Quick Tips: The Word Document Recovery software is perfectly compatible with any of the Windows or Word versions, which will save you time a lot. If you want to recover an unsaved Word document, you can download the Data Recovery software on your computer. To see more details, just head to method 3 in this guide.
Looking for an easy way to recover deleted, unsaved, or lost Word document files on your computer? Don’t worry! You can get them back with some tips and tricks in this post. Now, scroll down to see how to do it.
Method 1: Search for Word Backup Files
If you have the “Always create backup copy” option turned on, Word can automatically create a backup copy of your Word file every time you save it. To enable this option, you can head to “FILE > Options > Advanced” and then scroll down to select “Always create backup copy” under the “Save” menu.
If you’ve enabled this option, you can follow the below steps to recover the lost Word document file from the backup copy.
Tips: The backup file usually has the name “Backup of” followed by the name of the missing file.
For Word 2016:
Start Word 2016 and click “File > Open > Browse”. Then navigate to the folder where you last saved the missing file. In the Files of type list (All Word documents), click “All Files”. Click the backup file and then open it.
For Word 2013:
Start Word 2013 and click “File > Open > Computer > Browse”. Then locate the folder where you last saved the missing file. In the Files of type list (All Word documents), click All Files. Click the backup file and then open it.
For Word 2010:
Start Word 2010 and click “File > Open”. Then locate the folder where you last saved the missing file. In the Files of type list (All Word documents), click All Files. Click the backup file and then open it.
For Word 2007:
Start Word 2007 and click “Microsoft Office Button > Open”. Then locate the folder where you last saved the missing file. In the Files of type list (All Word documents), click All Files. Click the backup file and then open it.
If you don’t find the backup file listed that way, you can alternatively search for *.wbk Word files in all folders. But it can be time-consuming and maybe you can continue to check the following methods.
Method 2: Search from AutoRecover Files
Now you can follow the below steps to find out the Auto Recover file location and then you may recover lost Word documents from AutoRecover files you recently worked on.
How to Recover Unsaved Word Document from Word 2016:
Open Word 2016 and navigate to “File > Open”. Here you will see a list of all your recent documents. Scroll to the end of all recent documents, and then click “Recover Unsaved Documents”. This will open a folder that contains all of your unsaved documents from the last 4 days. Select the one you want to recover and double-click to open it.
How to Recover Unsaved Word Documents from Word 2013:
Open Word 2013 and navigate to “File > Open > Recent Documents”. Here you will see a list of all your recent documents. Scroll to the end of all recent documents, and then click Recover Unsaved Documents. Select the one you want to recover and double-click it to open it.
How to Recover Unsaved Word Documents from Word 2010:
Open Word 2010 and navigate to “File > Recent”. Here you will see a list of all your recent documents. Then click Recover Unsaved Documents. Select the one you want to recover and double-click it to open it.
How to Recover Unsaved Word Documents from Word 2007:
Open Word 2007 and click the Microsoft Office button. Then click “Word Options”. In the Navigation Pane, click “Save”. Note the path in the Navigation Pane and click “Cancel”. Close the Word app and head to the folder you noted in the last step. Find out the files whose names end in “.asd”. After that, open the file and save it!
Method 3: Simple Steps to Do Documents Recovery on Windows & Mac
If you fail to recover the deleted or unsaved Word document files with the above two methods, you can try an MS document recovery app, which will help you recover unsaved Word documents on Windows 10/8/7. Now you can follow the steps below to recover deleted Word documents easily:
Step 1: Get Data Recovery on the Computer
Download and install the Data Recovery software on your computer and then launch it! But please notice that the app shouldn’t be downloaded and installed on the hard drive location where you save the lost document files as such an action may overwrite your lost data and you won’t be able to get them back anymore.
Step 2: Select Data Type to Scan
On the homepage of the app, you can select the “Document” file type and the hard drive which you want to recover data from. Click “Scan” to search for all the lost and existing files.
Step 3: Look for the Lost Word Document
A quick scan will start first. After it completes, you can also perform a deep scan, to find more deleted or lost files on the selected hard drive.
Step 4: Preview and Recover Unsaved Documents from Windows
After the scanning process, choose the lost files you want and click the “Recover” button to retrieve them back.
If you have any problem following the tips above to recover a lost Word document, you can write it down in the comment area!
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