How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document After Your Computer Crashes

Whether you use Word for work or personal reasons, losing an unfinished document is a nightmare. If you haven't saved your Word file manually, the document might crash unexpectedly. If you've lost work this way before, you may be in the habit of clicking “Save” every few minutes. However, that's not typical behavior.

Still, there are several ways to recover a document even if the system crashes before you save it.

Ah! I forgot to save my Word document!

While Microsoft Word is a user-friendly text editing and processing program, Word documents can get lost for various reasons. Alongside tips and tricks for using the software, how to recover a lost Word document is another frequently asked question. Here's a real-life query on the subject:

Same as this user, your computer shut down abruptly and you lost your unsaved Word document. So, how to recover unsaved Word document after shutdown?

Microsoft Office has an AutoRecover feature that can automatically recover a Word document you were editing. You can enable this by going to “File” > “Options” > “Save,” and checking the box for “Save AutoRecover information.” You can also change how often it saves. Once this is on, you can recover an unsaved Word document after a crash, shutdown, or restart by doing the following.

How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document After Your Computer Shuts Down

If you forget to save a Word document, try these four detailed methods for four useful solutions. Before you restart or shut down your computer, watch this video for more detailed information on recovering unsaved documents on a Mac.

Solution 1: Recover Unsaved Word Document with Software

If you lost unsaved documents due to unexpected shutdown, disk formatting, virus attack, missing partitions, or system crash, you can use a data recovery app to help you recover unsaved documents. The Data Recovery Wizard tool can restore files from both internal and external hard drives on your Windows computer. With just a few clicks, it helps you recover lost DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, PDF, CWK, HTML/HTM, INDD, and EPS files.

Step 1: Launch tools Data Recovery Wizard on your computer. Select the disk where you lost unsaved files and click "Scan".

Step 2: On the left, you'll see the “Path” and “Type” tabs. Click on “Type” and then select “Unsaved Files.” You can double-click on the folder to open it or hit “Open.” This unsaved file recovery tool will help you easily recover unsaved Word, Excel, PPT, and other files.

Select the unsaved file and click "Recover".

Step 3. Select the files you want to recover and click the "Preview" button. Then, click "Restore" to retrieve your unsaved files. Make sure to save the recovered files to a different location to avoid overwriting them.

Many Windows users have already confirmed the effectiveness of this tool. If you're interested in how to recover unsaved Word documents after closing the PC, feel free to share it on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

How to recover an unsaved Word document after a computer restart? Follow these three effective solutions step by step.

Fix 2: Recover from Recent Documents (Word 2010/2013/2016/2019) If you encountered an issue while working in Word that caused your file to be unsaved, you can try recovering it from the Recent Documents list. Follow these steps: 1. Open Microsoft Word. 2. Click on the "File" tab in the top-left corner. 3. In the dropdown menu, select "Open." 4. In the opened window, you'll see a section on the left labeled "Recent Documents." 5. Scroll through the list to see if your lost file is there. 6. If you find the file, click on it to preview its content. If the content appears complete, click "Open" to restore the file. 7. If the file is corrupted and won't open properly, you may only be able to recover some of its content. Please note that the Recent Documents list only keeps track of files that were recently opened and doesn't guarantee recovery of unsaved changes. If this method doesn't work, you can try alternative recovery methods.

If you have a version of Word earlier than 2010, check out this post on how to recover unsaved Word documents in Windows 10 for Office 2007/2003.

Step 1: Open the Word application and click the "Open" tab under the "File" option.

Step 2: Click “Recent,” then scroll to the bottom of the recent documents and click “Recover Unsaved Documents.”

Step 3. Your saved draft will open in a new window.

Step 4: After your computer crashes, click “Save As” to restore the unsaved lost Word document.

Solution 3: Recover an unsaved Word document from 'Manage Documents'

1. Launch Word > either create a new document or open an existing one. 2. Click on the "File" tab > "Info" > then click "Manage Document." 3. Select "Recover Unsaved Documents." 4. A list of unsaved files will appear. Choose the file you need, then click "Open" > "Save As" to store your Word document.

Fix 4: Recover from Temporary Files

If you have already deleted the Unsaved Files folder and lost all your temporary files, you can use a data recovery tool to restore the deleted temporary files.

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In short

If you lost your Word document after a restart, try any of the four methods in this guide. It's easy to recover deleted files if you have a backup. Apart from built-in recovery features in Word and Windows, you can use a useful Windows data recovery tool like Data Recovery Wizard to get back your Word documents. This utility can recover lost files from a crashed PC, hard drive, or partition.

Frequently Asked Questions on Recovering Unsaved Word Documents After a Computer Restart

Here's more on how to recover a Word document after your computer shuts down.

1. How can I recover an unsaved Word 2007 document after a crash?

There are three ways to recover unsaved Word 2007 documents if you experience a computer crash: recover from the Recent Documents list, manage your documents, or recover from a temp file.

2. Can I recover an unsaved Word document?

If you forget to save a Word document or lose one due to a computer restart, you can use the AutoRecover feature to retrieve an unsaved document. Open Word, click on the File tab, then click Info, and then Manage Document, and then Recover Unsaved Documents. There, find your unsaved Word document, click Open, and then click Save As.

How do I recover an unsaved Word document from 2019?

Similar to previous versions of Word, Word 2019 also features an AutoRecover option that helps you recover unsaved Word documents in case your computer shuts down unexpectedly. You can enable this feature by going to "File" > "Options" > "Save" and checking the box for "Save AutoRecover information." Once activated, it will periodically save your work on the Word document you're editing, allowing you to recover any unsaved changes.