How to Recover an Earlier Version of a Word Document [Simple Methods]

After typing a section in Microsoft Word, you might need to edit the content multiple times. What if you think a previous version was better and want to restore an earlier version of a Word document? Fortunately, you have several methods to recover your Word document. This can also come in handy when you accidentally close Word without saving or Microsoft Word crashes.

We'll study each method in detail in the tutorials that follow, but you can get a sense of the basics from the table below:

Fix 1: Recover an Earlier Version of the Word Document with Recovery Software If you have a previous backup of your Word document or if your system supports it, you can use recovery software to restore an earlier version. Here are the general steps: 1. **Download and Install Recovery Software**: Choose a reliable file recovery tool, such as Recuva or tools Data Recovery Wizard. Make sure to obtain the software from the official website or a trusted source. 2. **Run the Software**: Launch the installed recovery software, which typically has an intuitive user interface guiding you through the process. 3. **Select File Type and Location**: In the software, choose the file type to recover (in this case, "Microsoft Office Files" or "All Files") and specify where the Word document might be saved, such as the desktop, Documents folder, or another hard drive partition. 4. **Scan for Files**: Click "Scan" or a similar button to let the software search for lost or deleted files. This may take some time, depending on the number of files and the size of your hard drive. 5. **Find and Preview the File**: After the scan is complete, the software will display a list of found files. Filter the results by filename, date, or type to locate the Word document you want to recover. Some software allows you to preview the file content to confirm its correctness. 6. **Recover the File**: Select the correct file and then click "Recover" or "Save" to attempt to restore it. The software will try to recover the file and save it to a new location you specify, avoiding overwriting other data. Please note that this method doesn't guarantee successful recovery, especially without a backup. Therefore, regularly backing up important files is always a good practice.

Most recovery software only supports the retrieval of deleted Word documents from your computer and is not effective in finding unsaved ones. We recommend using Data Recovery Wizard Professional, a reliable document recovery tool that makes it easier and faster to restore unsaved data.

You can download the software to get a more intuitive feel for its capabilities.

With its powerful scanning capabilities, the Data Recovery Wizard tool makes it easy to recover lost files:

• ⭐Recover unsaved Word documents in Windows 11/10/8/7 without any backup.
• ⭐Recover unsaved PowerPoint and Excel files. With this tool, you can recover unsaved files with just a few clicks.
• ⭐Restore deleted files from the Recycle Bin and other storage devices like SSD, USB flash drives, external hard drives, SD cards, and more.

There is a video that might help you understand how to recover and restore an unsaved Word document to a previous version. You can watch this video tutorial to learn how to use the tool "Data Recovery Wizard Pro" to download and recover your Word file:

• 00:00 Recovering a deleted Word file from the Recycle Bin
• 00:57 How to use a Data Recovery Wizard tool
• 02:51 Restoring a Word file using the AutoRecover option

To make sure you don't miss any detail about recovering an unsaved Word document, here's a written tutorial:

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 will see the “Path” and “Type” tabs. Click on “Type” and then select “Unsaved Files.” You can double-click on a folder to open it or click on “Open.” This unsaved file recovery software will help you easily recover unsaved Word, Excel, PPT, and other files.

Select the unsaved file you want to recover and click on "Next".

Step 3: Select the files you want to recover and click the "Preview" button. Then, hit "Recover" to restore your unsaved files. Make sure not to save the recovered files back to their original location, as this could overwrite the existing files.

We hope this product really helps you with data recovery. Please share this article on social media to help more users!

Fix 2: Recover an earlier version of Word using AutoRecover

Through a built-in utility in Microsoft Office, you can effortlessly revert to a previous version of a Word file. This method will only work if the AutoRecover utility is enabled.

The steps will vary depending on the situation, but this is also how you would go about recovering an earlier version of an Excel file after saving:

Scenario 1: The Word file has been saved.

Step 1: Right-click on the target Word document and open it with Microsoft Word.

Step 2: Click the “File” tab and select “Info” in the sidebar.

Step 3: In the Manage Documents section, choose the file labeled “Recover Unsaved Documents.”

Step 4. Next, you can find and click on “Recover” to retrieve the previous version of your Word file.

Click the Restore button to revert to the previous version of the Word document.

Scenario 2: Word File Not Saved

Step 1: Open MS Word and go to File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents.

Step Two: Find the document you want to copy, click “Open,” then click “Save As” and choose where you want to save it.

Click “Save As”.

Fix 3: Use the Restore Previous Version feature in Windows

If both of those options fail, you can try restoring an earlier version of the file or folder through File Explorer:

Step 1: Navigate to the folder containing the Word document with the version you want to restore.

Step 2. Right-click on the Word file and select “Properties.”

Click on Properties.

Step 3: Click the “Previous versions” tab, and then select the version you want to restore.

You might notice that previous versions are listed as coming from File History or a restore point. If you don't have automatic backups enabled in Windows, this method won't work.

See the tutorials in the following section for more details on how to restore previous versions:

Please provide the English content you want translated, and I'll do my best to translate it into Chinese.

How to Restore an Earlier Version of a File or Folder in Windows 10/8/7

If you're trying to restore an earlier version of a file or folder in Windows 10/8/7, the solutions here can help. Read More >>

Solution 4: Restore an earlier version from OneDrive

The last method to restore an earlier version of your Word document is through OneDrive. Are you using the AutoSave feature that saves your Word files to OneDrive? If so, this method should be quite effective.

Step 1: Sign in to OneDrive with the correct account.

Step Two: Right-click on the Word file you want to restore and select “Version history.”

Step 3. Click the ellipsis next to the file, then choose “Restore.”

The article recommended will show you how to recover permanently deleted files from OneDrive:

Please provide the English content you want translated, and I'll do my best to translate it into Chinese.

Deleted Files from OneDrive: Recover Permanently Deleted Files from OneDrive

This guide offers several methods to recover permanently deleted files from OneDrive, supporting all types of files. Learn More >>

✅Advanced Tip: How to Enable Auto-Save in Microsoft Word

Want to make sure you never lose an important Word document again? Creating a backup in Microsoft Word and enabling auto-save will help prevent data loss.

We'll guide you on how to turn on AutoSave in MS Word:

Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word and go to File > Options.

Step 2: With the Options pane open, choose the Save tab.

Step 3: Make sure that “Save auto-recovery information every x minutes” is checked.

If you need to turn on AutoSave in Excel, the tutorial is similar. Share all the recovery methods with more friends after learning!

Abstract

Restoring an earlier version of a Word document lets you get back to a previous state of the file, maybe because you accidentally made changes or lost important info.

This text offers four proven methods to assist you in recovering your Word file. By understanding and utilizing these approaches, you can effectively restore previous versions of your Word document and retrieve lost or altered content.

To review any of these techniques, click on the links below.

• Solution 1: Recover an Earlier Version of a Word Document with Recovery Software
• Solution 2: Restore an Earlier Version of Word via AutoRecover
• Solution 3: Use the Previous Version Feature in Windows
• Solution 4: Recover an Earlier Version from OneDrive

Frequently Asked Questions about "Recover Word to Previous Version"

Here are three common questions that can help you dig deeper into today's topic:

How can I recover a Word document that I accidentally overwrote?

There are several ways you can recover a Word document you accidentally saved over:

• Recover using MS Word AutoRecover
• Restore an earlier version of the file
• Recover from OneDrive

**How to restore previous versions of a Word document online?**

If you want to restore an earlier version of a Word document online, you need to ensure that you have a previous version backed up using OneDrive or another cloud backup tool. You can access OneDrive, find the target Word document, and then select the version you wish to restore.

3. Can I use software to recover an earlier version of my Word document?

With Data Recovery Wizard, you can recover previous versions of Word documents and other files in just three steps. Simply scan your hard drive with the program and then opt for “Unsaved Recovery” to restore unsaved files.