Fri. Apr 19th, 2024

How to Recover Unsaved Word Document (Step by Step Guide)

recover word file

It seems to be very disappointing when we put our effort into work, but we lost it due to a small mistake. Suppose you are working on a word document and accidentally you close the Word. What happens? You lost all your work with a single click. What to do next? Most people sit and start blaming themselves for the cause.

If you are also stuck in this situation, you do not have to worry or blame yourself. The Word has come a long way with some drastic changes. Nowadays, if you accidentally lost your unsaved word document, there are many dependable ways to recoup it. In this article, we will walk through some methods for how to recover unsaved word documents.

Let’s get started.

4 Methods for recouping unsaved word document

You will feel frustrated when you are working on a project for a long time. But due to a small mistake, you lost all your unsaved documents.

You accidentally close the Word while working, and it will cause your document to disappear. But you do not have to worry and feel angry because there is still hope.

The Word has come a long way with some drastic changes. Now, you can recover the unsaved word document that you lost due to a small mistake. There are many different ways to recoup your unsaved word document.

For instance, you can use your temporary files, AutoRecover files and hard drive data recovery software to retrieve the unsaved word document.

On the other hand, if you want to recover a deleted word document, you can get it back from the recycle bin or recovery software. Below, we are going to walk through all these methods of recouping your unsaved document.

However, we all also show all the steps of every single method. So put a smile on your face and carefully read the whole article from start to end.

#1 Recover your deleted word document from recycle bin

If you accidentally deleted your word document, you get it back from the recycle bin. But you need to make sure that you didn’t empty the recycle after deleting your word document.

If you empty the recycle bin after deleting your word document, the chances of recovering it will decrease. So make sure not to clean your recycle bin.

However, it is an easy task to recoup deleted word documents from the recycle bin. You only have to follow some simple steps. Put your close eyes on these steps.

1. Firstly, navigate the recycle bin.

navigate the recycle bin

Here, you need to check out whether your deleted word document is present or not. If it is not present, you can’t get it back. And if it is present, feel lucky.

check deleted or not

On the other hand, by chance, you forget the name of your word document, search for a file with the name DOCX, DOC and DOT.

2 When you find your word document, right-click on that file and click on the restore button.

click on the restore button

Hurray! You successfully recoup your deleted word document. If you by chance empty the recycle, you have permanently lost your word document.

But you do not have to feel disappointed you can use other methods that we will show you further in this article. And we can say that these methods will surely help you to recover your word document.

#2 Recouping your unsaved word document from temporary files

Losing your unsaved word document can be frustrating and irritating. Because you put your hard work in it and you lost it with a small mistake.

But you do have to feel frustrated because this method will surely solve your problem. You can get out of this situation using your temporary files.

If you are looking to use this method, make sure to switch on the Autosave features so you can find the temporary files of your unsaved word document.

Here, we will show you some simple steps for recovering unsaved word documents from your temporary files.

1. Open your MS word.

2. At the left corner of your screen, click on the file button.

click on the file button

After clicking on the file button, a new screen will appear in front of you.

3. Now, find the manage document on the new screen and click on it. A drop-down menu will appear on your screen.

find the manage document

4. Now, you have to choose recover unsaved documents from the drop-down menu.

recover unsaved documents

5. After clicking on the recover unsaved documents, find the missing file that you want to recover and click on it.

click on the recover unsaved documents

If you recently lost that file, it will definitely present there.

6. Open the unsaved word document that you want to recover and click on the save as button to get it back.

click on the save as button

Hurray! You successfully recouped your unsaved word document from your temporary file.

#3 Recouping your unsaved document from the AutoRecover option

Recovering your unsaved word document using the AutoRecover option is another one of the best methods you can use. However, AutoRecover files are the type of extensions and their file names ended in .asd.

However, every time you start your Word, Word will search for Autorecover files, and you can find them in your document recovery task pane.

By chance, if you can’t open your document recovery task pane, you can search for AutoRecovery files manually. Now, the question of how to find these files manually.

Do not worry. Below we will show you every single step for finding your AutoRecover files. Moreover, we will show you how to perform this process on different versions of MS Word.

Let’s get started.

MS Word 2002-2003 version

If you are using MS Word of version 2002 or 2003, you can perform the process according to the steps given below.

1. Open your MS Word.

2. Hit the Tools button.

3. Select options.

4. Now, find your AutoRecover file from the file location tab.

5. Double-click on your AutoRecover file and note down its path.

6. After noting down the path, click on the cancel button and choose close.

7. Check out for the files ending with the name .asd that you want to recover.

8. Open that file and hit the save button.

MS Word 2007 version

If you are using the MS Word of 2007 version, look at the steps for finding your AutoRecover files.

1. Open your MS Word.

2. Now, click on the word options and select save.

3. Find out the AutoRecovery file and open it.

4. You have to note down the path and click on the cancel and choose close.

5. Now, check out for the file ending with the name .asd that you want to recover and double-click on it.

6. Click on the save button after opening the file to recover it.

MS Word 2010-2019 version

On the other hand, if you are using the MS Word version of 2010 to 2019, you can follow these steps to find out your Auto Recover files.

1. Firstly, open your MS Word.

2. At the top left corner of your screen, click on the file button.

3. You will see more option at the bottom. Click on it and choose options.

4. After clicking on options, a new page will appear on your screen. On that page, click on the Save button in the left navigation pane.

click on the Save button

5. Now, you have to copy the location path of your AutoRecovery and paste it on the file explorer.

6. Open the File Explorer and find the unsaved document ending with the name .asd you want to recover. Now, copy that unsaved document.

copy that unsaved document

7. Again, visit your MS Word.

8. Click on the open button from the life navigation panel.

Click on the open button

9. Hit the recover unsaved documents option at the bottom of your screen.

10. A popup screen will appear in front of you. You have to paste the AutoRecover file that you copied in the file name box.

paste the AutoRecover file

11. Click on the open to recover the file back.

If anyhow, a message showing a word experienced an error while recovering the file appears on your screen, you need to repeat all the steps.

Click on the open to recover the file back

When you reach the 10 and 11 steps, you have to click on the down arrow side of the open button and choose open and repair.

We are sure that you can recover your unsaved word document using these steps.

#4 Recovering unsaved word document using the hard drive recovery software

Given above methods and steps won’t help you in recovering back your unsaved word data. Don’t be sad because this method will definitely help you to do so.

Hard drive recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can help you recoup your unsaved word document with some clicks.

However, you can use these professional tools to recover your unsaved word document in Windows 7,8 and 10.

These tools will help you get your unsaved files from Micro card, recycle bin, HDD/SSD and USB flash drive.

Apart from recovering your unsaved word document, these tools will also help you recoup your deleted photos, audios, emails and videos. If you are these tools for the first time, you can use them free of cost.

But remember that you can only recoup 2GB files. Then you have to buy the paid version of it.

Below, we will walk through some simple steps for retrieving the unsaved word document using hard drive recovery software.

1. Firstly, download and install the EaseUs data recovery wizard on your computer.

Next, open the EasUS wizard and check out for the unsaved file that you want to retrieve.

check out for the unsaved file

If your word document is present in any SD card or USB flash drive, you have to connect it to your PC.

2. After connecting your SD card/USB flash drive, select the hard drive in the EaseUs data recovery wizard and click on the scan to start scanning that folder.

3. After the scan completes, click on the filter at the bottom of your screen. A drop-down list will appear on your screen.

click on the filter at the bottom

4. From the drop-down list, hit the Word option.

5. On the left side of your screen, click the tree view to find the word document.

click the tree view

 

6. Select the document that you want to recover and click on the recover.

Hurray! You successfully recovered your unsaved word document using the EaseUS data recovery wizard.

How you can recover unsaved word document after a crash

Suppose you are working on a word document, and suddenly your MS word get crashed. You feel that you lost your word file on which you are working.

Now, what can you do? Firstly, do not worry and follow these steps carefully to understand what to do next.

1. Reopen your MS word and find the unsaved document because sometimes the MS Word automatically recovers the unsaved files.

Reopen your MS word

2. If you can’t see your unsaved document in MS Word, click on the file at the top left corner of your screen and select options.

click on the file at the top left corner

3. After clicking on options, a new page will appear on your screen. Click on the save on the new page.

4. Now, you have to copy the location path of the AutoRecover file and paste it on the file explorer.

copy the location path of the AutoRecover file

5. Open the file explorer.

6. Find the file with the name .asd in file explorer and copy it.

Find the file with the name .asd

7. Again, open the MS Word and click on the open on the left side of the navigation pane.

click on the open on the left side

8. After clicking on open, select the recover unsaved documents at the bottom.

9 A popup screen will appear in front of you. You have to paste that copied .asd file in the file name box and click open to recover it.

click open to recover it

Hurray! You successfully recovered your unsaved word document after your MS word gets crashed.

However, the steps are the same as we showed above in the recovering unsaved document using the AutoRecover file.

Bonus Tip- How to prevent losing your unsaved word document?

It is frustrating and disappointing when we lost our unsaved word document by accidentally closing the MS Word. So, can we prevent us from getting into this situation in future?

Yes, you can prevent getting into this worse situation of losing your unsaved word document by turning on AutoRecover. Here we will walk through some steps for how to enable AutoRecover in your MS Word.

1. Visit your MS Word.

2. At the top left corner of your screen, click on the file button and select options at the bottom.

3. A new page will appear on your screen after clicking on options. Now, click on the Save button on the left side navigation pane.

click on the Save button

4. Now, you have to tick the box showing save AutoRecover information every minute. However, you also have to tick the box below it showing keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving.

5. Hit the ok button at the bottom to save changes.

Now, you successfully enable the Autorecover of your MS Word. So now, you do not have to worry about losing your unsaved word document.

Wrapping up

We hope you get to know almost everything about how to recover unsaved word document. However, if you accidentally deleted the file, you can get it back from your recycle bin. Or you can use other options shown in this article to recover the unsaved document. Lastly, we will only recommend you enable AutoRecover to prevent you from getting into this worse situation in future.

By Sambit

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