How do I recover a document I did not save?

Most applications save work continuously in the background even when you have not saved it yourself. The recovery route depends on the application, but there is usually one, and acting before restarting the computer improves the odds.

What you'll need

• The application
• File explorer (optional)

Step by step

1. Reopen the application before doing anything else.Word, Excel and most editors offer to restore unsaved documents on relaunch. Do this before restarting the computer, which can clear temporary files.
2. Look for the recovery pane.In Office, it appears down the left side on reopening. If it is not there, File, Info, Manage Document, Recover Unsaved Documents.
3. Check the autorecover folder directly.Word and Excel keep files in a specific autorecover location listed in their options. Searching for files by extension can surface them.
4. Check cloud version history if it was in a synced folder.Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and iCloud all keep previous versions for a period. This recovers overwritten files as well as lost ones.
5. Search for temporary files.Search the drive for recently modified files with .tmp or .asd extensions. Sort by date modified to find them.
6. Check the application's own recent or restore list.Many editors, including browsers and notes apps, keep unsaved drafts under recent items or session restore.
7. Turn autosave on afterwards.Most applications have it and many have it off by default. Set the interval to a few minutes, or turn on cloud autosave which is continuous.
8. Work in a synced folder in future.Version history then protects against overwriting and corruption as well as losing unsaved work.

Tips

• Do not restart the computer while trying to recover. Temporary files are often cleared on shutdown.
• Version history recovers a file you overwrote or corrupted, not just one you deleted. It is the most useful and least used cloud feature.
• Save early and name the file at the start. Unsaved documents have no filename, which makes them much harder to find.

Common mistakes

• Restarting the computer before attempting recovery — Temporary and autorecover files can be cleared at shutdown, removing the copy you were trying to find.
• Assuming unsaved means unrecoverable — Most applications save continuously in the background. Reopening the app is often all that is needed.
• Leaving autosave off — Most applications offer it, many default to off, and it costs nothing. Turning it on prevents the whole problem.

Questions people ask