Autosave/backups in Office for Mac 2016 Preview

Anonymous
2015-03-09T15:58:42+00:00
Please check out How<br> to Recover Office for Mac files for the latest information on this topic.

So, tragically for some reason, I wrote an important document on my MacAir while I was flying two days ago.  I saved the document to my google drive (which would theoretically sync after I landed...or so I thought).  When i went to retrieve the document today...to may surprise...zero bytes!  

So the question: where does Office for Mac 2016 Preview save autosaves/backups on my mac?  If someone an tell me this, it would be great. 

Thanks!

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Anonymous
2015-03-09T22:36:33+00:00

Here's an update on AutoRecover in Office 2016.

It actually is working if you have the option to "Save AutoRecover info" turned on as shown in my previous post. The location it saves to is: 

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery/

Unfortunately, it's not easy to find and search will not display any files in that folder but it is saving to that location, so you have to know the path.

The other unfortunate thing for you personally regarding this specific issue, is that as soon as the open file closes, the AutoRecovery document, which was the last current snapshot of the full file you were working on at the time when the AutoRecovery version was made, is deleted. Said another way, the AutoRecovery file snapshots are temporary and are only retained if Word terminates abnormally. If Word thinks everything is "hunky dory" when it closes the file, then the AutoRecovery file is immediately deleted.

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Anonymous
2016-06-17T11:37:31+00:00

There are two types of file recovery/backup saving that Word performs.

The first is labeled AutoRecovery and it builds a temporary file based on a time frame that you control. This "recovery" file is automatically available to you if the system crashes. If the system does not crash and you close out of the document, the file is not retained. Unless you change where these AutoRecovery files are stored, which I suggest you do from Word > Preferences > File Locations..., the auto recovery file are very hard to access. The very important thing to remember about an AutoRecovery generated file is that it is temporary and the function has been shown to be rather unreliable.

The second I would call file overwrite protection and it stores the previous version of the file. Its value are for those moments when you accidentally save over a file that you shouldn't have. In Word, you turn this feature on from Word > Preferences > Save and then mark the "Always create a backup" check box. The way this function works is it is triggered by you clicking save, and before it overwrites the stored version of the file, a backup version is made... so with it turned on, you at least have one prior version of your file.

GUB is a 3rd party add-in product that replaces the "overwrite protection" function of Word. GUB does not change or enhance any of the AutoRecovery features of Word.

Because GUB is a 3rd party add-in product, it is not appropriate to try and diagnose on this forum why its Tab is not showing on your ribbon. Support for GUB is available from its website. However with that said, all add-ins to Word have to be "enabled" so you should check Tools > Templates & Add-ins and ensure it is marked. You also may need to quit Word completely and restart, before any add-in automatically enables. And finally, add-ins to Word 2016 require that you are running the currently released 15.22.1 version or higher of the Office 2016 for the Mac software.

Hope this helps

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-04-29T12:47:47+00:00

    Thanks for pointing out the location of the autosave file.

    I was able to find a file I spent the better part of today editing before the beta version of Word 2016 on my Mac crashed.  Unfortunately Word would not open it.  I tried various recovery methods without success.  Finally I decided to change the extension on the autosave file form .docx to .doc.  There were some formatting issues, but the content was there.  Word opened it and I was able to merge the changes into a previous version of the document.

    Big save.  Thank you.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-26T06:10:12+00:00

    Hi,

    A lot of people seem to have had the problem of losing Word for Mac 2016 documents.

    This post is to share my solution/setup.

    In most cases, just locating either the Backup or the AutoRecovery file helps out (others have already explained how to locate those, see Rich Michael's post).

    Despite me having Backup and AutoRecovery set up, I still sometimes lost documents (could not find the AutoRecovery file in the corresponding folder). I experienced this in two scenarios:

    a) Word crashing or Mac freezing

    b) Me unintentionally clicking "Don't Save" (for an unsaved document)

    This solution has saved me several times by now:

    What I do is upfront:

    Step 1: Set Word > Preferences > Save: Save to (X) Save AutoRecovery info. Save every: 3 minutes.

    Step 2: Set Word > Preferences > File Locations: AutoRecovery files: [a subfolder in your Dropbox folder]

    When I cannot find an AutoRecovery file, then:

    Step 3: Go to the corresponding Dropbox folder online, select "Show Deleted Files", select the file and click "Restore..." (if unsure about the file name, restore all AutoRecovery files and sort them by date, it will be the newest). Even if the document was unsaved and you clicked "Don't Save", the AutoRecovery file will be in Dropbox (unless you are working offline; I guess in that case, file-level recovery is your only hope then).

    The key to this setup is the cloud sync of the AutoRecovery folder. Of course, it does not need to be Dropbox in particular (this is what I use) but could be any other cloud service that syncs with a local folder and provides recovery.

    Note: In some case, Word 2016 does not open the recovered file. Try renaming DOCX to DOC. If that does not work, try opening with Word 2011.

    Hope my solution is helpful for others.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-01-03T23:15:15+00:00

    Hi a__15,

    You are right... I don't know why they took that option away. Unbelievable! Well all might not be lost...

    You can download my FREE add-in to Excel 2016, which is called GOT-UR-BACK, and it will create the backup files you need. Click the link and it will tell you a bit more about the product. It is free so don't worry that you have to put it into an online shopping cart. It's only my way of keeping the some of the hacker zombies at bay. You do have to enter a real email address in order for the site to give you the download link... BUT

    Please don't worry about getting spammed to death. That's not part of my value set. If you like it, then use it and tell others about it.

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