AutoRecover may help you, for example, if Word or your Mac crashes. You can turn this on by going to Word > Preferences > Save and then check the”Always create backup copy” option.Īs stated above, AutoRecover and AutoSave options are not the same things. Microsft Word offers another very useful feature that will help you avoid losing data in the future. You can reduce the risk of data loss in case of a crash, freeze or user error. See also: Outlook for Mac Not Working: Freezes or Crashes, Fix Again, on your Mac, go to Word > Preferences > Personal Settings > File Locations > AutoRecover files > Modify and then choose your desired location. In the other setting, you can adjust where these AutoRecovery files are saved on your Mac.Here you can change the AutoRecovery frequency settings: Open Word, and go to Word > Preferences > Save. You can change how often Word AutoRecovery creates these backup files.There are basically two options for you to adjust: Save your documents while editing to avoid losing data. Note that not all documents may be recoverable. Find the document you want to open and right-click (or control-click) it and then select Open With > Microsoft Word. Please note that, as you may notice, they are not Word files. Find the document that you are trying to recover. Here is how:ġ-Go to Finder > Go > Go to Folder and enter: ~/Library/Containers//Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecoveryĢ-These documents’ names will be like “AutoRecovery save of ”. You can locate your AutoRecover files (you can change where these files are saved, see below). You can open them with TextEdit, for example. Look for files named “Word Work File” inside this folder. To find this folder ġ-Launch Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal).Ģ-Enter this command and press enter: open $TMPDIRĤ-Now, open the folder named: “Temporaryitems”. Your lost file may be located in this folder. Mac OS creates temporary files located in your computer’s Temporary or TMP folder.

Here is how you can find them: Locating Unsaved Word Document on Mac The purpose of the article is to help you if you are trying to locate your unsaved, lost, damaged and deleted Microsft Word files. For instance, if you experience a power loss while you are writing your paper on your Mac, or if your Mac shuts down, or crashes, unexpectedly, your document may be lost. computer-system crash), AutoRecovery may fail to save your documents.

Microsft Word can create AutoRecover (.asd) files if this option is enabled (this feature is explained below). Are you writing a paper but you somehow lost the paper? Do you want to recover unsaved Microsoft Word files?

Word auto recovery file location