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
    2012-09-19T00:48:02+00:00

    Hey Beth...You rock! You just helped me recover a full day's effort with your method! You are the best...Thank you

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-09-17T09:29:59+00:00

    Hey Beth,

    The same thing happened to me and I went through all your steps. However I don't understand what to do after step 5. I posted the address in the search bar and it opened the file I had downloaded in word.... You said it could be somewhere nearby but all it did was open a word file... where do I look that is nearby??

    Thanks :)

    Brent

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-08-13T13:41:13+00:00

    I had the same problem using Office 2003. I had an additional problem that Windows Explorer would not show me all files, nor any directories in the already 'hidden' Temporary Internet Files directory. So there was not much to browse around...

    The show hidden files and directories option was 'on' in Windows explorer (but since I am working on a company PC, maybe other restrictions were applied). 

    However, when I used the cmd-prompt all my files were simply there! So I copied them using cmd, and recovered them.

    YESS! I'm happy, even though it took me over an hour, and I lost also about an hour's work to start with.

    Anyway, maybe this can help others, So I thought I would post my solution.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-07-19T11:03:15+00:00

    To those using Word 2010, the local address to the docx file is displayed once you click on the 'File' tab, under 'Information about ...' . Copy that address and paste it in the Start, but take out the name of your current docx file so that when you press enter it opens the folder and hopefully the docx file you are desperately looking for is there.

    Beth Melton,

    I don't know how to thank you right now, words fail me. Been working on a document due tomorrow and have been working on it until late today. Can you imagine how ridiculous and desperate I felt after realising what just happened. 2 hours trying everthing searching for it to no avail. Until you saved me!

    On a seperate note, Microsoft should seriously look into this issue. It is a mistake so easily made, and Word doesn't give any warning whatsoever, it saves it and closes happily...

    Joel

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