Accidentally closed a document in MS Word 2003/2007/2010/2013/2016 without saving

On this page, we will focus on how you can possibly recover unsaved Word documents if you accidentally closed it without saving. All the solutions provided work for recovering unsaved or lost MS Office Word 2003/2007/2010/2013/2016 files in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP.

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How do I recover an unsaved Word document?

Do you know how to recover a closed Word document without saving? If you're looking for ways to recover unsaved Word documents after your computer restarts, shuts down, experiences power loss, or Microsoft Word crashes, then you've come to the right place.

Most of us have, at some point, experienced the frustration of losing work because of an unsaved Word document. In an effort to improve the user experience with Microsoft Office, the company has introduced an auto-save feature in all its Office apps, allowing users to recover unsaved documents and Excel files.

Here, we've gathered all possible ways to recover unsaved closed Word documents. Scroll down to find the solution that suits you best.

If you have AutoRecover enabled in MS Office, congratulations – you can effectively recover an unsaved or otherwise lost Word document from a recent document, a version, or a temporary file.

Normally, AutoSave is turned on by default. If you don't have AutoSave turned on, a reliable file recovery program may be your last chance to get your lost Word document back.

3 Ways to Recover an Unsaved Word Document

So, let's get to the real solution and learn how to recover unsaved Word document in MS Word 2003/2007/2010/2016 without clicking on the 'Save' button.

Solution 1: Recover Closed Word from 'Recent Documents' (Word 2013)

Step 1: Open the Word application and go to 'File' > 'Open' > 'Recent Documents,' and then click on 'Recover Unsaved Documents.'

Step 2. Choose the unsaved document from the list and click Open to check its content in a new Word window.

Step 3: Click the "Save As" button in the top bar.

Solution 2: Recover Unsaved Word Document from Version Manager

Step 1: Open the Word program, click on "File," and then choose "Info" > "Manage Document."

2. Click "Recover Unsaved Documents" from the drop-down menu.

3. Select the unsaved file and click the "Open" button. Then, in the pop-up window, choose "Save As" and save it to any location of your preference.

Solution 3: Recover Unsaved Word Document from Temporary Files

Step 1: Open the Word application, go to File > Options > Save, and find the “AutoRecover” folder on your computer.

Step 2: In File Explorer, copy the file location path to open the AutoRecover folder. Find and copy the unsaved Word document saved with the .asd extension.

Usually, temporary files are stored in the C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\ or C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles folder.

Step 3: Reopen Word and click on “File” > “Open” > “Recover Unsaved Documents.”

4. In the "File name" field, paste the contents of the ASD file and click "Open." Check the contents of the file and save it to a new location.

If you see a warning that says Word encountered an error, try these steps again, and then click Open and Repair in the Open Unsaved Documents window.

Users of Mac can refer to this guide: Recover Unsaved Word Document on Mac.

Extra Tip: 3 Steps to Recover Deleted or Lost Word Documents

The above 3 solutions are designed for recovering unsaved closed Word documents. For a saved Word document that has been deleted or lost from your computer due to device error or other reasons, you may need a reliable Data Recovery Wizard tool to help out.

With the Tool Data Recovery Wizard, you can scan the entire hard drive where your Word backup is saved, and find your lost document in just 3 steps:

Step 1: Select the location of your Word file

Select the drive or a particular folder where you lost your Word document and click on the “Scan” button.

Step 2: Locate your Word document

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

Step 3: Recover the Deleted Word Document

Once the scan is finished, check the Word files you need, then click “Recover.” Remember to save your recovered files in a different location than the original one.

Conclusions

This page offers 3 reliable ways to recover unsaved closed Word documents on Windows PC. File recovery software comes in handy when you lose locally saved Word files and other data.

In addition to Word file recovery, we strongly recommend that you enable AutoSave in Microsoft Office for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to protect all your valuable files.

Here are the steps to enable the AutoSave feature in Microsoft Word: 1. Open the Microsoft Word application. 2. Click on the "File" option in the top menu bar. 3. From the dropdown, select "Options." This will open a new window. 4. In the "Word Options" window, choose the "Save" tab on the left side. 5. Under the "Save documents" section, locate the "AutoRecover information every" field. 6. In the dropdown next to this field, select how often you want Word to automatically save your document, like every 5 or 10 minutes. 7. Make sure the checkbox for "If I don't save, restore my unsaved work" is checked. This enables the AutoRecover feature in case the program closes unexpectedly. 8. Once you've finished setting it up, click "OK" to apply the changes. Now, Microsoft Word will automatically save your document at the interval you specified.

Step 1: Open the Word application, and then click on "File" > "Options" > "Save."

Step 2: Click on "Save" and check the two boxes below.

• Turn on "Save AutoRecover information every * minutes," and set the frequency to 10, 5, or 2 minutes.
• Check "Keep the last automatically saved version if I don't save before closing."

Step 3: Click “OK” to save all changes.

As for your local Word documents and other files saved on your computer, you can back them up using reliable file backup software.

Further afield, our office FAQ.

Some of you might have had the same issue with recovering other Office files on Windows PC. Here, we've gathered 3 related questions and provided brief answers to help you:

How do I recover an unsaved Word document?

Yes! When you accidentally close a Word or Office file without saving, you can still recover an unsaved document as long as the AutoSave feature was enabled. To do this, you can use the Recently Used Files list, manage versions, or search for temporary files saved on your computer to restore the lost file.

The answer to that question is right there on this page, for you to refer to.

2. Can I recover an unsaved PPT or PowerPoint?

Yes, Microsoft Office PowerPoint also includes an AutoSave feature. Once enabled, you can efficiently recover unsaved PPT files from the 'Recent' > 'Recover Unsaved Presentations' or from the 'AutoRecover' folder located on your computer that temporarily stores these files.

For a more detailed guide, you can refer to this link for assistance: How to Recover a Deleted or Unsaved PowerPoint File.

3. How to recover Word after it crashes in Microsoft Office Word?

Answer: First, you need to fix the non-functional Word application. You can try ending the MS Word task in Task Manager and attempt to boot Windows in Safe Mode. Repairing the Office installation, installing the latest updates, re-installing Office, or disabling add-ins in Word are effective methods to get the Word application working again.

Then, you can restart Word and recover the lost Word file. For lost Word recovery, you can either use the AutoSave feature in Word or employ a file recovery software to restore all your lost files.

For a more detailed guide, please refer to this link for assistance: MS Word Not Working.

For more questions about recovering files in apps like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, use the search option on the Tools website (https://www.tools.com/) or visit the /File-Recovery/ page for more answers.