Many of us experienced a situation where we created a Word document and then accidentally closed it without saving. Is it lost forever? How to recover unsaved Word document?
Search for the original document
To do this, follow these steps, as appropriate for your version of Windows.
Windows 10 and Windows 7
- Select Start, type the document name in the Start Search (.doc or .docx) box, and then press Enter. If the file list contains a document, double-click the document to open it in Word.
- If the file list does not contain a file, go to method 2.
Close an existing Word document without saving it
Another situation you may find yourself: accidentally closing a previously saved document but not saving the latest changes. Microsoft Word will help you recover to the last 10 minutes of work. You can also change the time when Word will save a recoverable copy of your work.
- Click the File / Manage Documents tab.
- Find and click the latest version of automatic saving to recover the latest changes made to the document. Don’t forget to save the recovered Word document.
Search for Word Backup files
If the Always create backup option is selected, there may be a file backup.
To find a backup copy of the file, follow these steps:
- Find the folder where you last saved the missing file.
- Search for files with the .wbk file name extension.
If the .wbk file is not in the original folder, search for .wbk files on your computer. To do this, follow these steps:
Windows 10 and Windows 7
- Select Start, type * .wbk in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
- If the file list contains a backup file, repeat the steps from step 2 (“Search for files with the .wbk file name extension”) to open the file. If the file list does not contain a backup file, go to method 3.
- If you find any files called “Backup” followed by the name of the missing file, use one of the following procedures appropriate for your version of Word.
Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016 and Word 2013
- On the File menu, select Open and then Browse. (In some versions, select Computer and then Browse.)
- From the Files of type (All Word documents) list, select All Files.
- Select the found backup file and then select Open.
Word 2010
- On the File menu, select Open.
- From the Files of type list (all Word documents), select All Files.
- Select the found backup file and then select Open.
Change the time when AutoRecover information is saved
If you want to change the frequency at which Microsoft Word automatically saves a recoverable copy of a document, follow these steps.
- Click the File / Options tab.
- In the Options dialog box, click Save on the left.
- Under Save documents, change the minutes, how often Word should save the recoverable version of the document.
- When finished, click OK
