How can I recover an unsaved document? PLEASE READ FOR CONTEXT.

Question

I closed my laptop without saving an important word document, but the app was still open when I closed it. When I opened the app this morning it has closed out the document that I didn't save but had another document open that I did save. Can anyone please help? It is not letting me recover the unsaved document. Please help asap. This document is so important to me.

Answer 1

Try these steps in order on macOS Word to recover the unsaved document:

1. Use Word’s built‑in “Recover Unsaved Documents”
   1. Open Word.
   2. Go to File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents.
   3. Look for a file with the right date/time and name (or a generic name), select it, then choose Open.
   4. Immediately select File > Save As and save it to a known location.
2. Let AutoRecover open the file automatically If Word or macOS crashed or the Mac was closed unexpectedly, Word may open with Document Recovery the next time it starts and list recovered files.
   1. When Word starts, check for a Document Recovery pane or a bar at the top saying it recovered an unsaved file.
   2. Select the recovered file, then choose Save As and save it.
3. Manually search the AutoRecover folder on macOS If the file doesn’t appear in Word, search the AutoRecover folder directly:
   1. Switch to Finder.
   2. On the menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder… (or press SHIFT+COMMAND+G).
   3. Enter this path, replacing <username> with the Mac account name: /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery
   4. In that folder, look for Word AutoRecovery files with a date/time matching when the document was last open.
   5. Double‑click a candidate file to open it in Word.
   6. If it opens correctly, immediately save it with File > Save As.

Important notes for AutoRecover on Mac:

• AutoRecover files are deleted if Don’t Save was clicked when closing the document.
• Normally, after an unexpected shutdown or closing the laptop with Word still open, Word should detect the AutoRecover file and open it automatically the next time.

If none of the above locations contain the file, there is no additional built‑in Word/Office method in the provided guidance to recover that specific unsaved document.

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References:

• How to recover unsaved Word documents
• Recover an earlier version of a Word file
• Recover your Word files and documents
• Video: Recover Office files