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Recovering unsaved word doc on OSX

Hi, Can anyone advise how I recover an unsaved word document on OSX 10.8.4 using office 2011? Thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Netgear DGND3700 modem router

Posted on Jul 1, 2013 6:48 AM

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Posted on Feb 10, 2017 6:23 AM

None of the suggestions on this helped me but I figured it out!!


I was having an absolute nightmare, I accidentally deleted an entire section of my dissertation without noticing and then saved the document so needed to find a previous version to restore that section.


I went into documents where the file was, right clicked it and opened with text edit. Went into file, then revert to, then browse all versions. This opens a new page with the current version on the left and all other previous versions on the right.


I know this thread is for recovering an entire document that cannot be found in the first place but I'm sure I wasn't the first and won't be the last for this situation!!

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Question marked as Best reply

Feb 10, 2017 6:23 AM in response to scott163

None of the suggestions on this helped me but I figured it out!!


I was having an absolute nightmare, I accidentally deleted an entire section of my dissertation without noticing and then saved the document so needed to find a previous version to restore that section.


I went into documents where the file was, right clicked it and opened with text edit. Went into file, then revert to, then browse all versions. This opens a new page with the current version on the left and all other previous versions on the right.


I know this thread is for recovering an entire document that cannot be found in the first place but I'm sure I wasn't the first and won't be the last for this situation!!

Jul 9, 2017 9:43 PM in response to OzKenny83

Other options if you didn't click save for the auto recover version!

  • Look in your trash for a "Recovered items" folder
  • Go to the Finder, select Go > Go to folder, type/private/var/folders and look for files named "Word Work File" inside a "Temporary items" folder.* Option drag files or folders to the Desktop (or anywhere else) before dropping them on Word's icon. Don't delete anything!
However, the chances of finding anything useful are remote.



To avoid losing data in the future, save your files as soon as you create them. To reduce the chance that this will happen again, follow Jim Gordon's tip to verify/repair your disk. Also use that same utility to repair permissions (there's abutton to do that).



* Pressing Command F (i.e., File > Find) and searching for "Word Work File" worked for user Lyn Yeowart.

Jan 4, 2017 4:45 PM in response to scott163

Hi,


I had similar problem on Word 15 on MacOS 10.11 El Capitan, maybe thsi will be helpfil to someone. I wrote quite a long doc and haven't saved it, then tried to email it, then the whole thing crashed.


After extensive search i fund my doc in the following folder:


macintosh HD / users / [user] /library/ containers / com.microsoft.word / data / documents


it sounds logic, doesn't it? :-P


happy hunting


M

Jul 28, 2017 4:26 AM in response to scott163

I'm having the same problems. To insure that I don't overwrite the files, can i use for example Data Rescue with another mac to scan and retrive from the mac where the files got deleted.


I didn't quite understand the explanation from the link "The Safe Mac" how this will work.


"Once you are safe from unintentional overwriting, you need to get some recovery software. Three options on the Mac are Data Rescue, File Salvage and Stellar Phoenix. All three can be ordered on physical media, in which case you’ll get a bootable emergency disk, or as download copies. Either way, you will need some other kind of media – a flash drive or hard drive, for example – on which to store the recovered word doc files. NEVER put recovered word doc files on the drive they’re being recovered from, even if the software lets you do that!"


The explanation above skips one part, or then im just really confused how the retreaving will happen.

In my case Its an old macbook air, and i lost the OS x instalation flash drive. so im completely at a loss

Aug 1, 2017 4:11 PM in response to scott163

Ok so this may not work for most people, but this is my set up,


The Autosave files go to my desktop, I closed the document which was just called Document 1, so the file on the desktop was called Autosave Document 1 (or similar)


My Mac is set to backup any files from my desktop to the cloud, I don't save much on there for long, only things I am working on which I may want to view when on the go, but having the backup feature meant that the Autosave file whilst I had been working on my document had been automatically saving to the iCloud (and updating every so often as I typed more and more)


then once I closed the document (and clicked No to "do you want to save" which I instantly regretted as I am sure many of you did if you are on this thread) The file on the desktop also disappeared. I remembered I had access to these files on my phone but didn't click it to aeroplane mode first which I wish I had tried, as It also synced instantly with my desktop which now had the autosave file removed so it appeared and disappeared just as quick...so close!


I then did some searching and found out that there is a recovered option on Icloud (its in settings then on the bottom left it says restore files) and there I had 30 days worth of Autosaves of Mircosoft Word files I have been using in the past month. This feature means I have a fail safe (as long as connected to the internet obviously) that will back up any of my word documents and allow me to restore them even days and weeks after losing them


Hope this works for somebody else,

Nov 18, 2017 1:23 PM in response to scott163

Once I accidentally deleted important text from a word doc in MS Word 2004 on my macbook, then saved the document. I was saving autorecovery documents every 10 minutes, but I didn't find the deleted fragment. So I started researching different resources for any other techniques for recovering the text I deleted. By accident, I stumbled upos this DiskDrill that promised to recover deleted word document mac https://www.cleverfiles.com/word-document-recovery-mac.html , though I was skeptical about such 3d party tools

Recovering unsaved word doc on OSX

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