer to method 1 and search ~*.* files (temporary files).

Step 2: Refer to step 2- 6 in method 5 to check the temporary files.

Method 7: Check the Recycling Bin to restore lost word document

Step 1: On the computer desktop, open the Recycling Bin.

Step 2: If you find the lost word document there, right-click it and the click Restore.

The document will be returned to its original location. If you are not sure where it is actually restored to, refer to method 1 to search it.

Method 8: Recover lost word document with data recovery tool

If you don’t want to check which method above could recover a lost word document, this method could help you to return the lost Word document back, no matter it is a lost file, deleted word document, or formatted Word file.

First, you need to get a data recovery tool, such as iSunshare BitGenius, which enables users to recover lost or deleted files from computer hard drive, external storage device, etc.

Second, run iSunshare BitGenius on your Windows computer and choose the drive where the Word document may be lost from to scan. Then click the Start button to begin the scanning process.

Third, if you remember the specific location of your Word file, you can go to click the folder on the left side and then find the lost Word file. Or you can make use of the Filter function to quickly find the Word document. You just need to click the Filter button and then finish the filter settings. With a simple click on the Apply button, the files that satisfy your settings will be shown on the right panel.

At last, you need to check the box near the Word file and then click the Recover button on the bottom right corner. Then, the software will ask you to select a location to store the recovered Word file. You can choose anywhere except its original disk.

Minutes later, the lost Word document is recovered successfully.

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