How to retrieve part of the work unsaved in my Word Document after my subscription expired

Question

I was on a free trial subscription with Microsoft 365. I didn't renew and lost part of my work with the document, and I need to retrieve it now that I paid for a subscription.

What do I do?

Answer 1

I regret being the bearing of bad news but any documents opened after the Trial expired were in a Read Only mode. Any content typed could not be saved & cannot be recovered. Contrary to what some responders may suggest, when a document is closed normally any unsaved content does not go to the Trash, an AutoRecover folder, or anywhere else — it simply evaporates.

Answer 2

I checked everywhere, but the information is not there. It looks like it's lost forever. I requested customer support to call me, and I waited an hour and 15 minutes, and hung up when it looked like I was going to wait forever.

I appreciate the help from you both. The fact that Microsoft could not restore everything after I paid for the subscription and did not get back to me over the phone shows a lack of regard for the customer.

Answer 3

Hello Aman Negassi

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum! Have a good day and I hope you're doing well! 

Based on my research, here is the technical explanation of what happened to your document: 

I. The "Reduced Functionality" Mode: When your trial expired, Word on your Mac entered a "Read-Only" mode. In this state, the software allows you to view and print documents, but it strictly blocks the ability to Save or edit files to the hard drive. 

II. Why the data is likely gone: Even though you may have continued typing, that new content was only existing in your computer's temporary memory (RAM). 

Paying for the subscription now unlocks the ability to save future work, but it cannot retroactively retrieve data from the RAM that was cleared when the application was closed.

III. if Word crashed or shut down unexpectedly (rather than being closed normally), there is a slight possibility a temporary file exists. Since you are on MacOS, you can try checking this folder: 

1. Open Finder. 
2. Press Command + Shift + G (Go to Folder). 
3. Paste this path: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery 

If there are no files there, I am afraid the work is permanently lost. I know this is not the news you wanted to hear after renewing your subscription, but I hope this explains why the file isn't showing up. 

Reference: What happens to my data and access when my Microsoft 365 for business subscription ends?

Regards.

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