How to Reliably Solve the "I Saved My Word Document But Can't Find It" Problem

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Can't find that Word document you saved?

"I just saved and closed a Word document, but now I can't find it anywhere. I really need it! I accidentally closed a Word document without paying attention to where it was saved, and now I can't locate it. I desperately need this document and don't want to retype four pages of content."

Why can't you find your Word document?

• You forgot where you saved the word list file.
• The Word document was lost or deleted.
• The file was not saved or is corrupted.

To help you locate a file for any of these reasons, we've listed a series of methods in the body of this article. Whatever the reason you can't find your file, you'll likely find the solution within this article. Join us as we tackle the problem of “I saved my Word document but can't find it.”

[Locating Files to Resolve the Issue of Saving a Word Document but Not Finding It](#1)

You all know the easiest way to find your Word file is to locate where your Word file is saved. Does this sound too simple? Well, the truth is that many users forget where they save their files. You might have saved your data in an uncommon path or in a folder with a very long name that you can't remember. Fortunately, there are ways to locate where your file is saved.

If you happen to know the name of the file you just saved, you can find your data by using the search box.

Step 1: Type the name of the file in the search box. (If you don't know the full name, type in keywords and narrow down your search results.)

Step 2: Check the top matches.

Additionally, you can use the Windows File Explorer to search for files.

Step 1: Launch the Windows File Explorer.

Step 2: Type the filename or keyword into the search box.

Step 3: Wait for the search results to complete.

If you can't find your Word file on this computer, that means it's been deleted or wasn't saved. Read Parts 2 and 3 to learn how to recover a deleted file and retrieve an unsaved Word document.

How to Recover a Lost or Deleted Word Document

If you cannot find your Word file in the recycle bin, the bad news is that you might have lost your saved Word document due to accidental deletion, computer crash, or hard drive formatting. Make sure not to overwrite these files, as all lost files can be retrieved. It's time to use a powerful data recovery tool – the tools Data Recovery Wizard – to get your data back.

With this reliable file recovery tool, you can retrieve deleted files from your laptop/PC, HDD, SSD, SD card, USB drive, flash drive, and memory card.

Watch the video tutorial to recover deleted files:

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Step 1: Select the location of your Word file

Select the drive or specific folder where you lost your Word document, then click on the “Scan” button.

Step 2: Find your Word file

The software will immediately start scanning all lost data from the selected drive. Once done, click on the “Documents” option from the left panel. Select the targeted Word file from the scanning results and then hit “Preview.”

Step 3. Recover the Deleted Word Document

After the scan, select the Word file you want to recover and click “Recover.” Remember to save the recovered document in a different location from the original.

We've written more about how to recover deleted files, head over to the full guide:

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files/Folders in Windows 10

You might have "permanently deleted" files/folders from your hard drive or storage device by pressing Shift + Delete, emptying the Recycle Bin, or other deletion methods.

2 Recovering an Unsaved Word Document with Built-in Features

No need to frantically search for how to recover an unsaved Word document! Microsoft Word has built-in features that allow you to recover unsaved files. In this article, we'll cover two of the easiest methods.

Recover Unsaved Word Document Using Temporary Files

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word and click on the "File" tab in the top-left corner.

Step 2: Click on Info > Manage Documents > Recover Unsaved Documents.

Step 3: Review your file from the dialog box > Open the unsaved recovered file and click on the Save As button.

2 - Use Auto-Recover (if available)

If you had AutoRecover set up previously, you might be able to use this feature to recover your data.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word, click on the File tab, choose Options, then click on Save, and finally copy the AutoRecover file location.

Step 2: Go to File Explorer > Paste the AutoRecover folder path > Copy the .asd files.

Step 3: Open Microsoft Word, click on the File tab, choose Open, then select Recover Unsaved Documents. Paste the copied .asd file into the filename search box.

Read more: How to Recover Unsaved Word Documents in Windows 10