How do i recover a document saved directly from download?

Anonymous
2010-04-22T22:35:08+00:00

Hi,

I sent my university coursework to a friend to proof read it. He sent it back with amendments, and i clicked on the attached file in hotmail, and continued working on it, clicking save every few minutes.

However i did not click SAVE AS, and so when i closed the document just now, my entire days work was lost, as it appears to have saved no where. Where had it been saving for the whole day? Can i recover it?

Im currently on windows vista and word 2007.

Thanks

John

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-04-22T23:59:43+00:00

You may or may not be able to recover this document since the changes are saved in your Temporary Internet files folder. Note that you can't just open your Temporary Internet Files folder directly and find it due to the way Windows handles your Temporary Internet files but if it's still available, here's how you can get it back:

  1. Open another Word document sent to you as an attachment from an email. If you don't have one, send an email with an

attachment to yourself. (While you should be able to open the same email attachement since another copy of the file is created in your Temporary Internet Files folder, I don't like taking a chance like that.) 2. Click the Office Button, point at Prepare, and then click Properties. The Properties pane will display below the Ribbon. 3. On the far right of the Properties pane you'll see a file path and the document name. Select only the file path and press Ctrl + C to copy it. 4. Press the WinKey + E to open the Windows Explorer. (Or use an alternate method to open it) 5. Paste the copied file path in the Address bar and press Enter.

These steps should put you either in the same location as your revised file or near it. You may need to dig around in other folders to locate it.

Good luck and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. :-)

~Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-11-05T18:01:10+00:00

    Thank you thank you thank you!. I thought I lost 2 days of work.

    I do normally save to folder before I start editting but this time I just blew it. BUT, how many people do this every day?? mm? With microsoft Vista and above with all this 'Allow this' Allow That' popup messages, wouldnt this be a good time for a popup?? Anytime you can prevent the user from making a potential mistake you should try to do it. Take a vote on that one, no brainer.

    FYI here is my path to temp folder in Windows 7 in case you need it.

    C:\Users\Pellet21\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\00LL8OB5

    anyway thanks for the blog post.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-06-02T16:46:11+00:00

    Beth,

    I was curious to see if there were any other subfolders, as you indicated, but there were none. Is this unusual?

    EditorMA

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-06-02T15:27:07+00:00

    Your file could be in any of the subfolders in the same area. For example it could be in \Content.IE5\YVLS0THD. If it ever happens again (hopefully it won't) then try looking in all of the available subfolders.

    As for the "please alert" doodah, I encounter the same issue. Many of us have reported it so hopefully it will be corrected. If you want to check for updates manually, after you sign into MS Answers you can use the "My Threads" link in the top right.

    ~Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-06-02T14:51:24+00:00

    Thanks for your help, Beth.

    I was indeed able to get into the correct directory, following your instructions above. But, interestingly, there were no files dated from that day. I wonder if this is related to the fact that I had to first follow instructions I found elsewhere here, to enable me to display hidden folders. I applied these last instructions (to display hidden folders) one day following the date of the document that I was trying to recover.

    At any rate, the document I lost is not that important -- so I don't have to pursue it any further.

    I would like, however, to know why I didn't get an alert that you responded to my query, even though I checked the "please alert" doodah.

    Thanks again,

    Editor MA

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