Word crashed before I saved. Can I recover my unsaved document?

Question

I was writing a 15 page report for 3 hours, never saved it once, and Word crashed and closed. When I reopened it there was nothing in the recovery panel. Is it gone?

Mariya Beckham · Accepted Answer

Not necessarily. Try these in order:

1. In Word click File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents. Look for your file by time.
2. Open the folder directly: C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles. Files there have names like "Document1((Unsaved-12345)).asd". Copy the file out and open it with File > Open in Word.
3. Check the AutoRecover folder: File > Options > Save shows the "AutoRecover file location". Browse it.
4. Search the PC for *.asd and *.wbk.

Word saves AutoRecover copies every 10 minutes by default, so you should lose at most a few minutes.

Karen Mills · Answer

Found it in UnsavedFiles! A file saved at 8:50 pm. It has most of the report. Is there a way to get the last 20 minutes?

Eddie Thwan · Answer

Open that file first and do Save As right away to a normal .docx so it is safe. Then check for newer copies: look in the AutoRecover folder for a file with a later time, and look for temp files starting with ~WRL in the same folder as your document.

If the file was on OneDrive or SharePoint, also check File > Info > Version History. Some of the missing text may be there.

Going forward set AutoRecover to every 3 minutes (File > Options > Save) and save the document once with a name as soon as you start.

Karen Mills · Answer

Version history did not help since it was local, but the 8:50 file plus my memory got me most of it back. Saved with a name now and set AutoRecover to 3 minutes. Thanks!