I lost progress on a documennt

Question

While working on a essay I was having WIFI issues and a large portion of my work was deleted as a result, is there a way I could recover that lost work?

Answer 1

Please note that I’m also a regular user in this community and not a moderator or support representative. I can only provide suggestions based on my experience and the information I have researched.

Hi @SlimJim

I am sorry to hear that you have lost a significant portion of your document's content. To better understand the situation and suggest appropriate recovery options, could you please provide a few more details?

-Is the document saved locally on your computer, on OneDrive, or on SharePoint?

-Was the content lost while the document was still open, or after you closed and reopened it?

-Is the AutoSave feature currently enabled?

First, please try the following steps:

1.Reopen Word and check if the "Document Recovery" pane appears. If it does, open the most recently recovered version and save it immediately under a new name.

Please refer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/collab-files/recover-your-microsoft-365-files

2.Open the document, then go to File > Info > Manage Document. Look for a version labeled "when I closed without saving," open it, and select Restore.

3.If the document is saved on OneDrive or SharePoint, open it and check the Version History to find the version containing the lost content. Files stored here often retain previous versions, especially if AutoSave was enabled.

You should avoid making further edits to the current document until you have checked all recoverable versions. Unfortunately, if AutoSave or AutoRecover did not capture the lost content, it may not be possible to recover it.

To prevent this from happening in the future, you should save your document to OneDrive or SharePoint and enable AutoSave. Additionally, you can go to File > Options > Save and ensure that the options "Save AutoRecover information every x minutes" and "Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving" are enabled.

Please keep me updated.

Answer 2

Yes. The best recovery path depends on where the file was saved.

1. Reopen Word first. If Word closed unexpectedly, Document Recovery should open automatically the next time the app starts. Review the recovered files list and open the version with the most recent date/time, since that usually contains the latest changes.
2. If Document Recovery appears:
   • Select the file to open and review it.
   • Use Save As to save the recovered version immediately.
   • If there are multiple versions, choose the one with the newest timestamp.
   • After recovering what is needed, select Close. If unsure, choose Yes, I want to view these files later (safest option).
3. If the file was saved to OneDrive or SharePoint:
   • Check Version History and restore an earlier version.
   • Microsoft 365 also uses AutoSave for files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, which can help preserve more recent changes.
4. If the file was saved locally on the device:
   • Recovery depends on AutoRecover being turned on.
   • When AutoRecover is enabled and the app closes unexpectedly, Word can show the recovered file in Document Recovery the next time it opens.
5. If multiple recovered files are shown and it is unclear which one is correct:
   • Compare the date and creation time shown under each file name.
   • Open each version if needed and keep the one with the missing section.

For future protection, the safest setup is to store Word files in OneDrive or SharePoint and use AutoSave.

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