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15 February 2024  Jennifer Thatcher  Technology Manager of Test Dept.
 

Summary
Learn where Word's autosave file is located to prevent document loss. Discover how to recover unsaved or deleted files due to power and software failures.



Table of contents

table iconI. Where is the automatic save file location of Word?
table iconII. How to recover unsaved Word files?
table iconIII. Use Renee Undeleter to recover accidentally deleted Word files
Word autosave location

I. Where is the automatic save file location of Word?

It is not difficult to find the location where Word automatically saves files. You can do it through the following steps:
Step 1: Open the Word file and click the (File) button in the upper left corner.
Step 2: Click (Options) in the left sidebar.
word_360_options
Step 3: In Word Options, click (Save) on the left. View the file location under “Save Document” on the right. Set the time interval for autosaving files, especially if the file is crucial.
Open Word file options autosave

II. How to recover unsaved Word files?

1. Recover from AutoRecover file location

The default automatic save file path of Word is typically C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\ (Please refer last chapter for the location for your PC). You can copy this path to the file explorer to locate the automatic save file Word document.
Step 1: Right-click on the Start menu and select (File Explorer).
Right-click on the Start menu and select (File Explorer).
Step 2: Copy the auto-recovery file location (C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\) to the file explorer, and press (Enter) to view the files automatically saved by Word.
Step 3: Right-click the file you want to recover, click (Open With), select (Word) and click (OK) to open the file.
open by word
Step 4: After opening the file, you can check and edit the document, and then click (File) > (Save As) to restore the unsaved Word document.
save word as

2. Restore from administrative workbook

Step 1: In case Word closes unexpectedly and you haven’t saved the file, you can reopen the original Word file by clicking (File) in the upper left corner. Go to (Information) > (Manage Workbook) to find the unsaved document, which will be labeled with the time it was closed without saving. If Word is running normally and the file is automatically saved, you can access different versions of the saved file in the management workbook and restore to a previous version if needed.
Click the drop-down arrow behind Manage Documents and select Recover Unsaved Documents to open the storage path of Word’s unsaved files. The default path is (C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles). Choose the files you need to restore.
word: Recover Unsaved Documents
Step 2: Click a document version in the document management list, such as (XX:XX today (when I closed it without saving)), and then the document version will be opened in Word, you can use (Compare) and ( Save as) button to compare the documents and restore the desired version of the document.
This recovered file is temporarily stored in your computer to compare restore word
Step 3: After clicking the "Restore" button, a prompt will appear stating “You will use the selected version to overwrite the last saved version”. If you have confirmed that the document content is correct, you can click “OK”.
restore word unsaved files
If the above method does not find the unsaved Word file, it may be that the unsaved file version has not been successfully saved by Word’s automatic save function. You can try changing the time interval of automatic saving in Word’s (File)>(Options)>(Save). Shortening the interval, for example, to once every minute, can increase the probability of successful recovery of unsaved files.

III. Use Renee Undeleter to recover accidentally deleted Word files

To recover an accidentally deleted Word file, it is recommended to first search for the file in the recycle bin and restore it. If the file is not found in the recycle bin due to emptying or formatting the disk partition, professional data recovery software like Renee Undeleter can be used. Simply scan the storage location of the file and recover it.

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is a software used to restore various data files. It can retrieve lost data when files are accidentally deleted, the recycle bin is emptied, or the disk/storage is formatted. The software has four functional modules: file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery, and image creation. It can solve all data loss problems for built-in hard disks, mobile hard disks, SD cards, U disks, and other storage devices. The software allows scanning and restoring files, and also supports file preview for accurate recovery.
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2. How to use Renee Undeleter to recover accidentally deleted Word files?

It is very simple to use Renee Undeleter to scan the hard disk and restore deleted files. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Download, install, and run Renee Undeleter on your computer. Select the “Whole Partition Scan” option on the main interface. Connect your external hard drive if you need to recover files from it.
Note: Do not install Renee Undeleter in the disk where data is lost to avoid data overwriting.
select whole partition scan in renee undeleter to recover deleted video from sd card
Data recovery function introduction:

  • Fase Partition Scan: Retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
  • Whole Partition Scan: Recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
  • Whole Disk Scan: Analyze and obtain partition information, and fully scan the entire partition.
  • Image Creation: Create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.
Step 2: Next, select the hard disk partition that needs to recover data. After the selection is complete, click (Next).
select the target drive to scan in renee undeleter
Step 3: Wait for the scan to finish. Use the file filter to search for Word files by entering "doc" and clicking Search. Double-click a file to preview it. If it is the file you need, select it and click Restore.
undeleter preview docx
Step 4: Please select another hard disk partition to save the file, and click (Restore). Wait for the recovery to complete, click (Browse recovered files) to view the recovered Word files.
Browse recovered files