How to Recover an Unsaved Notepad (TXT) File in Windows 11/10

6 Ways to Recover Unsaved/Deleted Notepad (TXT) Files in 2022

There are reliable ways to quickly recover unsaved Notepad files. Whether your work was accidentally deleted, lost in a Notepad crash, or simply vanished, this guide will show you how to restore unsaved or deleted Notepad documents on Windows, Mac, and mobile.

User Scenario: Accidentally Closed Notepad Without Saving

"Hello, do you know how to recover an unsaved Notepad file? I accidentally closed a .txt file that I was editing but didn't save. I was hoping it would automatically save as a recent document, but I can't find it anywhere. Could you please help me and tell me how to recover an unsaved Notepad file? Thank you very much."

We often lose unsaved text files, documents, or other files due to accidental closure, power outage, system crash, and so on. If you have also closed Notepad without saving the text and are looking for ways to recover an unsaved Notepad file, you can find a solution here to restore or recover a deleted Notepad file with little effort.

How to Recover an Unsaved Notepad File in Windows 10

Notepad does not have an auto-save feature, so if you close a text file without saving it, you might lose it. However, you can still recover an unsaved Notepad file from a temporary file, as the contents of the Notepad document are temporarily saved on your computer.

Additional Tip: How to Recover an Unsaved Notepad++ File

Notepad is a simple text editing software used for creating and saving files with the .txt format. Notepad++ is similar but more powerful, offering features like a backup option that allows you to recover unsaved files in case of accidental closure or application crash.

How to enable the Auto-Save feature in Notepad++:

Go to Settings > Preferences > Backup, and enable Session Snapshots and Scheduled Backups.

Steps to recover a Notepad++ file in American English: 1. First, make sure you've closed the Notepad++ program. 2. Check your system's temporary files folder. On Windows, you can find it by: - Press the `Win + R` keys to open the Run dialog box. - Type `%temp%` and hit Enter. 3. In the temporary files folder, look for files with the `.tmp` extension. These could be temporary files saved by Notepad++. 4. Identify the most recently modified `.tmp` file, as that might be the lost file you're looking for. 5. Rename the `.tmp` file, changing its extension to match the original text file extension, like `.txt` or `.cpp`, depending on your file type. 6. Open the renamed file with Notepad++, and check if its content is the one you want to recover. 7. If the content is correct, save the file immediately to a secure location to prevent losing it again. Keep in mind that this method may not always work, as Notepad++ might not have saved all changes in the temporary file. If you regularly work with important files, consider using a text editor or IDE with auto-save and version control features.

Step 1. Navigate to the location where unsaved Notepad++ files are stored: `C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\backup`.

Step 2. Look for and preview the file you need. You can also use the search box to locate all files with the "*.txt" extension. Then, recover your unsaved Notepad++ file to a different location.

Recovering an unsaved Notepad file is not difficult, and the same can be said for a Word document.

5 Ways to Recover Unsaved Word Documents

Apart from Notepad, Microsoft Word is also widely used. Hence, many people would come across the issue of how to recover unsaved Word documents. You can find the answers in this article.

How to recover deleted Notepad text using free file recovery software on Windows 10/11? If you accidentally delete important text from a Notepad on Windows 10 or 11, don't worry. You can attempt to retrieve it using free file recovery software. Here's a step-by-step guide: 1. **Stop using your computer immediately**: As soon as you realize the deletion, avoid creating, saving, or modifying any files. This prevents overwritten data that could erase the deleted text. 2. **Choose a suitable file recovery tool**: There are several free options available, such as Recuva or tools Data Recovery Wizard Free. We'll use Recuva for this example. 3. **Download and install Recuva**: Visit Recuva's official website (https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva), download the appropriate version for your computer (32-bit or 64-bit), and follow the installation instructions. 4. **Run Recuva**: Open Recuva, which presents a wizard-like interface. 5. **Select file type**: In the "File Type" option, choose "Text Documents" or "All Files," then click "Next." 6. **Choose the recovery location**: Under "Where did you lose the file?", select the drive where the file was originally (usually C:). If you remember the specific location, click "Browse" to manually choose it. Then click "Next." 7. **Scan options**: Choose between a Quick Scan or Deep Scan. A Quick Scan is faster but may not find all deleted files; a Deep Scan is more comprehensive but might take longer. Click "Start" after selecting. 8. **Find the deleted file**: After the scan, Recuva will display all recoverable files. Use the search box to enter the Notepad file name or part of its content to locate the needed file. 9. **Preview and recover the file**: Once found, click on the file and then click the "Recover" button. Save the recovered file to a secure location to avoid overwriting other data. 10. **Check the recovered file**: After recovery, open the saved file to confirm that the text is complete and error-free. Keep in mind that file recovery isn't always guaranteed, especially if the file has been overwritten or there's hard drive damage. Regularly backing up important data is the best way to prevent loss.

You can only use the temporary files to recover unsaved Notepad files. It cannot be used to restore a lost saved document. In fact, you can easily recover deleted or lost Notepad text files with a few clicks using a free data recovery software like Data Recovery Wizard.

During the past few years, it has spared no effort to help recover emptied Recycle Bin, formatted recovery, virus attack recovery, OS crash recovery, Office file recovery and so on.

Please download and use the file recovery software, and follow the step-by-step guide below to restore your deleted or lost Notepad files.

Step 1. Run the Data Recovery Wizard tool. Select the drive where you lost your files and start scanning. This software lets you recover lost data from all devices, including HDD, SSD, USB drives, SD cards, flash drives, cameras, and more.

Select the location to scan

Step 2. Preview the scan results. You can click on the file type filter and choose the file types you need. The tool supports over 1000 file types, such as photos, videos, documents, emails, audio files, and more.

Select the files to recover

Step 3: Preview the files you want to recover. Click “Recover” and set a location to save the recovered data.

How to Recover an Unsaved or Deleted TextEdit Document on a Mac

If you're a Mac user, you might have been using TextEdit instead of Notepad. A misplaced keystroke, closed window, or sudden shutdown can cause a TXT file to go missing. It can be a chilling moment when you realize an important document has vanished. Fortunately, there are reliable ways to recover a TXT file on your Mac.

Method 1: How to Recover an Unsaved TextEdit Document on a Mac

Plain old TextEdit (on a Mac) doesn't have a recovery feature. But if you use iCloud or Time Machine, you may still be able to recover an unsaved text file by retrieving it from a temp file.

Step 1: Open a web browser and go to www.icloud.com.

Step 2: Enter your Apple ID and go to Settings > Advanced. You'll see the option to Restore Files.

Step 3: Click the checkbox next to its title, then click "Done."

Method 2: Recovering a Lost TextEdit File on a Mac

In this article, we will explain how to use Mac Data Recovery Software to restore a TextEdit file that is not found in the Trash.

Tool Data Recovery software provides a Mac version. With it, you can recover almost all lost and deleted Mac files.

• Recover photos, videos, Word documents, and other files on Mac
• Data recovery supported from Macs with T2 chip
• Compatible with all Mac devices and external storage media

Follow these steps to recover a lost TextEdit file:

Step 1: Search for the missing file

Choose the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or an external hard drive) where you want to search for the lost files. Click on the “Search for lost files” button.

Note: Before you go for data recovery, it's recommended to click “Disk Backup” from the left sidebar and create a backup of your HDD/SSD to prevent further data loss. After the backup, the software can restore data from your disk image, and then you can use the HDD or SSD again.

Step 2: Browse the scan results

The program will immediately scan the selected disk volume and display images, documents, audio, video, and email in the left pane.

Step 3: Select the files and recover them

Click on the data to preview them, and then hit the "Restore" button to get them back.

How to Recover Unsaved/Deleted Notes on Your Phone

Unsaved notes cannot be recovered on Android or iPhone. However, once you delete memos and notes on your Android/iPhone, you can still restore them. Indeed, any data that gets deleted from an Android/iPhone can be retrieved, because the files aren't permanently erased. They remain on the device itself, just not visible to the user. Here's how to recover deleted notes from your Android/iPhone.

Method 1: How to Recover Deleted Notes on Android

If you don't have any backup for your deleted memos, don't worry. You can still use an Android data recovery tool to recover deleted memos from Android without any backup. It's a powerful tool – MobiSaver for Android that can help you retrieve deleted notes from Android without backup.

Please follow the steps below to recover deleted Android notes.

Step 1: Connect your Android phone to the computer. After the computer detects your device, click “Next” to proceed.

Step 2: The software will quickly scan your device to find all existing and lost data. You can easily locate the photos, videos, documents, and other types of files you want by selecting the correct file type.

Step 3: Select the notes you need from the scan results. You can preview the selected notes in full screen. When done, click "Recover", then choose a location to save your recovered files and click "OK".

Method 2: How to Recover Deleted Notes on an iOS Device

You can also use the MobiSaver Free tool to recover iPhone notes. This iOS data recovery software can easily find and retrieve any content that you've lost from your iPhone with simple steps.

Step 1: Choose the Recovery Mode

Plug your iPhone into your computer and run the MobiSaver tool. On the left, select the recovery mode – “Recover from iOS Device” – and click “Start.”

Step 2. Scan for the Lost Notes/Note Attachments

Run MobiSaver, and it will scan your iPhone/iPad/iPod for existing and lost notes.

Step 3: Preview and recover notes and attachments

On the left, check off “Notes” and “Note Attachments.” Select the specific notes and attachments you want to recover. When you're done, click “Recover to Computer” or “Recover to Device” to choose where they'll be saved.

Conclusion

As you can see from the guide above, it's fairly simple to recover unsaved Notepad files from the temporary folder of any device. For deleted Notepad file recovery, you can use the Data Recovery Wizard tool. This tool is not only great at data recovery but also powerful in file repair. You can use it to fix corrupted JPEG/JPG files, as well as videos and documents.

"FAQ: How to Recover an Unsaved Notepad Document in UTF-8 Encoding"

Here are some common questions about how to recover an unsaved Notepad file. If you're experiencing any of these issues, you may find the solutions here.

1. Where are unsaved Notepad files stored?

Where are unsaved Notepad files saved? If you have AutoSave enabled, you can find your unsaved files at this location: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming. Note that you should replace "USERNAME" with your actual username.

2. Can I recover an unsaved Notepad file?

If you want to recover an unsaved Notepad file after a restart, go to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming and look for the unsaved text files there. Remember to replace "USERNAME" with your actual username.

How to auto-save in Notepad?

Notepad does not have an autosave feature. To enable autosaving in Notepad, you'll use a tool that automatically saves the text file you're editing. Run this reliable file management tool, which will launch in your system tray. While you edit a Notepad file, its autosave function will monitor changes to the file.

How do I recover a text file?

If you want to recover unsaved Notepad files after a restart, you can look for the temporary text files in the C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming folder. If you accidentally or intentionally deleted a Notepad file, you can use file recovery software to help retrieve it.

How to recover unsaved tabs in Notepad++?

The first step is to check your settings, under “Settings” -> “Preferences” -> “Backup” tab.

If Enable session snapshots and scheduled backups is checked, specify a Backup path.

Step 3: The default “Backup Path” is \backup.