On the Word menu, click Preferences. Under Personal Settings, click File Locations. Under File locations, click AutoRecover files, and then click Modify. Find the location where you want to automatically save files, and then click Open. Find the document that you are trying to recover. Please note that, as you may notice, they are not Word files. Find the document you want to open and right-click (or control-click) it and then select Open With Microsoft Word. Note that not all documents may be recoverable. Save your documents while editing to avoid losing data. When you try to open a Microsoft Word for Mac document, Word for Mac stops responding. Additionally, you may have to use the Force Quit command to exit the program. Step 1: Clear the Auto Recovery folder. Try to clear the Auto Recovery folder. To do this, follow these steps: On the Go menu, click Home.
- Part 1: How to recover unsaved Word document on Mac with AutoRecover
- Part 2: Recover unsaved Word document on Mac if AutoRecover fails
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When Microsoft Word suddenly crashes or powers off, you might not have time to save the Word file. In order to recover unsaved Word document on Mac, you can simply open the Word program again. If you have turned on the AutoRecover feature, you can recover the lost Word document on Mac due to force quit or power off.
What should you do if you cannot find the desired Word document? Just check out the files from AutoRecover folder or Temporary Folder. If it is not available, you can also use FoneLab Data Retriever to restore the unsaved Word document within few clicks.
Just read on the article to get a workable solution now.
Guide List
1. How to recover unsaved Word document on Mac with AutoRecover
AutoRecover is a feature of Microsoft Office to retrieve the unsaved Word document on Mac automatically. Be default, it will save the Word document every 10 minutes. Just make sure the feature is turn on from Preferences > Output and Sharing > Save. Tweak the parameters in Save every 10 minutes.
Solution 1: Recover unsaved Word document on Mac with Word
Step 1Launch the Word program again. Whether the program crashes or the Mac power off, you can restart the Word to retrieve unsaved Word document on Mac. Usually Word will start another version as recovered Word.
Step 2If it is not available, you can go to File > Save, which you can check the restored Word document on Mac. Open the unsaved document of Word directly on your computer.
Note: If the Mac just turn off without saving the Word document, you have to wait till the program automatically retrieve the files with a large RAM.
Solution 2: Restore unsaved Word on Mac from AutoRecover location
Step 1Open the AutoRecover location on Mac according to different MacOS. Here is an example for the AutoRecover location.
Office Word 2016/2019:
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery
Office Word 2011:
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Office 2011 AutoRecovery
Step 2Launch the Finder, click Go > Go to folder and enter the above address to locate the recover unsaved Word document on Mac.
Step 3Check out whether the Word documents are the one you have not saved with Word on Mac. After that you can the Word document on Mac.
Solution 3: Retrieve unsaved Word on Mac from Temporary folder
Step 1Go to Finder > Application > Terminal to open the Terminal on your Mac. You can also click the Launchpad on your Mac and choose the Terminal from Utilities.
Step 2After that you can enter the command line open $TMPDIR and open the Temporary file folder with the unsaved Word document. Select the folder named TemporaryItems with ~Word.tmp documents.
Step 3Copy and paste the text to Word, you can only recover part of the unsaved Word document on Mac from temporary files in the way. You can compile the whole according to your memory.
You can also read about how to recover word from hard drive.
2. Recover unsaved Word document on Mac if AutoRecover fails
Open Recovered Files Word Mac
If you still cannot restore the unsaved Word document on Mac with above solution, FoneLab Data Retriever should be a professional data recovery to retrieve unsaved, deleted, overwritten and lost Word document with ease. Moreover, it enables you to retrieve files from Mac, hard drive, flash drive, memory card, SD card and more other devices.
- Retrieve unsaved, deleted, lost, overwritten Word document on Mac.
- Support Word versions with Office 2011, Office 2016 and Office 2019.
- Keep the original Word document files without storing or modifying.
- Both Quick Scan and Deep Scan to retrieve unsaved Word document.
FoneLab Data Retriever - recover the lost/deleted data from computer, hard drive, flash drive, memory card, digital camera and more.
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Step 1Download and install Deleted Word Recovery on Mac. Launch the program and choose the Mac Data Recovery option. If you need to retrieve the files from hard drive or other device, you should connect the device first.
Step 2Select the Document option and choose the drive you want to retrieve the unsaved Word document on Mac. After that you can choose the Quick Scan mode and click the Scan button to retrieve the files.
Step 3After the scanning process, you can find all retrieved unsaved document in the DOCX folder. You can simply search for the name or the created data to get the unsaved Word according to your requirement.
Step 4Once you locate the file, you can retrieve the unsaved Word document on Mac by clicking the Recover button. After that you can check out the retrieved unsaved Word document on your Mac.
If you are a Windows user, you can learn how to recover unsaved word document in Windows.
Conclusion
If you just lost some unsaved Word document on Mac, open the Word and get back the files from AutoRecover should be the first choice. Even if you cannot locate the Word documents from the application, you can still check out the Word AutoRecover folder or Temporary Files to recover them.
But when you cannot get the Word documents with above solutions. Just download FoneLab Data Retriever to recover the unsaved Word document on Mac for you with ease.
More queries about the methods to get back the files, you can share more detailed information in the comments.
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Word is a great processor for users to create documents. However, there are some problems while creating or editing Word documents, like unsaved the Word doc while the computer is shut down, or need the previous version of Word doc, or want to recover deleted Word document on Mac. Here in the following, we covered several ways for how to recover Word document on Mac. You can download the tool to do the task efficiently.
Download for macOSDownload for Windows'How do I restore a previous version of a Word document on Mac or recover unsaved Word document on Mac? A few minutes ago, my office suddenly shut down automatically. Today, I added the charts is gone. I really hope there is any way to help me.'
like these Disasters happen every day! If you’re looking for how to recover a Word document on Mac, you’re in the right place. This article covers all the detailed guides to recover previous version of Word document on Mac with Office history versions, restore unsaved Word document on Mac from AutoRecover folder and use the professional software to retrieve deleted Word document on Mac. You just need to skip to the right part you’re looking for and follow the steps there to achieve your goal. Let’s start to Mac Word recovery now!
- Quick Navigation
- Part 1. How to Recover Previous Version of Word Document on Mac for Free
- Part 2. How to Restore Unsaved Word on Mac
- Part 3. How to Recover Word Document on Mac after Deleted/Lost
Part 1. How to Recover Previous Version of Word Document on Mac for Free
To be honest, the theory for how to recover previous version of Word document on Mac is similar to the autoSave/autoRecover in Microsoft Word. In fact, whenever you edit , duplicate, delete or make a change of a Word document, Microsoft Word will automatically save the previous version there for you, in case you need the previous version. Here are the steps to recover lost word document on Mac:
A: Recover an old version of Word document on Mac from Office 365
Office 365 is the latest version of Microsoft's Office software. It provides a web service that allows multiple people to collaborate on a task. Therefore, it can better manage the historical version of the Word document. If you're using it and want to Mac Word restore the previous version. You just click the name of the file on the title bar, then select 'Browse Version History' to view all the previous version of Word Doc.
B: Recover previous of Word document on Mac from Office 2011/2016/2018/2020
The old version of Microsoft Office is a native program that allows only one user to use it, and different versions have different ways of finding the previous version of the Word document on Mac.
Open the current Word document, If you're using Office 2016 or 2020 for Mac, please click 'File' > 'Browse Version History'.
If you use another version, please click 'File' > 'Restore' > 'Browse Version History'.
Note: Compared with the previous version, if you haven’t done many changes for the current Word document, you can back to it by pressing the Command + Z buttons at the same time. It helps you undo the changes and recover previous version of Word document on Mac.
Part 2. How to Recover Unsaved Word Document on Mac
Open Recovered Microsoft Word Files Mac Free
There are many scenarios that caused the issue of unsaved Word document: shut down Mac without saving the Word document; the Microsoft Word program crashed and not responsive so that you have to quit it without saving the document; the computer crashed, and you haven’t had time to save the word document at all. Please calm down. It is not a big deal for not being able to save Word document, because solutions available for you to recover unsaved Word document on Mac. First, please note that Microsoft Office has arranged the Word document recovery Mac solution in case of any the up-mentioned scenarios happen. It comes with 2 built-in features: AutoRecover and AutoSave.
AutoRecover allows you to recover Word document not saved on Mac which you have edited for more than once. It refers to recover the unsaved Word files which you haven’t saved after making changes on it more than once. This feature appears the next time open the Word document, popping up a reminder, asking you whether you’d like to restore the current Word to the last saved version or not. It’s up to you for restoring to which version.
AutoSave is a built-in tool that automatically saves a new document that you have created but not saved yet. It is enabled by default on your Microsoft Word on Mac. Here are the steps for how to use AutoSave to recover unsaved Word document on Mac.
1. Select 'Go' > 'Go to Folder' in the top menu. Then input '/Users/(username)/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery' to view the unsaved files.
2. Select the auto-saved Word document, copy it to a location on your Mac. At this point, you have successfully recover Word document not saved on Mac.
If you unexpected close other Office applications without saving files on Mac? Don't worry, You can also use the above method to recover unsaved excel file on Mac and recover PowerPoint on Mac.
Part 3. How to Recover Deleted/Lost Word Document on Mac
If you haven’t done any Word document deletion, then you can try Part 1 or Part 2 to Word recovery on Mac. However, if you have lost the Word documents on Mac due to deleted, formatted drive, or emptied the trash, etc, then you should try the following ways to recover deleted Word document on Mac.
Ways 1: Recover Deleted Word Document on Mac from Trash
If you have deleted the Word document, you should know that it is first put into Trash Can. And the validated period for it to stay is 30 days. You can open the trash can, find and select it, and click 'Restore' to save it to the original place. You can also try the spotlight on the very top right if you have remembered its name, search there, find it and drag it to the desktop. If you empty the Mac trash or permanently delete, formatted drive or other reasons due to a lost word file on Mac, you can free try the tool to recover Word document on Mac.
Ways 2: Recover Permanently Deleted Word Document on Mac
To restore lost Word Document on Mac with software. It is the most efficient way to recover Word document on Mac for lost or delete files are invisible, you can’t do anything to them without a tool. iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac is such a tool that allows you to scan and recover deleted photos, documents, emails, videos and more from Mac or removable drives. Here are the simple steps for how to recover Word document on Mac.
Your Effective Recover Word Document Mac Software
- It can recover Word document on Mac due to accidentally deleted, empty trash, formatted hard disk, virus attack, reinstallation or Mac OS X upgrade etc.
- Ability to preview missing files to ensure Mac Word document recovery quality.
- Supports recover Word file from almost all storage devices, such as hard drives, memory cards, digital cameras, players, USB drives and more.
Step-by-step Guide for How to Recover a Word Document on Mac
First of all, please download the latest version of the Word recovery Mac tool by clicking the download button below. Install it as the way you install other software on your Mac.
1. Run the software on your Mac. From the main window, you can see all the supported files are selected, the recover word document Mac tool is ready to scan for them. You need to uncheck them, only keep the 'Documents' option selected and click 'Start' to select your drive.
2. All storage devices, as well as external hard drives connected to your Mac, are listed there. Please select the one where you have deleted or lost the Word files and click 'Scan'. A recover Word documents Mac progress bar will tell you how it goes on with the scanning process.
3. It only takes a few minutes for this program to scan for the deleted or lost files. After then, you can see the found Word Doc in the result window. Find the one you need and click 'Recover' to save Word documents on your Mac or other drives.
Download iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover Word Document on Mac!