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How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

Jul 1, 2022

While you are editing a document with Microsoft Word, there may be some unexpected problems, such as a sudden power cut, a system crash, and a black screen. This could be really annoying because you could probably lose your data just written without saving the file. But don’t worry, Microsoft Office offers some helpful tools for such cases.

How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

How to Avoid Losing Word Files Due to Unsaved

If you always forget to click Save every now and then when you are editing a document, the data will be easily lost when freezes. You can enable the autosave function in Word settings.

Step 1. Open Word Options

Please open Microsoft Word (Here I take Word 2016 as an example), click on File on the top, and select Options to open Word Options.

How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

Step 2. Enable Save AutoRecover

Click the Save tab on the left of the Word Options window, then tick both Save AutoRecover information every [xx] minute and Keep the last Autorecovered version if I close without saving, type 1 in the time box to increase the frequency of saving and minimize the damage.

How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

Step 3. Custom the AutoRecover file location

The location of AutoRecover files is C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word by default. You can change it to another location you like by clicking the button Browse.

How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

Finally, please don't forget to click the OK button to save the changes. Once you save the document successfully, the ASD file in the destination folder will disappear automatically.


How to Recover Unsaved Word Documents

If you didn't make it to save the new changes to a document, Microsoft Word may save it automatically on the system.

Step 1. Open the last saved file.

Please open the last saved file, then click on File on the top, and select Info.

How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

Step 2. Open the folder of Save AutoRecover

Click Manage Versions and select Recover Unsaved Documents in the drop-down menu.

How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

Step 4. Select an autorecovered version you want

All of the unsaved documents will be shown on the pop-up window as well as the location. You can select and open the files you want. These documents are often saved at C:\Users\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles until you delete them.

How to Restore Unsaved Word Files

The lost files are not truly as lost as you think. Microsoft has already offered help to solve all kinds of problems all the time. Give a like please if you find these useful.

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