How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document: Every Place to Look

Word crashed, the laptop died, or you clicked Don’t Save by mistake, and hours of writing seem to be gone. Do not panic yet. There is a good chance you can recover an unsaved Word document, because Word quietly keeps recovery copies in the background. This guide goes through every place to look, from the most likely to the last resort, and then shows how to make sure it never happens again.

This is an independent guide, not affiliated with Microsoft. Steps are for current Word for Microsoft 365 and recent versions; older versions use similar menus.

First: stop and act quickly

• Do not reinstall Office or run cleanup tools; they can delete recovery files.
• Avoid closing and reopening Word repeatedly before you have looked, because Word can tidy up recovery copies.
• Check soon: unsaved drafts are kept only for a limited time.

1. Reopen Word and use Document Recovery

After a crash or power cut, the next time you open Word it normally shows a Document Recovery pane on the left listing the files it rescued.

1. Open Word.
2. In the Document Recovery pane, click each file to open it. Versions labelled [AutoRecovered] or [Original] show which copy is which.
3. Open the newest one, check it, then choose File > Save As and save it with a new name.

If no pane appears, go to the next step.

2. Recover Unsaved Documents (you clicked Don’t Save)

1. Open Word and create or open any document.
2. Go to File > Info.
3. Select Manage Document (sometimes Manage Versions) and choose Recover Unsaved Documents.
4. A folder opens with unsaved drafts. Sort by date, open the most likely one and save it straight away with Save As.

A yellow bar may say it is a recovered unsaved file; click Save As in the bar.

3. Look in the AutoRecover folder yourself

1. In Word, go to File > Options > Save.
2. Copy the path next to AutoRecover file location.
3. Open File Explorer, paste the path into the address bar and press Enter.
4. Look for files ending in .asd with a recent date. Open Word, choose File > Open > Browse, change the file type to All Files, and open the .asd file.

You can also search File Explorer for *.asd and *.wbk (Word backup copies, if Always create backup copy was on), sorted by date modified. Temporary files that start with ~ sometimes contain text too, but they are less reliable.

4. Version History for OneDrive and SharePoint files

If the document was saved in OneDrive, OneDrive for work or school, or SharePoint, every save creates a version.

1. Open the document in Word.
2. Select the file name at the top, or go to File > Info > Version History.
3. Open an earlier version, check it, and choose Restore (or save a copy).

You can also right-click the file in OneDrive on the web and choose Version history. This is the best fix when you saved over a good version with a bad one.

5. Recycle Bin, File History and backups

• Recycle Bin: if you deleted the file, check the Recycle Bin on the desktop and restore it.
• File History or previous versions: if Windows File History or another backup was turned on, right-click the folder that held the document, choose Properties > Previous Versions, or open the backup and restore an older copy.
• Search everywhere: in File Explorer, search This PC for a distinctive word from the document’s file name, in case it was saved somewhere unexpected.

If you are not sure your backups are working, now is the time to set them up; see the 3-2-1 backup rule.

Word for Mac

1. Reopen Word; recovered files usually open automatically.
2. If not, in Finder choose Go > Go to Folder and enter ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.
3. Open any recent file there, then save it with a new name.
4. For files in OneDrive, use Browse Version History from the File menu.

Make sure it never happens again

1. Save to OneDrive and turn on AutoSave. The AutoSave switch at the top left of Word saves your file every few seconds while you work, as long as it is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.
2. Shorten the AutoRecover interval. In File > Options > Save, tick Save AutoRecover information every and set it to a few minutes, and tick Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving.
3. Save early. Give a new document a name in the first minute, then press Ctrl + S often.
4. Keep Office updated so crashes are less likely; see keep software updated automatically.

If Word keeps crashing

Repeated crashes point to a problem with Word itself or an add-in. Start Word in safe mode by holding Ctrl while opening it, and if that works, disable add-ins under File > Options > Add-ins. Our guide to a program not responding covers Office repair, and Microsoft Office won’t activate helps if Word opens in reduced-functionality mode and will not let you edit. If you need to open the recovered text in another program, our guide to opening, editing and converting PDFs shows how to save it as a PDF too.

Be careful with “file recovery” software advertised in pop-ups or search ads. Some is legitimate, but much of it is overpriced or unsafe, and none of it can recover a document that was never saved to disk. Try every step above first.