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Text Suddenly Turned to Numbers and Random Characters - Mac Word 2011

Anonymous
2019-02-04T05:57:25+00:00

I hope someone can help with this as it is giving me so much stress and panic.

I was working on a 50,000-word document when all of a sudden the entire text turned to random numbers and letters. If I passed my cursor over the text, the English text would turn to random characters. I closed the file, then reopened it and the entire file consisted of numbers and letters. A whole two month's work gone in a second. 

I tried turning the file into Rich Text Format and some of the initial text turns back into English, but the rest does not. I did not have any kind of backup for the file (yes, this is my fault, and I realize how stupid it was of me not to have one) as this has never happened before. 

Below is a sample of the garbled text, into which the regular English text turned into. I was using "Garamond" as the font. Please help. I don't know what else to do...

v+p,p-p.p1h4Òÿ5Òÿ6Òÿ7Òÿ:pÂ8õ°Ð/ °à=!° "° # $ %°°Ð°Ð 

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Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2019-02-08T00:09:32+00:00

Thank you. I found a way to recover 99% of my document, and it didn't involve the Time Machine or anything that I had ever done before. I used a third party software (had to pay for it, but was well worth it), which allowed me to access RAW docx files and recover the file that was autosaved by Word ten minutes prior to the bug turning my document to gibberish. 

That version of the document was not affected by the bug. I was stunned that I actually was able to get it back after trying for two days. It was only missing a couple hundred words. 

I knew there HAD TO be a way!

Beyond relieved! I've learned my lesson!

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-02-08T00:10:14+00:00

    True! I will have it on from now on. But I found a way to recover 99% of my document, and it didn't involve the Time Machine or anything that I had ever done before. I used a third party software (had to pay for it, but was well worth it), which allowed me to access RAW docx files and recover the file that was autosaved by Word ten minutes prior to the bug turning my document to gibberish. 

    That version of the document was not affected by the bug. I was stunned that I actually was able to get it back after trying for two days. It was only missing a couple hundred words. 

    I knew there HAD TO be a way!

    Beyond relieved! I've learned my lesson!

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  2. John Korchok 232.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2019-02-06T22:01:45+00:00

    Time Machine can be a lifesaver. I'm surprised so few Mac users turn it on.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-02-04T18:30:51+00:00

    Thank you. Is there a reason why some of the document is recoverable and the rest is not?

    I did save the file when the text became garbled, because I panicked. I tried looking in temp and auto recovery files, but to no avail. I did not have Time Machine enabled on my computer either so I cannot use that.

    Shouldn't there be a way to recover previous saved versions of the document? I'm just at a loss of what to do now.

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  4. John Korchok 232.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2019-02-04T15:30:36+00:00

    This is a rare bug that has existed in Word for decades. I don't think anyone has ever figured out the cause because it happens rarely and at random. The only solution is to immediately close the document without saving. After saving, the document is permanently corrupted.

    In the future, a safer working method is to created successive work files with slight variations in names, like Important Document 01.docx. Then if Important Document 09.docx develops a problem, you haven't lost too much work since Important Document 08.docx.

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