Try these options in order until the file is found or recovered:
- Check the Recycle Bin on the PC
- On the desktop, double‑click Recycle Bin.
- Look for the file name.
- If it is there, right‑click it and select Restore. The file will return to its original location (for example, Desktop or Documents).
- Check if the file was in OneDrive
If the Desktop is synced with OneDrive, the file may have been deleted or moved there.
- Go to the OneDrive website and sign in.
- In the left pane, select Recycle bin.
- Select the file (or files) and choose Restore. They will be restored to their original OneDrive folder (for example, Desktop or Documents under OneDrive).
- Search for the file on the PC
- Open File Explorer.
- In the search box (top‑right), type part of the file name or a word you know is in the name.
- Let the search complete on This PC to see if the file was moved to another folder.
- Restore a previous version of the folder (if File History/restore points exist)
- Open File Explorer and go to the folder where the file was last saved (for example, Desktop or Documents).
- Right‑click that folder and select Restore previous versions.
- In the Previous Versions tab, select a version from a date when the file still existed.
- To check it first, select Open (or Open in File History if available) and look for the file.
- If the file is present, select Restore to put the folder back to that state, or Restore to… to copy it to a different location so current files are not overwritten.
- If the file was an Office document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and was open yesterday
If the app or PC closed unexpectedly and the file was never properly saved, an AutoRecover copy might exist:
- Open the same Office app (Word/Excel/PowerPoint).
- Open any document, then go to File > Info.
- Under Manage Document / Manage Workbook / Manage Presentation, look for a file labeled (when I closed without saving) and select it.
- If it opens and is the correct file, choose Restore (for saved files) or Save As (for unsaved files) to save it again.
If the file does not appear in Recycle Bin, OneDrive recycle bin, previous versions, or Office AutoRecover, there is no supported built‑in Windows method in this context to restore it.
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