Losing important data on MS Word is one of the most familiar scenarios everyone has faced at least once in life. This can happen for many reasons like a power cut or computer crash or other things. But, in many of the cases, the unsaved data is really important and difficult to recreate again. So, to prevent any further data loss, you need to know where does word saves auto recover files.
In this discussion, we are going to discuss where MS Word saves automatically recovered files and data, and how you can restore them.
Why Data Losses Occur?
When it comes to saving data, some pretty simple reasons may cause auto-saved data loss. There could be a power cut to your system, resulting in it shutting down unexpectedly. Or there could be any network error or overpressure that could result in the pc to shut down. In all the cases, you lose your unsaved data in an instant.
If you forgot to save and now all of your data or the last part of it is gone, don’t panic. MS Word has an inbuilt function that saves the unsaved data frequently.
You can follow some simple steps to recover the autosaved data of a word document.
How to Find Auto Recovered Files of MS Word
There are several ways to recover the autosaved documents in Microsoft word. Several methods used for different steps are given below.
How to Recover Unsaved MS Word Documents
Follow the steps below to recover the unsaved file within the MS Word document.
- Open MS Word
- Click the “file” tab from the upper left corner
- In the lower middle, look for the option “Manage Document”
- After Clicking that, you will find an unsaved MS Word files list
- Look for your desired unsaved file in the list.
- Click your desired autosaved file, it will open in word as a normal MS Word file
- Save the file properly.
How To Recover Unsaved Word Files After A System Crash
System crash on the pc or something like a power cut can do this damage, and in this case, the unsaved file recovery method stated above will not work. Follow the following steps to recover unsaved files lost due to system shutdown or crash.
- Open your pc right after the crash
- Open MS Word
- You will see your unsaved changes under the “Recent” section on the left side
- Click on the file, and the last version of the document will come into the body of the document
- Use the “Save As” button to save the file
But, there are many cases where the application does not show the unsaved document on the left side panel while opened up after the crash. Follow the steps below:
- In MS Word, click onto the “File” tab, then click “Option”, and then click “Save”
- There will be a section called “AutoRecover file location”. Click on the file location beside it, select all the text, and copy.
- Paste the copied file location into the File Explorer.
- On the file location, open the folder that carries your document’s name. In there, look for the .asd file with the latest time and date modification.
- Copy the file.
- Go back to MS Word, click on the file option, click open.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the recent documents section to find “Recover Unsaved Documents”.
- A folder will pop up to select from. Paste the previously copied .asd file into this folder, then select it. The file will be recovered.
- Save the recovered document properly.
How To Prevent MS Word Document Loss
We have discussed two methods of recovering documents or data in MS Word if it is closed accidentally or the pc crashes. But, there are times when the recovery option is not available because the data gets overwritten or the autosave file gets automatically deleted in time.
To prevent the loss of your important document, you need to build a habit of saving your work frequently. You can build a habit of continuously saving your work every 5 to 10 minutes. If in any case your computer crashes, or you accidentally close the software, you can get the data easily because you have been saving the document while you were working on it.
A good method is to create a new Microsoft word document in your desired file location, rename it as per your preference, and then work on that file. While you are working on that document, you need to save in real-time frequently after few minutes.
There are two methods to easily save the MS Word file while you are working on it.
Use The “Save” Button
On the top left corner of the MS Word file, there is a “Save” button. Pressing this button will save the document in its current state, replacing the previous version.
If the document is yet to give a name and a file location, pressing this “Save” button will pop open a box asking where you want to save the file and in which name you want to save it.
Use Keyboard Shortcut
The keyboard shortcut, “CTRL+S” is the shortcut to save any document in MS Word. To execute this shortcut, press and hold the CTRL key on the keyboard, and then press “S”. This command acts as the “Save” Button and saves the document immediately on the current state.
Word File Recovery Solution | How to Recover Unsaved/Deleted Word Documents on Windows?
FAQ
How to find recovered files in word
Answer: Go to the autosaved directory of MS Word, and then recover the autosaved file into word.
How to recover unsaved word documents?
Answer: Find the autosave file location, and look for the autosave of your file with the latest time and date marks. Then recover and save the document.
How to prevent lack of saving in Word documents?
Answer: Save your documents on regular basis, for example, every 5 or 10 minutes. This habit will save you from all the troubles with document recovery.
Conclusion
Losing important files or documents in MS Word is a really common thing for everyone who uses a computer. But knowing where does word save autorecover files and how to recover them properly will bring back your hard-worked document and MS Word data. Just make sure you are saving your document frequently, so these hassles never occur.
