MS Word AutoRecovery File won't open

Question

Level 1

9 points

MS Word AutoRecovery File won't open

I've found an important Word document which was saved when Word crashed. It's in the AutoRecovery save directory. Great! But when I try to open it I get:

"Word experienced an error trying to open the file.

Try these suggestions.

* Check the file permissions for the document or drive.

* Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space.

* Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.

(AutoRecovery save of Rewilding Compos...)"

But there's no Text Recovery Converter that I know of.

How can I open this file?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Oct 11, 2025 1:26 PM

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Answer 1

ThomDennis Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 13, 2025 4:17 AM in response to Duncthetunk

Thanks - I managed to find the file and copied it to a normal directory before, as you say, Word deleted it.

It's almost as if they really designed this to be as difficult and as unhelpful as they could!

Weird

I loaded the file on a different Mac and after opening it in Repair mode 3 times, it seems now to be usable. I experimented with changing the file name to .doc and back to .docx and eventually it worked (and I had to persuade Word that the file was on my local drive as opposed to online, along the way). So many obstacles to something that surely could be simpler and more reliable.

I appreciate your response.

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Answer 2

Oct 13, 2025 2:29 AM in response to ThomDennis

Open Microsoft Word and look into your preferences. It should indicate somewhere what the autorecovery folder is.

Word deletes the autorecovery files if you close a document without saving. So if you've opened up the document and closed it once without using the autorecovery feature, you might have permanently lost the chance to recover it.

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