is there anyway to recover an older version of a word document after most of it was accidentally deleted and the document saved?

I deleted multiple pages of a document that I have been working on for 3 weeks and unknowingly saved these changes. Any possible way of recovering the older version?

MacBook Pro, microsoft word

Posted on Jul 17, 2011 7:53 PM

Reply
3 replies

Sep 26, 2017 8:28 PM in response to klm2v9

Sorry about the problem you are having with Microsoft Word. Recent document locations will only work if the file has not been relocated and it seems your document has somehow moved or disappeared. I cannot stress how important saving your document as you are working on it. One possible option left is to see if Word has created an .asd file copy. Word automatically saves an .asd copy of your work just in case the computer crashes. Normally after a restart, Word will open up a recovery window pane, providing you with a list of recoverable documents.
If it doesn’t try the steps below:
1. Open Microsoft Word
2. Click on the File Tab and Options
3. Select the Save option located in the Word Options dialog box
4. Under Save documents locate the AutoRecover File Location: and Copy it
5. Open up File Explorer (the folder is located on the Task bar)
6. Paste it in the address and hit the Enter key
7. Look for a folder with %20 (plus your file name) and Open it
8. Inside the folder look for the file with the .asd extension (will have %20 in the name)
9. Click on it once and Copy the file (don’t try an open it)
10. Navigate back to Word open a new blank document and Paste
11. Save the document
12. Double click on the text to continue typing.

Maybe you can try uFlysoft Data Recovery for Mac, it can recover LOST DATA on Mac only in three steps:

Step 1. Launch the software to scan the device where your files deleted

Step 2: Preview the scan result files and make mark if it is the one you find

Step 3: Recover files

Jul 17, 2011 8:00 PM in response to klm2v9

Oh gosh. Not a good place to be.


If your doing something important like that in the future, always make a backup copy by emailing it to yourself. So it's on your webmail/email whenever you lose it. And always make backups of your data with Time Machine for instance.


Do you have Time Machine? Has it been running? if the answer is yes, then absolutely it is recoverable.


If the answer is, that you don't have any backup software running to an external drive, then unfortunately I have no positive news for you. Unless of course you haven't exited out of the document. You should be able to just hit undo a few times.


Your other option is data recovery software. But this would require you to stop using the drive immediately, and it is a long process. I'm not sure it would be of much use in your case.


Others might have some other opinions though.


Sorry it's not good news.

Jul 17, 2011 8:21 PM in response to klm2v9

Just found this, give it a quick go, but don't get your hopes up over ~7%.


Finding AutoRecovered files in Mac OS X

Word for Mac OS X saves the AutoRecovered file as

AutoRecoversave of filename
, where
filename
is the name ofthe document on which you were working. The default AutoRecoverlocation is:

/Users/username/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office version AutoRecovery/Autorecovery save of filename

Replace

username
with the short name of your account inMac OS X,
Office version
with the version of Office youhave, and
filename
with the name of the document. Ifit's not there, try searching for it with Spotlight, which you canaccess from the magnifying glass icon in the top right of theFinder menu bar. Once you find the file, drag it to theDesktop. Double-click it, or, from Word's
File
menu, choose
Open...
to browse to and open the file.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

is there anyway to recover an older version of a word document after most of it was accidentally deleted and the document saved?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.