Word is not saving changes to documents

Something similar has happened to me with the home PC I have been working on.

I've spent the week (Sunday-Thursday) adding to a particular document (can call it 'example'), which I saved on a daily basis obviously to work on it again the next day, the title of the document was not changed during this time.

On the Thursday of that week I finally finished my work, I saved it with a different name (i.e. 'examplefinal,' and yes I definitely saved it), the save was made at around 8pm, and when I had the document after the save, it had the new title and all the changes there. I closed the document, and saved it on my USB and GoogleDrive account (with the changed name, so the only save ever made with that name 'examplefinal' was at the end of that week after the final changes made on thursday).

However, it is now the following Saturday, I opened 'examplefinal', to find that it was the exact same word document from the beginning of the week (which feels impossible as that file had been continuously edited, closed and reopened with the changes), in complete disbelief I continued to check the file on my USB and Google Drive, only to find the exact same issue. But I didn't panic, as most the changes I made occurred on the Sunday until the Wednesday before I saved the final draft under this new name, so realistically I should have been able to open the original file to find all the changes I made until I saved as a new name, therefore only losing my work done on Thursday (so about half a page of text).

This was not the case, I opened the original 'example' files to find none of the changes I made after Monday were there. I checked the last save on the file and it was on the Monday, but I had been editing and adding to the document the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there had to of been a save for me to have continued working and reopening on those changes day after day.

I have looked at every file in that folder on the PC, on my USB and Google Drive, I have looked into 'Manage Document' and at the Unsaved Files in the Office folder on both the 'example' and 'examplefinal', and there is nothing. I have looked for recovered files on my USB just in case I deleted it, (this was an extremely important piece of work, and I had to do a thorough search because I knew I saved it). But there is nothing showing I was working on 'example' during this week, there is no save showing the changes I made to that document before I even saved as 'examplefinal.'

I have accepted my work is gone, I feel distraught but I have looked on several replies on this thread and searched the internet for fixes, but nothing has worked so far. I just thought I'd report this in hopes that if anyone finds the cause of this issue they can fix it ASAP. I'm in my final year of uni and right now I'm worried I'm going to have to screen shot every important or assessed piece of work in fear this will happen again, luckily it wasn't my dissertation but it was an essential document for my job applications.

Where did you save the document when you saved it as ExampleFinal?

Hey,

I saved the file on the PC, then when I was sure it was saved I closed it and copies it onto a USB and my Google Drive.

If it is no longer in that folder on the PC, then you must have either moved it to the USB drive or deleted it.

To be sure that you don't move a file when dragging and dropping, use Copy and Paste.

I did use copy and paste, and I have done recovery scans for deleted file with nothing there, there are the files ‘example’ and ‘examplefinal’, however one both the USB and the PC the last save was on the monday, which cant have been the case because I made changes to the ‘example’ file on the tuesday-thursday, to which I would close the document on a night (i.e. tuesday) and open it to find my changes there the next day (i.e. the wednesday), but now when i look at the file on the PC and USB it says the file has not been changed since that monday. Also, the ‘examplefinal’ document did not exist prior to the thursday, I only saved as the file to a different name once the work on it was complete, so how is it when I open it the document is the one I opened and began savihg on the monday? I have opened that document every day and worked on it, I have done the auto recovery and used programs to check I have not deleted it or clicked on another file during the saving process so ot saves as a different name, but there is no sign of the changes i made or that i even opened thefile after monday.