Lost a "Saved" file that I worked on from an email attachment

Anonymous
2010-04-29T14:47:01+00:00

I downloaded an attachment and forgot to put it into one of my Word folders; I just started working on it as a Word document.  It had the name of the attachment so I was not as aware that I had forgotten to save it in a file.  I worked on it for hours and frequently hit "save", which it appeared to do.  I wanted to send it to someone so I closed the file and then I couldn't find it anywhere.  Is it completely gone or saved somewhere I can't find it?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2010-04-29T15:05:00+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:

Word 2010-2016

  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 attachment 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 File, and then click Info.
  3. At the top, below the name of the file, locate the document path. It will be similar to the path shown in the screenshot at the bottom of this post next to E-mail attachment.
  4. Click in the path (after you click in that area, it will turn into a text box) and select only the file path, as shown in the screenshot.
  5. Press Ctrl + C to copy it.
  6. Press the Windows Key + E to open the File Explorer. (Or use an alternate method to open it)
  7. Paste the copied file path in the Address bar (Ctrl + V) and press Enter.

These above 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 the file.

Word 2007

  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.

Note that if you're not using Word 2007 then please let us know the version of Word you are using so that we can provide the necessary steps. For previous versions, to find your version of Word, click Help and then click About Microsoft Word.


~Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP

Was this answer helpful?

600+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2018-02-07T17:49:01+00:00

Did you try the steps in the solution? To recap and update the instructions for Word 2016:

  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 attachment 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 File, and then click Info.
  3. At the top, below the name of the file, locate the document path. It will be similar to the path shown in the screenshot at the bottom of this post next to E-mail attachment.
  4. Click in the path (after you click in that area, it will turn into a text box) and select only the file path, as shown in the screenshot.
  5. Press Ctrl + C to copy it.
  6. Press the Windows Key + E to open the File Explorer. (Or use an alternate method to open it)
  7. Paste the copied file path in the Address bar (Ctrl + V) and press Enter.

These above 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 the file.

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

150 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2013-04-30T03:30:19+00:00

    I do not think Beth is actually with Microsoft.  She is an Microsoft MVP (as are many here).  MVPs do NOT work for Microsoft.

    "when a person hits control s to save, the document should save, regardless of whether it arrived on an email!"

    But it DOES save it.  You have not saved it to any location so the email attachment is NOT - repeat NOT - on your local drive.  So it saves it where it came from...the temporary files (i.e. emails). 

    So yes, CTRL-S does in fact save the file.  But because NO OTHER location has been specified (by you), it saves it the best it can.

    And yes Microsoft has known about it for years, and for years Microsoft has strongly recommended saving email attachments to disk, and THEN opening them.  Thye recommended this for precisely the reasons expressed here.

    There is no fix really possible.  For this reason on our network we disable opening email attachments.  Our staff can not open attachments.  Period.  Actually we disabled things because we got sued.  A contract was edited and changed by a staff member, thinking that the original file was saved.  It was not.  The email attachment was saved, NOT the original.  The court decided that regardless of what WE thought the file stated, the only relevant document was what the outside company received from us.  It is called good faith.  They had no idea what changes we thought were made, they could only be responsible for what they actually got.

    I feel for your pain on this, really I do.  Hopefully you can get your document back.  But from this point forward, it really is best to save attachments to disk before opening them.  It is the only truly safe solution.  Microsoft is not going to "fix" this.  Other than maybe always giving a warning message to you when you open attachments.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Stefan Blom 351.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-04-30T07:07:21+00:00

    To see who is actually working for Microsoft, look at the FAQ: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/Page/faq. In particular, see the "Who's who in the forums" section.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-05-03T03:30:38+00:00

    Thank you so much.  This worked like a charm.  Forever grateful to you smart ones.

    gwenb

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments