How to Recover Unsaved/Deleted Word Document 2016/2013/2010/2007 on Windows 10

Accidentally closed a Word document you spent hours editing without saving? Lost unsaved Word files due to a program crash? Or accidentally deleted some important Word documents that were already saved? If you've encountered any of these issues and are looking for effective solutions, you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll show you the most effective ways to recover unsaved Word documents. Additionally, we'll introduce a renowned office file recovery tool – tools Data Recovery Wizard, which can help you retrieve deleted Word documents with just a few steps.

How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document (3 Methods)

Losing unsaved Word documents is a very annoying issue. Don't worry, there are 3 possible ways to recover them in Word 2019/2016/2013/2010/2007/2003. These guides also work for recovering unsaved Excel files on Windows.

Note: These steps were performed on Word 2016. The steps are similar for Word 2013 through 2019.

Solution 1: Recover from a temporary file

You can usually find unsaved files directly through the following path:

C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles This path points to the default location where unsaved Microsoft Office files are stored in the Windows operating system. In a Chinese configuration, it could correspond to the folder "C:\Users\用户名\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\未保存的文件." Keep in mind that "Owner" should be replaced with the actual user account name. This folder typically holds draft documents that were accidentally closed or not saved in an Office application.

Or you can do it this way, step by step.

1. Open the Word program and click on the "File" tab, then click "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" to save the file at any location of your preference.

Solution 2: Recover from AutoRecover

For Word 2010-2019:

1. Open the Word application and click on "File" then "Options." In the left navigation pane, click on "Save." Copy the path for the AutoRecover file location and paste it into File Explorer.

Tip: Change the time in "Save AutoRecover information every xx minutes," and then click OK.

2. Open File Explorer, find the unsaved document, and copy the .asd file.

3. Open your Word application, click “File” then “Open,” and then look at the bottom for “Recover Unsaved Documents.”

4. Paste the .asd file you copied into the File Name box that pops up, and open your Word file for recovery.

For Word 2002-2007:

Solution 3: Recover from 'Recover Unsaved Documents'

If Word or your computer crashes and you didn't save your Word document, you might be able to recover it using Word's Document Recovery feature.

If you're a Mac user and have lost an unsaved document in Microsoft Office, click and follow this tutorial article for assistance: How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document on Mac.

How to Recover a Deleted or Lost Word Document on Windows 10

If you lost your Word document due to accidental deletion, formatting of the hard drive, or system error, the above methods won't work. In this case, you need a professional hard drive recovery tool – tools Data Recovery Wizard. This powerful utility enables you to recover permanently deleted files from recycle bin, HDD/SSD, memory card, camcorder, music player, or retrieve data from USB flash drive/SD card.

Apart from Microsoft Office Word/Excel/PPT files, the data recovery tool can also help you retrieve other popular files like photos, videos, audio, emails, ZIP, and more. Moreover, you can give its free version a try initially, which allows you to recover 2 GB of files for free.

Step 1: Select the location of your Word file

This is the first step. You need to specify where your Word file was lost – select a hard drive or a particular folder. If it was on a USB flash drive or an SD card, plug it into your computer first.

Right-click on drive X: and click “Scan.”

Step 2: Scan for all lost data

The software will immediately start scanning all lost data on the selected disk, and you will see more and more data appearing in the scan results.

Step 3: Select the Word file and recover it

After the scan, you can quickly locate your desired Word document by selecting “Documents” from the “Filter” drop-down list. If you have the Microsoft Word application installed on your computer, you can preview the Word files. Finally, select the document you need and click “Recover.”