How to Recover a Word Document That Was Never Saved

Unsaved word documents are disappointing to retrieve. It could be unintentional application exit, system failure, or unanticipated failures. Work lost can cost time, data, and effort. There are various techniques to recover an unsaved Word document.
Recovering Unsaved Word Document
The first option uses the Microsoft Word interface. Just follow these steps:
- Click the top-left file address tab in Word.
- Click “Manage documents” and choose “Recover unsaved documents” from the drop-down.
- Check the dialog for missing files
- To properly save the recovered Word document, click “Save as” in the banner above.
This guide works for Word 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, Mac, and Office 365. Word Online and Word 2007 users may lose unsaved files.
How to Recover a Word Document That Was Never Saved
1. Search for Word documents to recover unsaved Word documents
The next approach involves exploring temporary files or backing up to find unsaved Word documents. Here are the steps:
- Start by searching for the Word document in the Windows search bar. Enter the document name and press Enter.
- If the document appears in the search results, double-click to open it in Word.
- If the file does not appear in the search results, you can try looking for a Word backup file that has the “.wbk” extension to do this. Go to File. Pick one. Select Advanced. Check “Always Make Backups” in the Log section.
2. Searching for Word backup files to recover deleted Word document
Microsoft 365 users should check these directories for backups:
- Change “” to your username in C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word and C:\Usars\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
- Search Windows for “.wbk” again to discover backups. Access it by double-clicking “Backup of” and the missing file.
3. Use the Recover Unsaved Documents function in Word
Don’t give up if these methods failed. Microsoft Word’s “Recover Unsaved Documents” option offers hope. How to get it:
- Select File in Word.
- Click “Manage Document” and select “Recover Unsaved Document”.
- Word will list its unsaved documents in a separate window.
- Click “Open” to recover an unsaved file from the list.
- Use the file menu or Ctrl+S to save a Word file.
4. Recover unsaved Word document from your temporary files manually
In addition to these methods, you can also recover a word document that was never saved manually from your temporary files. Follow these steps:
- Open the file detector and go to the following folder: C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\Unsaved file
- Make sure to replace “user” with your Windows username to access the correct path. Alternatively, you can run the program by pressing Windows + R and putting the speaker on top.
- In this folder you will find temporary files that are saved automatically. Select all the files you want to recover.
- Right-click the selected file and select “Copy” from the menu. You can also use the short Ctrl + C
- Go to where you want to save the recovered file. Right-click the folder and select “Enter” or use the short Ctrl + V.
The file’s finished copying. Congratulations! You have recovered unsaved documents securely to make sure they are not deleted.
5. Restore deleted Word documents from the Recycle Bin
If you mistakenly deleted your Word document and it can still be recovered, you can check the recyclable tank on your desktop. Follow these steps:
- Go to your desktop and double-click on the recycling tank to open it.
- If the recycle box contains a file, search for deleted Word documents and select
- Expert Tip: You can use the search function in the recycling tank to easily find files.
- Hold the mouse button and drag the file to a location outside the recycling tank, such as a desktop or another folder.
6. Prevent future losses with AutoSave and AutoRecover
By enabling the Auto Save and Recycle Altow option in Word, you can prevent future loss of unsaved or missing documents. Here’s how to use these features:
- Automatic Saving: This feature is exclusive to Microsoft 365 subscribers and will store your Word files in OneDrive or SharePoint by exchange rate. To enable automatic saving, please visit Microsoft’s official website to learn about subscription options and benefits.
- AutoRecover: For non-applicants, Autorecover is a valuable feature that can prevent data loss.
Follow these steps to open it:
- Click the File tab. Select options and go to the Save tab.
- Check the “Automatic Recovery Log Every X Minutes” box and specify the interval between storage. (recommended: 5-10 minutes).
- Make sure the option “Save the latest automatic recovery version if I close without saving” is selected.
- Click OK to save changes and enable AutoRecover for future use.
7. Recover an unsaved Word document on Mac
If you’re using Word on Mac, the process of recovering unsaved files will be slightly different. The auto recovery feature is enabled by default. Provides additional convenience. Here’s how to recover deleted Word documents in macOS:
- Open the Finder window on your Mac.
- Enter “AutoRecovery” in the search bar or use the Go option and select “Go to folder” (shift + + G). Enter the following route: Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/Autorecovery
- In this folder you will find automatically saved files. Select what you want to recover.
- Right-click on one of the selected files and select “Copy” or use shortcut + C
- Move to the desired location and place the file by right clicking and choosing “Enter” or using shortcut + V
Soon the file will be finished copying. You have recovered documents that have not been saved to a secure location.
8. Recover Deleted/Unsaved Word Documents Using Professional Recovery Tool
In some cases, none of the above methods may work. Makes you feel helpless. However, there is a professional recovery tool called WinfrGUI which can come to your aid when everything fails. Follow these steps to use WinfrGUI:
- Download and install WinfrGUI from the official website.
- Open the application and select a disk or location where the unsaved Word document is.
- The scan process will start automatically and you can check the progress on the screen.
- WinfrGUI will search for all types of files, but you can filter the results by file type. For example, if you’re looking for unsaved Word documents, check the “unsaved files” section. If you mistakenly deleted a Word file, please check the file type “Document”.
- Find an unsaved Word document for the first page. WinfrGUI fixes files automatically.
- If everything is well, click “Recover” to save files.
Conclusion
Finally, this post shows how to retrieve a never-saved word document using various ways. This post should help you locate work on many platforms. Please refer to this post if you lose Word files again.
Bonus Tips: Enable AutoSave or AutoRecover
As a bonus tip, please consider enabling the AutoSave or AutoRecover feature to prevent future losses. AutoSAVE is available to Microsoft 365 subscribers and saves files to OneDrive or SharePoint automatically. For non-subscribers, the AutoRecycle feature is accessible in the File menu > Options under the Log tab. Make sure that the autorecovery save option is selected and set the desired time interval for saving. Keep in mind that taking precautions can significantly reduce the risk of losing valuable jobs.
Also Read: 6 Ways to Recover Earlier Version Of Excel File