Microsoft Word Not Saving

Question

I am incredibly frustrated with Microsoft Word's ability to save my documents. It happened earlier today, where I opened a document from a few days ago and a number of my edits were not there. And then again today I worked on a document, MADE sure to save it. Double checked. Saved multiple times. Then closed out the app. And now returning to the document later today I see that the changes were not saved once again. I am beyond frustrated with this. I am 100% that I saved the document, now opening it later thousands of words are missing.

So angry.

Anyone know how I can retrieve this old file? I tried plenty of things, but at this point I wonder if it just makes more sense for me to retype the whole thing. Trying to figure out how to retrieve my SAVED document is wasting me so much time.

Answer 1

Hi Arianna,

Per your description, it seems that you are unable to save the document. Thanks for sharing the information with us, as for your situation, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused at your end, and we’ll try our best to help you.

So based on our test, we can save files in Word 16.40 on Mac Catalina without any problem. Firstly, we suggest you update your Office to the latest version to see if the new updates helps fix this. You can check this article Update history for Office for Macto see if you are using the latest one, if not, you can try to update Office to the latest version.

Then rebooting Mac in safe mode to isolate issues on your Mac. Refer to this article.

Additionally, try to create a new user account or switch to another account to login in Mac, see if you can save documents in Word.

To find the lost files, you may use the Time Machine on your Mac to restore data in the past. But you need to turn on Time Machine and backup your Mac before and you can restore it now.

Here is the article for your reference: Restore your Mac from a backup

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise,and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

To better understand your situation, we would like to confirm the below information:

1.What’s your Word version and Mac version? Open Word > capture the screenshot of “About Word”. Then click Apple menu> capture the screenshot of "About this Mac".

2.Does the issue happen on all documents or just the specific one? You can create a new document to check the result.

3. How about other applications including PowerPoint, Excel and etc? can they save normally?
4. Did you get any error or prompt? Any screenshots about your scenario are appreciated.

Best regards,

Gloria

Answer 2

Hi Arianna,

We are writing this thread to monitoring this thread, if you still need assistance, please let us know more information.

Wish you a nice day!😊

Best regards,

Gloria