How do I recover an accidentally deleted, never-saved autorecovery file?

Anonymous
2012-06-22T22:34:15+00:00

When I opened another word document, it asked me whether I wished to keep the autorecovered file (which I'd forgotten about), and I accidentally said "no."  Realizing I still want it, I found the document in my recycle bin and clicked "restore," but now I can't find it anywhere.  Please help!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-06-22T23:21:59+00:00

On the File tab, select Recent. At the bottom, click Recover Unsaved Documents. If your document is not listed there, then you're out of luck.

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Anonymous
2012-06-23T10:55:20+00:00

Do you remember the name of the file?

If yes, you may use the Windows search and check if you find the file in your computer.

Enable hidden files and folders using the link below before doing the search:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Show-hidden-files

For information related to Windows search you may refer to the link mentioned below:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-search

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-15T00:42:10+00:00

    Go to recycle bin. If you are lucky, you will find a file named like "AutoRecovery save of blah blah.asd", where blah blah is the original file name! If you didn't find it there, search for it. It's still possible to find it left somewhere in your hard disk.

    Copy the file to somewhere. Do not restore, otherwise you will lose the file as you possibly don't know its original location. Drag and drop it from recycle bin to somewhere, say on your desktop.

    Word do not recognize this file extension, so you need some tricks here. As Suzanne told "On the File tab, select Recent. At the bottom, click Recover Unsaved Documents." Now copy and paste your recovery file to this folder (Unsaved Documents).

    Open it using word.

    Enjoy :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-08T21:02:59+00:00

    I had the same problem, Here is what happened:

    1. I mistakenly clicked do not save the auto-recovery files,
    2. I went to the recycle bin and found the file, then mistakenly clicked restore.
    3. I searched it by the name i saw in the recycle bin and the system couldn't find it (Note: I already fixed the folder options to show hidden files.

    So here's what i did, i searched my hard disk and went to the following directory:

    C:\Users\**My Username**\AppData (Hidden Folder)\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel

    And i found the file i restored sitting there. Note: I am using Excel 2007.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-06-23T01:53:22+00:00

    No luck, but thanks.  I hadn't seen the "Recover Unsaved Documents" tab, which I probably should have clicked before clicking "restore" in the recycle bin.  It's just odd that it was in the recycle bin, and went somewhere when I restored it, but is now nowhere to be found.

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