How to Recover Unsaved Word Document of 2013 & 2007 File

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Written By Ashwani Tiwari
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Published On July 25th, 2022
Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

In Previous article we discussed how to recover unsaved excel file but what about the MS Word or Docx File. As the same issues faced by MS Word user while working with Word documents file. Let’s discuss the problem and then come up with the best solution.

How to recover unsaved word document” is a common query among the MS Word file users. Various tech forums are laden with user queries that ask for the ways to recover unsaved Word 2007 files, which means that people frequently face this issue.

But do these methods really work? Obviously, not all the methods are capable of recovering unsaved document file of MS Word 2010. In this write-up, we will be telling you the sure-shot method to retrieve MS Word file that you have not saved. Before that, let us understand the situation when users have this specific requirement.

What Causes MS Word Files to Remain Unsaved

While working with Word file, whenever users close the file after making any changes, MS Word prompts them whether to save the changes or not. If users click on Save, all the edits done in the last session will get saved in the file. But, when users click on Don’t Save button by mistake, no changes will get saved in the file. In this situation, it’s difficult to recover unsaved word document on Windows 10.

Apart from this accidental step, users may also fail to save their changes due to shutdown or even sometimes MS Word Application freezes or closes without saving the file and user faces “Word  not responding issue”

In these case, users completely had no chance to save the file. Then most of the people search for how to recover unsaved Word document query. If you are looking for the answer to this question, read on to know its answer.

Solutions to Recover Unsaved Word Documents

As we have mentioned earlier, not all the methods you read online will be able to get back the unsaved edits of your Word file. So it is better not to waste your valuable time by trying those methods and try the ones that actually work.

Recover Unsaved Versions from MS Word 2016 – Auto-Recovery Option

Once you have realized that you got a file that did not save the last changes, do not panic. This method will recover unsaved Word documents from previous version.

  1. Open MS Word application on your system, not any file.
  2. Now the blank document opens, choose Document Recovery from left side a panel.

In that panel, there will be one or more copies of the unsaved file along with the date and time of the last autosave.

3. Double-click on the copy with the latest time to open it.

Check if the file contains the changes you have done. Even if it does not contain all the edits, this is the best possible copy of the file that you can retrieve.

  4. Here, Save the file in a new location of your choice.

Most probably this method work while recovering the not saved files. Otherwise go for next method if you failed to get the result.

Recover Unsaved MS Word Files 2007 from Temp Folder

If MS Word does not display available autosaved files, do not get disheartened. This manual method will recover your not saved files, by fetching their location from temp folders.

  1. Click on File ribbon>> Options.

2. Choose Save option from the left panel.

3. Copy Autorecover file location mentioned here.

4. Paste the location in the Windows Explorer address.

5. Go to the temp folder. Find out the temp version of your unsaved file.

6. Open it and check and Save the file in any chosen folder.

In case, you couldn’t locate the temp file location. Try an automated solution which will assure you to recover unsaved Word documents.

Recover Unsaved Documents in 2007 & Above Versions

If you are using MS Word 2007 and 2010 ( Old version), then it’s very easy for you to recover the Word documents which are not saved. To know how you gonna resolve this problem quickly read these steps:

  1. Open MS Word program, click to File tab.
  2. Now go to Manage Versions>> Recover Unsaved Documents.
  3. Here, you will see the list, select the Word file.
  4. Now, save again by choosing Save-as option.

If there is no corruption in your MS Word application. This method will easily recover unsaved Word documents, but if your system is dealing with any error or your file is corrupted somehow. You won’t be able to recover by this method. Otherwise, in most cases this method works fine to recover unsaved Word document.

Be Cautious! Never Lose Your Changes Again

If you do not want to be in this situation ever again, you can take preventive measures. For example, The MS Word file autosave option saves your changes automatically after 10 minutes. You can set the time as the minimum 1 minute for saving changes. For this, you have to click on File >> Options>> Save and go to Save AutoRecover information every X minute option.

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After getting your unsaved file using manual methods if you’re still unable to access or open Docx file then you can use of SysTools Word Recovery Tool . An Automated solution to repair Word File and fix the issue related to major corruption and error messages.

Conclusion

If you want to know how to recover unsaved Word documents, this is the right post for you. Here we have talked about the approaches that will help you get back unsaved changes of a Word file. These are tested methods so there is no chance of being unsuccessful if you try these. Apart from this problem, we have also shown that users can open corrupt or inaccessible files using Word Recovery.

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By Ashwani Tiwari

Being a Chief Technical Analyst, I am aware of the technicalities faced by the user while working with multiple technologies. So, through my blogs and articles, I love to help all the users who face various challenges while dealing with technology.