How to Recover a File You Didn’t Save?

How do I recover a file that wasn’t saved?

Undoubtedly, Microsoft Office has provided great convenience to users.

As an important carrier of data, files usually contain thousands of pieces of information. So what can you do if you accidentally didn’t save Word documents like the above user?

If you’re unsure how to recover a file you didn’t save, maybe the following content can help you recover unsaved Word documents in Windows.

How to find a document you didn’t save?

Microsoft has released several built-in features, which are underutilized by the public. How to find a document that was not saved? Let’s take Microsoft Word as an example.

First, check whether you’ve created a backup copy or activated the AutoRecover feature or not. Second, refer to the corresponding steps to find the Word AutoRecovery location.

Method 1. Recover the accidentally didn’t save Word documents from backup copy

How to recover a file you didn’t save? If you’ve opened Microsoft Word and clicked File > Options > Advanced > Save > Always create a backup copy, you can recover your unsaved Word files from the .wbk extension.

How to find a document that was not saved? At the moment, press “Win + E” to open Windows File Explorer and search for .wbk. Please wait to view the Word backup copy you need and save it on your PC.

Method 2. Recover the accidentally didn’t save Word documents via AutoRecover

Similarly, if you’ve enabled AutoRecover, you can even recover Word files after a crash using this feature. Let’s show it works.

Step 1. Start your Microsoft Word program, then click the File tab on the top menu.

Step 2. Click Info > Manage Documents > Recover Unsaved Documents.

Step 3. Locate the Word document you want to restore and click the “Open” button.

Step 4. Click “Save as” to store your selected Word document on your computer.

Further reading: Best software to recover deleted/lost files in Windows

Since you’ve learned how to find a document that was not saved, let’s continue reading to learn how to recover deleted/lost files with ease.

After data loss, you’d better not add any data to your PCs because if the newly added data overwrites the deleted/lost files, they’ll become irrecoverable.

For example, if you want to recover permanently deleted files with no effort, using data recovery software like MyRecover is the top choice.

★Functionality & User-friendliness: 

Recover the deleted/lost files from HDD, USB, SD cards, and storage devices. 

Recover Word, Excel, PPT, Photos, Videos, Audio, Emails, Compressed files, and other 200+ types of data.

Get the original format for the deleted and lost data.  

During scanning, type filenames in the search bar to quickly locate the targeted files instead of waiting to see all the deleted and other lost files on your computers after scanning.

Support NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, and ReFS file systems.

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, or Windows Server.

Step 2. After launching the tool, hover the mouse over the drive, and click Scan.

Step 3. The combined scanning method of Quick Scan and Deep Scan will detect all the deleted and other missing files saved on your selected partition.

Step 4. Go to the Deleted files/Other missing files folder, and select your desired files. Then click “Recover x files” and store them in a new location.

Relevant Q&A for document recovery on Windows

How to recover a file you didn’t save? You can refer to the above content to address it. However, if you haven’t met the respective premise for each solution, you may fail to restore them.

Sometimes, the temp folder is a good storage folder for certain files. Perhaps you can go to C\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp to recover files from the temp folder.