Level 1

2 points

How to find a lost file in Microsoft Office Autorecovery

Hi - This isn't really a question, though it would have been a couple of hours ago.

After saving all his files, closing them and closing all apps, my husband rebooted his Mac Pro (Lion). When it restarted, his key Excel file wasn't there. There was no trace of it in Finder, and no trace in Time Machine. A search by Date Modified or File Name didn't show the file anywhere, either. It was like it had been sucked out of the computer and the Time Machine hard drive completely.

Cheering as that thought is, there is another answer.

Microsoft Office has an Autorecovery function that saves files when, for example, there's a power failure. These files are located on the home drive, in the Library (press Option when you click "GO" in the Finder command line at the top of the screen, otherwise Library is invisible). In Library, there is a folder called Application Support. In that folder are folders for a number of applications, one of which is Microsoft. In the Microsoft folder, there is a folder called Office. In that folder are a number of folders, one of which is Office 2011 AutoRecovery. Click that, and any files saved by the autorecovery function will appear.

Hierarchically:

Finder

Library

Application Support

Microsoft

Office

Office 2011 AutoRecovery

The key thing to realize here is that a file which gets saved in Autorecovery DOES NOT appear in any searches by date modified, name of file, etc. It's as if it is hidden completely after being saved. When you turn the computer back on after a power failure, the file pops up and does say something about recovery, but if you're not looking for it, it's easy to miss. As long as you have the file open and keep saving, there's no problem - it's just that when you close it, it seems to have disappeared completely!

I found this information on the Microsoft help pages under a slightly different heading:

http://http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2650066#Method3

So for what it's worth, that's the story, and I hope it saves someone the sheer panic of not being able to find a file in Office.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Sep 8, 2012 5:35 PM

Top-ranking reply

Sierra Mike Kilo

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Jul 21, 2017 4:30 PM

Hi Folks,

I had this issue last night and I could find your path - I was stuck after 'Go'! Could not find 'Library' anywhere.

Called the lovely Apple Support Folk and the extra little trick is to search for the folder instead via Spotlight. Although a normal search won't bring it up, therefore try:

Hit Command + Space bar,
Type: ~/Library,
Hit Return

Then follow the prompts:

Application Support

Microsoft

Office

Office 2011 AutoRecovery

Happy Searching! :-)

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202 replies

margb Author

Level 1

2 points

Jan 19, 2015 9:09 PM in response to excelexcel

Hi, excelexcel, sorry I don't monitor this regularly. By any chance, did you go Computer/Macintosh HD/ Library/Application Support/Microsoft? That is a different library, one that doesn't require pressing "option" when you click on "GO" in finder. In the hierarchy, be sure to press the option key BEFORE you click "GO" in Finder, then click on the "Library" which only appears if the option key is pressed. If you have Microsoft Office on your computer, you should find the rest of the file tree. Let me know? Good luck!

Sawae

Level 1

0 points

Jan 24, 2015 5:57 AM in response to margb

OMG .... u just saved me.... i was about to lose an important document

ewhalle1

Level 1

0 points

Feb 1, 2015 1:05 AM in response to margb

well, I had tried everything- temporary folder searches, panicking, etc. this was it. this is what worked. thank you so much. i recovered a massive part of my dissertation. i cannot thank you enough.

margb Author

Level 1

2 points

Feb 1, 2015 9:39 AM in response to ewhalle1

Hi, ewhalle1,

So glad you recovered your hard work in large part. The panic part is no fun at all! Please consider a flash drive backup that you routinely update every day. In the time since the original post, just knowing that my husband's key files were backed up on both time machine and a flash drive has saved me so much stress. Good luck with your dissertations!

marg

Ken Choi

Level 1

0 points

Feb 1, 2015 8:30 PM in response to margb

Thanks for the info. After much attempts, I managed to get the the "Office 2011 AutoRecovery" folder. However there is nothing in it, despite the fact that under Preference of Power Point, I did set an autosave interval of 10 minutes. So disappointed!!

margb Author

Level 1

2 points

Feb 1, 2015 8:41 PM in response to Ken Choi

Hi, Ken,

As I've said before, I'm not a Microsoft expert by any means, but I believe in the worth of search engines. That's how I found the information that I wrote up in the first place! To see if there was something that might help you, I just did a search on "what does autosave do in Microsoft Office for Mac", and got a long list of hits.

You could try the same kind of search, or alternatively go to the Microsoft Office support site, and see if you can find something helpful there. I'm sure there is a solution, especially if you went to the trouble of autosaving your documents.

Hope you are able to find them.

Feb 23, 2015 8:36 AM in response to margb

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! You saved me a lot of time and trouble! That trick for finding the Library folder was gold!!

Mar 4, 2015 6:33 AM in response to margb

You saved me. Thanks! I had given up hope and started packing to runaway to the Amazon but now I don't have to. I was looking forward to it actually. Now that I think about it, I'm mad at you. IF you hadn't saved me I would be headed down the Amazon river with some exotic babes on my arms. Curse you and your helpful post!

Mar 6, 2015 11:06 AM in response to margb

Thank you so much u just saved my life and 5 hrs of work🙂 i just made a list of my brothers wedding invitation and just before saving word crashed😠.

found my lost file by your method. once again thank you & god bless you.😁

rtz12

Level 1

0 points

Mar 18, 2015 8:57 AM in response to jcmckinn

Thank you so much for posting this! This is exactly where my file was. I have had the same file mysteriously "move" 2 different times and I haven't been able to find it and have had to redo the work again. This fixed it. I also need the final for an exam and had typed out notes and potential exam questions.

Thanks again!

Mar 30, 2015 11:04 PM in response to margb

Two links worth a shot:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macword/how-do-i-retr ieve-an-unsaved-word-file-on-a-mac/936ebc5e-359c-41b7-881b-d128ffe0c6cc

http://www.slideshare.net/Selena2014/word-document-recovery-mac-recover-unsaved- deleted-and-damaged-word-documentdoc-docx-mountain-lion

Mar 30, 2015 11:24 PM in response to margb

THANK YOU SO MUCH. This was very helpful and I was able to retrieve my document that I spent 2.5 hours drafting. The strange this is that I was manually saving the documents every 2-3 minutes and the Autosave was on but it did not save any changes. It reverted back to my prior draft before changes. Weird!!!

hmacnear

Level 1

0 points

Apr 5, 2015 4:41 PM in response to margb

I tried everything, all the suggestions on this entire thread and none of them work.

My powerpoint presentation is gone. It's not available in the temporary items folder, the auto recovery folder, even when I 'Un-hide' hidden folders via the terminal.

Anything I'm missing????

Apr 10, 2015 2:49 AM in response to margb

fabulous post ! thank you !!!

Apr 13, 2015 12:44 AM in response to margb

You are amazing!!! You completely saved my *** and deserve so much praise! THANK YOU.

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How to find a lost file in Microsoft Office Autorecovery