Autosave/backups in Office for Mac 2016 Preview

Anonymous

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!

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

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

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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

0 comments

93 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-04-15T11:32:49+00:00

Hi Annette,

That is really awful that you lost so much work. I would be physically sick if it happened to me.

Unfortunately, I don't have any magic method that can bring back a prior version of that file. If you scan back in this thread you will see the default path that MS uses for the AutoRecovery files that I shared. You can also check your Preferences/File Locations setting for a custom path that you might have set for these files but now have forgotten what that path is...

In the future you should not rely on AutoRecovery as your backup method. Instead go to

and set your preferences as the screen clip below shows.

The option to "Always create a backup copy" is really what you want to have marked. Every time you click Save the prior version of the file will be saved in the same folder as the source file. The name of the backup folder will be the name of the source file, so it's really easy to locate in Finder. Get into the habit of clicking Save often and then you'll always have at least one proper backup of your important file.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-04-13T23:21:13+00:00

Help. I can't find any autorecovery file on my Mac. I'm running OX Yosemite. I'm a fairly new Mac user. I've gone to Finder/go/home/library and searched in every place that I've seen indicated in posts. The auto save feature in my Mac Office 365 doesn't work. It's set to autosave every ten minutes but I've lost three days of work and over 3000 words. I'm heartbroken. The auto recovery file only turned up a copy three days old. I can't find anything more current. Is there any way I can find the file from 4/12?

Thanks,

Annette
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-04-05T03:30:26+00:00

Many thanks. I was looking where the old Word 2011 AutoRecovery folder was stored and had a small heart attack. You saved hours of lost work.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments