How to recover unsaved Word documents

How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document

If you're experiencing a crash, or simply forgot to save your Word document, you might be in luck. Word often attempts to save your document automatically. This method works best if you've already saved the document using the filename, but it also works on unsaved files.

You can then restore your Word document using this autosave file within Word itself.

To recover an unsaved Word document:

1. Open Word and press File on the ribbon bar.
2. In the File menu, press Information>Manage Documents.
3. In the pop-up window, press Recover Unsaved Documents.
   
4. You will see a list of unsaved Word documents in the File Explorer popup window - select any document you want to save and press Open.
   
5. A copy of the document will open - press File > Save As to save it.
   

How to manually recover a Word document

If you are unable to load Word, or have trouble finding the file using the above method, you can try to manually recover the Word document. This involves using the search tool on Windows 10 and 11 to search for asd and wbk files. The asd and wbk file formats are used for Word and Office automatic saving files.

The following steps use a Windows 11 PC, but you should be able to perform similar steps on Windows 10.

To manually recover a Word document on Windows:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. SelectThis PC from the menu on the left.
3. Using the search bar (top right corner), enter file:*.asd and press Enter.
   
4. Allow time to complete your search. If no files are found, repeat the search for wbk files using file:*wbk as the search criteria.
5. If you find any files, double-click them to open them in Word. Alternatively, right-click and select Open way, then select Word.
   
6. Finally, use the File Explorer address bar to open C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word and check for any unsaved word yourself document. Replace your username with your username.
7. Repeat the search in the C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles folder. Replace your username with your username .

Use Microsoft Word Effectively

If you are trying to recover an unsaved Word document, the above steps should help you. If you're still struggling, search for the tmp file in the folder we referenced above. These files may contain some (though not all) of the data you added to the document before it was lost.

Once you have restored your document, you can start using it effectively. There are many useful features you can try, from adding watermarks to inserting random text.

If you work with other people, you can even track how much time you spend working. If you want to combine your document with other types of content, you might also consider embedding another file in Word.

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