How to open an unsaved word document. Recover unsaved documents in Word

This often happens to me when you type some text in Word, and the program starts to freeze and does not leave. That is, nothing can be done other than forcing the program to terminate. Sometimes even the program itself crashes. On the Internet, many users are also tormented by this question.

Today I will analyze this issue using Word 2013 as an example, since in other versions of Word, such as 2010, the problem is solved in a similar way. By the way, we will analyze the autosave function.

How to recover an unsaved Word document?

The Microsoft Office 2013 software package has a so-called autosave function, which saves copies of a document at a certain point in time. As soon as the program freezes and completes its work, after restarting it, the left panel “Document Recovery” should display all the documents that were previously saved. Double-click on the last document, it should open.

By the way, it also happened that the text that was saved during autosave did not open completely after a critical termination of MS Word; some fragments were not saved in time.

So, if the saved document does not start when you try to open it, then go to "File" → "Intelligence" → "Versions" → "Recover Unsaved Documents". A window should open where all saved documents will be located.

This window will contain files with an unknown extension. .asd, these files are Word recovery files. If the file has not yet been saved by the user, then it will have a name something like this: "Autorecovery save of Document1.asd".

Try opening such a document through Word. If the document is damaged, you can use the file recovery function "Open and restore".

Typically, autosave copies are stored for only 4 days and then deleted, therefore, it is better to save them yourself via “File” and “Save As”.

As I said, autosaving occurs at some point in time, by default it is once every 10 minutes, but this value can be changed. To set up autosave you need to go to "File", "Options" And "Saving".

That's all, now you know about automatic saving in Word and how you can restore an unsaved document. I advise you to set the autosave frequency to less than 10 minutes, because if the program freezes, most of the document will have time to be saved.

Two sad stories are forever imprinted in my memory when I missed the “Save” button at the most crucial moment. Once they just started talking to me, and the second time I was in such a hurry that I finished my work standing at the computer, already dressed. Distractions and exceeding a reasonable speed cost a lot of nerves back then.

Surely similar office disasters have happened in your life, after which you wanted to give free rein to your feelings and show the stupid machine who’s boss. Exactly like in the old popular video.

But you restrained yourself, realizing that next time, instead of your native Mac, you would receive an import-substituting Elbrus. How to protect yourself from a state of passion and not become a laughing stock as a sanctions victim? It is enough to know that Word, contrary to your wishes, still keeps in reserve what you decided to refuse (whether it was consciously or mistakenly).

Open the main text editor window and go to the first section, Details. Click on the “Document Management” icon, where you will find the coveted function.

Click on the “Recover unsaved documents” option, after which you will see a Word service folder with several files whose existence you have already forgotten.

I hope that you are lucky and will return the entire document from oblivion, and at worst, most of it. But it is important to understand that luck will smile on you only if in the settings of the program itself there is a checkbox “Save the last autosaved version when closing without saving.” The width of the smile directly depends on the autosave interval.

If I'm not mistaken, the saving feature is enabled by default. But the interval set is not the most optimal. I recommend reducing it to 2-3 minutes.

A very pressing question for many users is how to recover a damaged Word document, or how. I think everyone has had such a problem as losing a document. For example, you were typing something important in the program, a crash occurred, Microsoft Word crashed (closed), and after opening you find nothing, or the document does not open at all. To prevent this from happening in the future, I have prepared an article where I will show what you can use to restore a damaged version of a document.

How to recover a damaged Word document?

Let's say you tried to run a document file and saw the following error message.

This error already contains several recommendations from which you can understand what to do, for example, make sure that there is enough disk space, whether you have permission to use the document and edit it.

In this case, we can return the document using Word itself. Just open the icon of this program so that Word starts, and then go to the item on the left "Open" and select "Review".

In the Explorer that opens, look for the document you want to open, click on it once so that its name appears in the field "File name". Next, you select the item from the drop-down menu "Recover text from any file" and click “Open”.

If the document is very large and you have used many design styles, it is not always successfully restored. Sometimes part of the text disappears, or there is text, but without formatting styles. The main thing, of course, is to restore the integrity of the document.

How to recover a Word document [Second method]

From what has been said above, it is clear that the first method does not always help, although it is worth using it. Let's move on to the next method.

Open Microsoft Word again and go to the File menu, then “Open” and the button "Review". Find the damaged document and click on it. Then click on the arrow where the “Open” button is and select the option there "Open and restore".

How to restore a Word backup?

Sometimes a file may get lost and you cannot find it anywhere. In this case, the program usually creates backup copies of the document; to open it, you need to proceed as follows:

Open Word and go to the “Open” section, then click on “Browse”. Remember where you saved the document and go to that folder. In the pop-up tab, select "All files", look for the lost document. Focus on the name and date. Sometimes such a document may be called “Backup copy...”.

If you fail, you can go another way. Open the search field in Windows and enter the extension of the Word backup file - *.wbk. It is more likely that such a file will be opened, but the point is that there may be more than one and the names may not match, so you will have to open and look at each one.

Autosave in Word, or how to restore a saved copy of a document

Typically, the program automatically creates backup copies of the document after a certain period of time. They are usually found along the following path: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word.

Autosaved document names can begin with the word "Autocopy...", and the format of such files will be *.asd. To open such a file, you need to double-click on it.

Bonus option – Word file recovery program

I myself have never been interested in third-party Word recovery programs, but they can help if none of the above methods worked. As an example, I can cite the Hetman Office Recovery program. The utility, unfortunately, is paid; perhaps there are analogues, which I will include in this article. To use Hetman Office Recovery, just install it on your computer and check the disk for lost and damaged documents.

The program will find documents and show them in its window with real names. If you want to restore something, you select them with ticks, then it’s a matter of little things.

Every person who has been working with Microsoft Office for a long time knows perfectly well what it’s like to get into a situation where, after a long period of work, simply because of fatigue or for some technical reason, the document is not saved, and this procedure can even be canceled by the user himself.

In such situations, everyone automatically begins to think about how to recover an unsaved Word document, because many people feel that several hours of work were wasted. However, if you handle such cases correctly, it is likely that the situation can be reversed.

In the vast majority of cases, there are several options for how to recover an unsaved Word document, although the information may not be completely returned.

Is it possible to return?

Basically, all the options for how to recover an unsaved document in Word do not allow you to recover the entire document. The whole point here is that any version of Microsoft Office provides for fully automatic saving of the document on which you are working. In accordance with the standard settings, such automatic saving is carried out at intervals of 10 minutes, however, if necessary, the user can independently change these settings in order to choose which option is optimal for him.

How can I change these settings?

To change these characteristics, you first need to go to “Options”, then go to “Save” and set the desired value there. Please note that next to the words “Auto-save” there is a checkmark that in no case can be removed, since otherwise you will not have the opportunity to save such information in the future. The documents, even if saved normally, are simply of practically insignificant volume, so you shouldn’t even worry about this.

Microsoft Word 2010

Fortunately, in this version of Word, Microsoft developers have already provided for a variant of this problem, so in this case there should be absolutely no questions. Knowing that their users are constantly looking for how to recover an unsaved Word document, the developers decided to finally make their own, simplified technology, which was originally used in Office and can be used by any user. To do this, simply run a special function called “Recover Unsaved Documents” and get the original file. It is worth noting that, most likely, the information will not be completely restored to you, but this is much better than starting the work from scratch, and, in principle, now everything is done extremely simply, since even a child can restore an unsaved Word 2010 document.

You can find this item in the following path: “File” > “Information” > “Version Control” > “Recover Unsaved Documents”. Once you navigate to the above path, a folder will open. It will contain various documents that you canceled saving, but which our caring Word still decided to keep. In this folder you will need to select the file you need. If this situation is quite standard for you, and you have canceled the save a lot lately, you will have to dig further into your autosaved files in order to find the one you need. To make it easier for you to do this, pay attention to the date when the document was last modified. The procedure for how to recover an unsaved WordPad document is carried out using approximately the same technology.

After you open the document you need, it will appear again in Word, and a reminder will start flashing at the top that it has not yet been saved. Now you can see how much information was recovered, and then finally save the document in the folder you need.

Find it yourself

The second option is to completely independently find the required document in the folder where the deleted data is located. The system automatically saves the document you are recording every few minutes, so it will most likely restore most of it, or even all of it, if you canceled saving a long period of time after you wrote the last word.

Initially, the information is stored in the following path: “User” > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > the name of the application in which the data was lost (Word). In the vast majority of cases, users prefer not to change this data, so it is likely that they remain standard with you to this day. In this folder you will be able to discover which files have been saved.

It is immediately worth noting the fact that AppData is a folder that cannot be easily accessed, since it is automatically hidden. For this reason, you will need to fully describe in the search the type of folder you are interested in so that the guide can find it on its own. In the vast majority of cases, this can be done quite simply; it is enough to know the exact path of saving.

Microsoft Word 2007

In this case, the autosave function is configured and regulated in exactly the same way as in the previous case, so there are no problems in how to recover an unsaved Word 2007 document. If your document was at least once saved or has a specific name, then in this case even after a sudden reboot of your computer, you will be prompted to restore its previous copy. Thus, you can independently choose whether, after a malfunction, you can restore the original document or the copy that was automatically saved by the program during operation.

Microsoft Word 2003

In this case, there are also no difficulties in how to restore an unsaved Word 2003 document. After all sorts of failures occur, you will be offered to restore the file that the program saved automatically, or simply open the original file. In this case, in order to configure the automatic procedure for saving documents, you need to go to the “Tools” > “Options” > “Saving” section. In the window that opens, you need to check the box next to “Always save a backup copy.”

The lights were turned off, the cord got caught, the computer suddenly rebooted, or maybe even completely... the entire system crashed... And you still haven’t saved the document you worked on for half a day? Don't despair in advance. You can restore the file. Especially if the loss is caused by a minor accident, and the computer continues to work as before.

It's better to start with the simplest. It is often possible to recover data quickly and completely using only Word's built-in resources. Looking ahead, let's say that even when none of them worked, and the data could not be recovered, the probability of restoring a document using third-party programs still remains high.

Automatic recovery

So, what can you do to get back the contents of an unsaved file using Word alone?

Firstly, this text editor has an automatic document recovery function. After any system failure or, say, a power outage, after which Windows boots from scratch, the Word program itself offers to return unsaved data and save the documents that it managed to recover. It might look like this:

Important to remember that the user has the opportunity to take advantage of the results of automatic file recovery only the first time the text editor is launched after a forced reboot. If you do not immediately save the necessary documents, close and open the program again, you will not be offered to save the automatically created backup copies again. Therefore, it is better to decide the first time exactly what recovered documents you need and not miss the chance to return them.

Note that the AutoSave feature in Word is always turned on by default. Backups when working in the editor occur every 10 minutes. Sometimes it is advisable to reduce the interval between backups. To do this, if you are working in Word 2003, use the "Options" item in the "Tools" menu. In the window that opens, go to the “Saving” tab and change the value to the one you need. This will not affect the speed of the computer in any way.

When working in Word 2007, the autosave frequency changes as follows: click on the colored round icon with the editor’s logo, select “Save As” in the list that opens, then at the very bottom of the window that appears, click on “Save a copy of the document.” Now click “Options” and on the “Save” tab change the frequency of backups. Click “OK” and you’re done!

In Word 2010, this parameter can be changed through the “File” - “Options” menu. In the window that opens, click on “Save” and in the next window we directly change the interval to the required one. And again - “OK”!

If you simply didn't save your Word document before closing it, you can try to force it to open again. The main thing is to take into account an important feature of this recovery method: it will not work if you create a new file, add text to it and save the document. The algorithm must be strictly as follows:

• Create a new file and open a blank sheet
• In the “File” menu, select “Open”
• In the pop-up window, select the “Open and Repair” command.

Let us immediately warn you that the effectiveness of this method is extremely low, and in most cases absolutely nothing happens to the blank page of a new document. However, trying is not torture...

Find source file

Even though you didn't save the document, the original doc or docx file may still remain on the system. You can find it using the following step-by-step instructions. First you should run a search on the file. If you're on Windows 10, do this using the Start panel. In Windows 2008, just press WIN+W.

In the search bar, enter the title of the document under which, most likely, it could have been saved automatically.

Windows will present you with a list of files with matching keywords in the name. If you find the document you need among them, open and view the contents of the file.

Of course, this is a simple, but not at all ideal way to get data back. The chances that the original file will remain on the system after a critical error are not great...

Restoring from a backup folder

As we already mentioned, Word automatically backs up your documents. If you haven't changed the settings, this happens every 10 minutes when working with a text document. All copies are temporarily placed in a special backup folder. The folder is hidden, and its contents can only be checked manually.

So, go to the menu “File” - “Options”.

In the window that opens, look for the “Save” item and then – the line “Directory with auto-saves” (backup copies of documents are stored in it). Now you need to copy the directory path and go to the folder using it. Here you can find the latest version of your unsaved file.

In Word 2010, this folder might look something like this:

You can also try an alternative method from the same series. We use the menu “File” - “Information”.

If “Version Control” displays the information “There are no previous versions of the document,” click on the “Version Control” icon, and then click “Recover Unsaved Documents.”

After which you should see a folder containing a list of documents available for opening in a text editor. This method is very relevant for those who, for some reason, had autosave disabled earlier (have you corrected this mistake now?). We also note that in this way you can restore a document that you have already worked with for at least some time. And one more thing: unsaved files can remain on the system in .asd format, and only Word 2010 sees it and does not see earlier versions of the editor.

Recovering a document using third-party programs

Specialized programs help to recover lost, including unsaved, files from any device, even in the most difficult situations: after accidentally deleting a file without using the recycle bin, after files have been damaged by a virus, formatted, etc.

As practice shows, damaged images in standard .jpeg and .png formats are the most difficult to recover, but .doc and .docx files are restored successfully in most cases.

• Before starting the recovery process, it is prohibited to copy any new data to the disk. It is best not to perform any actions on the media at all until all necessary information has been recovered from it.
• Do not format (even if the Windows system insists).
• It is not recommended to restore documents to their previous storage location, since the new file may overwrite unrecovered documents.

When recovering MS Office documents that you did not manage to save, we recommend using programs that support the most powerful modern data recovery algorithms, such as RS Partition Recovery or RS Office Recovery.

Install the selected program and start scanning the disk. All files available for recovery will be displayed in a separate window. On the drive where Windows is installed (usually the C:\ drive), find the “Temp” folder - in this folder the system stores all the temporary files it creates. This is where the file that you worked with but did not have time to save should be located. You can view the contents of each file and save the necessary documents.