How to Recover a Word Document With Autosave
Microsoft Word documents are often set to autosave, or save automatically, after a specific period of time while the user works on the document. When a document closes without purposeful saving, the temporary autosave options remember the document up until that last time the document autosaved--typically the majority if not the entire Word document. Recovering the document is usually automatic upon reopening Word.
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Instructions
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Open the word program. Autosave will usually have an autorecovery option to the side upon opening the program. Usually, the message box for autorecovery is on the left side, with the name of the document or with a "document 1" if it had not yet been saved under another name. Sometimes the autorecovery does not automatically come up either because the program was turned off before the autosave time period saved the document, in which case the document is lost, or because of a setting on the computer. If the computer settings do not bring it up automatically, locate the document under the "My Documents" or "Temporary" files, depending on where the autosave is set to save documents.
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Click on the document or documents. Word will open the files and allow work to continue. If the files do not open or if the specific document is not on the autorecovery, further searching is required.
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Click "File" and "Open." Find your temporary file folder and locate your document. If the autosave options were reset to another file, retrieve your document from the location autosave files were set to save.
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Click on the document and open it. Any work that was saved with autosave will be included in the document.
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Tips & Warnings
If autosave is set for 10 minutes and you only worked on your document for 10 minutes or less, the document might not save under autosave.
References
- Photo Credit working on computer 2 image by dana nicolescu from Fotolia.com
