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Recover Unsaved Microsoft Office Files

August 23, 2022

Stuff happens. A sudden power failure or a “fat finger” delete can make that file you’re working on disappear in a heartbeat. If you haven’t done so already, you should check the configuration of your Microsoft Office installation to make sure you are automatically saving files with a fairly short timer to help you minimize your lost data. But what if you forgot to periodically save the file? There are other steps you can take to recover all that work you’ve invested in your document. Lifehacker has a post with instructions to recover a Microsoft Office file you forgot to save.

The first (and easiest method) is to use the menu navigation within the app itself. Navigate to File –> Info -> Manage Document -> Recover Unsaved Documents. Don’t forget to Save As to actually save the document.

Another method is a little more complicated. “Press Windows+R to open the “Run” window. Then, type %appdata% and run it to open the roaming folder. From here, follow the file path to your app’s folder (for example, open the Microsoft folder, then the Word folder). This is the folder the first method takes you to directly, so you should see your missing file. Again, open it, then save it.”

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