Microsoft Office 2022: How to Recover an Unsaved File

If you accidentally closed an Office document without saving it, or maybe a Word document you've been working on crashed, don't panic.

By default, Office applications automatically save temporary backup copies of your documents as you work and there is a chance that you can recover them.

You would be well served to put more preventative measures in place before you run into this problem, so when you do, you know exactly how to handle it.

Back up your computer regularly and consider turning on the file version feature of Windows first. With that said, if you do run into this issue with an unsaved Office file, here's how to recover it.

How to Effectively Recover an Unsaved Office File

These steps are almost identical in other Microsoft 365 applications such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.

It will be the same in Microsoft Office 2021 as well. Also, the recovery feature has been around for a long time, so if you are using an older version of an Office app, like Microsoft Word 2016 or even Microsoft Word 2007, you will still be able to attempt recovery.

You might just have to check around for a bit for the actual commands.

There are two ways that you can follow to recover an unsaved file, and you can choose which one suits you best, according to HowtoGeek.

Recover Unsaved File with Recover Unsaved Documents Button

The fastest way is to Open up Word or any other Office program, then choose "Open" tab. Click the "Recover Unused Documents" button near the bottom right of the Window.

Then all you need to do is to choose the unsaved file that you want.

Recover an Unsaved File with the Manage Document Button

You can also use the Manage Document button by opening the Office application that you were working in where your file did not get saved. Choose the File menu.

Choose "Info" in the File menu.

On the Info page, choose "Manage Documents" and from the drop-down menu, select "Recover Unsaved Documents." Note that you have an option for deleting all unsaved documents should you want to do that.

The UnsavedFiles folder has all of the unsaved files Microsoft Office has created temporary backups for. Choose the file that you need and then select Open.

Microsoft office applications save temporary backups of files at periodic intervals, and it does this automatically. It is saved every 10 minutes by default, so you file should contain most of the work that you have lost, according to Windows Central.

Change How the Microsoft Office Apps Save Files

You can also change how each Microsoft Office application saves these temporary files, including where the files are saved, how often they are saved, and whether a temporary file is kept if you close a document without saving it.

Go back to the File menu, and choose Options. In that page, click Save and look for the section that says "Save Documents." The top few options are what you are looking for.

According to Business Insider, if autosaving every 5 to 10 minutes seem too long, you can change the interval setting to whatever you want. You can set it to autosave from every one minute to 120 minutes.

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Written by Sophie Webster