Lost your Word document because you accidentally clicked don't save Word on Mac? Never mind. Here are three ways you can try to recover unsaved Word 2016, 2011 or 2007 on Mac: [1]Recover Word from AutoRecovery; [2] Recover from the Temporary folder; [3] Download Mac file recovery software. Anytime when you lost a copy of a Word document by deletion or disk formatting, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is the most optimal choice for an instant and complete Word file recovery.

• Autosave Word 2016 Mac
• Microsoft Word Mac Autosave Location
• Microsoft Word For Mac Autosave

Most of the time Word would have AutoRecover enabled for when the power shuts down on the computer. But this time, Word was not able to recover the document. If I had not saved what I was working on, then I would have had to start over. With that said, I thought I would teach you how to set up AutoSave in your Microsoft Word 365 program. In Word 2016, the AutoRecovery folder is buried deep in the system and requires your Mac to display hidden files, so the first step is to reveal these secret folders, to do so we recommend.

Problem - Accidentally Clicked Don't Save Word Mac

Microsoft Word 2016 Essential Training AutoSave Hi, Do you know that you can automatically save your document without clicking on the save icon in Microsof. Microsoft Word crashes when saving is a common problem in everyday use. If you happen to encounter this issue, you can try the approaches in this article to troubleshoot. Besides, you also can learn how to recover unsaved Word document and how to recover deleted Word document with EaseUS file recovery tool.

I accidentally clicked 'Don't Save' while closing a document in MS Word 2016 on my Macbook. As a result, I lost 10+ pages of work! Please help me recover unsaved Word documents. I'll take whatever cost to bring the lost files back.

Do's and Don'ts when you closed Word before saving the file:

• Dos: Reopen your Word application, including Word 2016/2011/2007 or other Word versions, see if the closed file was showing up in the Recently closed area or not. You can directly restore the recently closed item and restore it back.
• Don'ts: Never try to start a new round of editing in Word, which will usually result in data overwriting and reduce the chance of full recovery. It's smart to calm down, take a breath, and find solutions to recover unsaved Word files on Mac as soon as possible.

In case you are one of the Mac Word users who unintentionally pressed the don't save button while working with a Word file, read this tutorial carefully and try to recover unsaved Word document on Mac with the three instant solutions.

Related Post:Recover unsaved PowerPoint on Mac

Solution 1. Recover Unsaved Word Document from AutoRecovery

Due to the default setting, Microsoft Office automatically creates backup copies of the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files you're currently working on with a certain time interval. In general, the autosave function works to save your files every 10 or 5 minutes.

In most cases when you accidentally closed a Word file before clicking Save (Ctrl+S), there is a chance to find the autosaved copy in the AutoRecovery folder on your Mac computer.

• If you click Save while closing the document, Word will record the file(s) with all the changes you have made. The next time when Word starts up, you'll be able to easily view and open it at the 'Recent' column.

• And if you accidentally click 'Don't Save' while closing a Word document, Word will not recover the file automatically. Office Word will take it as that you don't want to keep the file or save all the changes.

In this case, you can try to recover lost Word document without saving from AutoRcovery folder manually:

Step 1: Go to Finder, then click 'Go', then Go to Folder /garageband-ipad-5-4.html.

Step 2: Go the Word AutoRecovery location: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery and click 'Go'.

Autosave Word 2016 Mac

Step 3: Check the AutoRecovery Folder.

Step 4: If you find the saved file named AutoRecovery***, marked with other extensions, open it with Word.

Step 5: You'll be able to view your lost Word file, then save it on Mac Desktop.

Solution 2. Recover Unsaved Word Document from the Temporary Folder

As you see, the AutoRecovery seems to be effective in retrieving a Word file that you didn't save. However, it works only when you turned the feature on. For people who disabled the autosave function on Mac but unfortunately lost Word files due to not saving, try to look for the temporary files.

Mac also has a feature that contains a TemporaryItems folder which saves all temporary files of Word. It may contain your lost Word document with a TMP format.

Step 1: Go to Applications> Utilities > Terminal.

Step 2: Once in Terminal, enter the following command and then press enter: open $TMPDIR.

Step 3: You have now opened your TMP folder, open the folder named TemporaryItems.

If you're lucky, your document should be there. Open it in your Word application and this time hit the Save button!

Solution 3. Download Word File Recovery Software for Mac

If you lost Word documents or other items, files on your Mac computer due to deletion, emptying the Trash, formatting, etc, you can partially restore them from the Trash. But if the Trash doesn't contain the lost files, Mac data recovery software is the best choice.

Here, we'd like to recommend a try-before-buy tool - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Though it's specialized for deleted file recovery and hard drive recovery, when you cannot find the AutoRecovery and temporary Word files, it can also be a backup solution. Download the Mac hard drive recovery software, let it scan the drive, and find the missing temp files of Word 2016/2011/2007.. that you didn't save.

As a matter of fact, it retrieves not only your lost Word documents, but also Office Excel/PowerPoint files, music, photos, videos and all types of files you can name. You don't need to pay before it actually finding and you deciding to retrieve your lost Word or other files. Feel free to download the trial version and give it a try.

Step 1. Select the location where your important Word documents were lost and click Scan button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will start immediately a quick scan as well as a deep scan on your selected disk volume. Meanwhile, the scanning results will be presented in the left pane.

Step 3. By Path and Type, you can quickly filter the Word files you've lost earlier. Select the target files and click Recover Now button to get them back at once.

Tips to Avoid Losing Word Files Before Saving

There are third-party Mac file recovery programs as well as the inbuilt recovery options to recover a Word that you've accidentally deleted, not saved or formatted. However, it's not always the 100% guaranteed way to make up for your loss. Chances are that you fail to recover unsaved Word file, or the recovered file won't open after recovery.

Hence, to minimize your chance of losing your hardworking days in Word, keep those tips in mind when you editing in Word the next time and in the future.

1. Always save and save often. Click the Save button in Word, press Ctrl+S, it's up to you.

2. Close unused programs that may freeze your computer, slow down your system and cause the Word freezing.

3. Change the autosave frequency. A helpful thing to know is that you can reduce the gaps between autosaves on Word for Mac. By default, they are set at 10-minute intervals, but it's easy to make them more frequent.

Microsoft Word Mac Autosave Location

Hi,

You say you're using Word 2016, yet you looked under Office 2001 AutoRecovery. I suggest looking for that same type of file under Office 2016.

DanielHolst wrote:

Microsoft Word For Mac Autosave

2) When i tried to open my earlier manually saved file I tried to open 'recovery' (You can choose between original, repair and recovery). This file just have a lot of pages of totally nonsens letters, symbols and signs. Can I format or repair or do anything to fix this document?

I've encountered this before while opening different versions of docs; sometimes there have been many pages of these symbols before finding text. Try scanning all the way to the bottom of the doc, as the text you are looking for may be buried in there, but then will require deleting all the symbols, etc.

Mar 1, 2017 7:50 PM