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Recover overwritten word doc on a Mac

Anonymous
2022-10-21T11:07:31+00:00

I'm currently trying to recover an older version of a word document that I've been working on. The "Browse Version History" is greyed out and there are no options to recover older files. I've checked on my iCloud and OneDrive and the only version I can find is the latest one.
The version that I would like to recover was accidentally overwritten at 5:30 yesterday when I saved it in a rush while restarting my computer (other programmes weren't working, so I had to restart).

Please help! It's my PhD thesis and I'm desperate!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | MacOS

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  1. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-10-21T17:14:51+00:00

    Hi

    As Sean points out, the recovery method depends on the file location which was used for the file.

    iCloud and OneDrive are different, competing cloud services. If you only find the latest version on OneDrive, chances are good that OneDrive is not the location you had been using.

    If iCloud was the location you were using, here's how to recover iClould files:

    On iCloud.com

    1. Sign in to iCloud.com.
    2. Open iCloud Drive.
    3. Find and select the file.
    4. Click Download at the top of the page or double-click the file. The document downloads to your default downloads location.
    5. After making changes to the file, upload the saved copy back to iCloud Drive on a computer.

    Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201104

    If you saved your file locally to your Mac, here's how to recover it:

    Learn how to use Time Machine to restore specific files

    If you saved your file to a portable device such as a flash drive, you'll have to plug it in!

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-10-21T12:40:21+00:00

    Dear MarkWilkinson_43,

    Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

    We feel sorry to see this situation, may I confirm if the file was saved in OneDrive or on your local device?

    If the file was saved on your local device, please check this article: Recover files in Office for Mac (microsoft.com)

    If the file was saved in OneDrive, please sign in the web version of OneDrive, right click the file and check if you could find the history version.

    If you couldn't view any history version with OneDrive for web, we suggest you contact the GA(Global admin) in your tenant then follow steps in this article and try to create a support ticket to contact Online Support. The support team over there has higher permission than us, they can remotely help check if they could recover the file from backend. This would be a more efficient way in handling this case for you.

    Thanks for your understanding and cooperation! Have a good day.

    Sincerely,

    Sean | Microsoft Community Moderator

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