Many of you must have experienced a situation where you create a Word document and close it accidentally before actually saving it. Is it lost permanently? Do I need to create the file again? These are a few questions you may find yourself asking. Stop worrying about your file. You’ve come to right place. In this article, I’ll show you how to recover unsaved Word document by using a few easy DIY tricks.
I’ve Lost Word Document…
Let’s suppose you’re working on a Word document. And before you can actually save the file, your computer shuts down due to sudden power failure. The next moment you realize that you haven’t saved the document. Or maybe there’s any other reason due to which you fail to save the Word document before it gets lost. Whatever the reason may be, you’ve lost the file. It’s one of the most frustrating situations you can ever face. How would you deal with this situation? You’re lucky if you’re using the newer versions of Microsoft Word.
How to Recover Unsaved Word Document?
Actually, there are a few built-in features in the newer versions of Microsoft Word which can help you recover unsaved Word document. Even you can recover deleted Word document by using them. But not all Microsoft Word users are aware of those features or many of them don’t know how to use them.
Use AutoRecover Option
Microsoft Word has an AutoRecover feature that saves a copy of your working document automatically. So whenever the Word program crashes down or the computer loses power, you can use this built-in feature to recover unsaved Word document.
For Microsoft Word 2016
First, launch Microsoft Word on your system.
On the taskbar, click the File menu and point to Info in the navigation pane. You’ll see the option, Manage Document.
Click the Manage Document button, and click the option “Recover Unsaved Documents”.
Now find the Word document which wasn’t saved. Double-click the file to open it. And make sure you save it immediately.
For Microsoft Word 2013
First, launch Microsoft Word on your system.
On the taskbar, click the File menu →Open→Recent Documents.
Now you need to scroll to the end of all recent documents, and then click Recover Unsaved Documents.
Find the Word document which wasn’t saved. Double-click the file to open it. And make sure you save it immediately.
For Microsoft Word 2010
First, launch Microsoft Word on your system.
On the taskbar, click File menu →Recent.
Now click Recover Unsaved Documents at the bottom.
Find the Word document which wasn’t saved. Double-click the file to open it. And make sure you save it immediately.
For Microsoft Word 2007
First, launch Microsoft Word on your system.
On the taskbar, click the Office button →Word Options.
On the Word Options dialog box, click Save in the navigation pane.
Copy the path shown in the “AutoRecover file location” box.
Click Cancel and close Microsoft Word.
Now paste the path (you copied earlier) in the file explorer.
In the folder, find the Word document you’re looking for. Double-click the file to open it. And make sure you save it immediately.
Use Word Backup (WBK) File
If the AutoRecover feature fails to recover unsaved Word document, you should use the Word Backup aka WBK file to restore your file back. Microsoft Word has a built-in feature that automatically backs up the Word document and saves the file with WBK extension. But you have to enable this feature to allow Word to take backup of your documents. Because if the feature is disabled, the Word program doesn’t create the backup of your documents. Follow these simple steps to enable this feature:
First, launch Microsoft Word on your system.
On the taskbar, click the File tab →Options.
On the Word Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
Now scroll down to see the Save section. You’ll find an option “Always create backup copy”.
Check the box to enable this option, and click OK.
In this way, you can enable this option to allow the Word program to take backup of your documents. Now let’s find out how to recover unsaved Word document by using the Word backup (WBK) file.
Use Temporary (*.temp) File
If the AutoRecovery feature doesn’t find the lost Word document and you can’t use the Word backup because the option is disabled, you can try to recover deleted Word document from the temporary files. Windows saves all the temporary files in the temp folder which you can locate it this way:
Click Win+R on the Windows desktop.
Now type %temp% in the edit box, and hit Enter.
This will take you to the temp folder. Here you can search the temporary file of the lost Word document.
If you regularly take the backup of your computer data including the Word documents, you can avoid data loss situations without using anything. A backup file contains the copies of your data which you’ve backed up earlier. And whenever you face a data loss situation due to accidental deletion or corruption, you can successfully restore your data from the backup file. But if you don’t have any backup or the backup file is itself corrupted, the recovery task becomes a challenge.
Use Professional Data Recovery Tool
If you fail to recover deleted Word document by using the DIY tricks shared above, you should consider using a professional data recovery solution. There are many vendors in the online marketplace which provide professional Data Recovery tool. Since there are too many choices, it’s always difficult to choose the best solution. So it’s better to evaluate the data recovery tool before purchasing its licensed version. Most of the vendors provide the demo version for free evaluation. By using the demo version, you can scan the drive from which you want to recover the deleted or lost data.
SysInfoTools Windows Data Recovery tool is one of the best solutions to recover your data from the corrupt as well as formatted hard disk drive. Via this software, you can successfully restore almost all types of computer files including the Word documents. I recommend you download the demo version before purchasing this Windows Data Recovery tool. With the demo version, you can check the preview of your recoverable data prior to saving. And if you’re satisfied with the results, then only you should purchase the software.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve discussed how to recover unsaved Word document which has lost due to any reason. Also, we’ve learned about the built-in features of Microsoft Word which can be used to recover deleted Word document. But if the DIY tricks don’t work, there’s a professional Data Recovery tool is mentioned in this article, Windows Data Recovery. Via this software, lost or deleted data including the Word documents can easily be recovered.
