Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Mac

Case 1: Searching Auto Recover files. You have manual way search Auto Recover files. To do so, click on File → Open → Recent. Here scroll all recent documents to end and click on Recover Unsaved Documents. If you view Word 2016 Word file then double click on it to open and save immediately. MS Office / By Edward C. Ruiz An unsaved document can disappear when a system crash or accidental closing of a word document happens. At this point, we all look for a solution to recover the unsaved word document. The good news is that there are multiple ways to recover word documents not saved in 2016. There are many ways to recover the unsaved word document, and find the temporary files is a normal and practical way. There are two main methods for finding temporary files manually to recover unsaved document. Method 1: Access and recover unsaved word document from temporary files. Enter C: Documents and Settings Administrator. Note: If you can't find the WBK file on your computer, you can use the Word auto-save file (ASD) to recover deleted Word document. It's a temporary backup created by Microsoft Word 2007 and earlier versions. Use Word AutoRecover Feature. Microsoft Word has a built-in feature, called AutoRecover that can help you recover deleted Word.

1. Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Macs
2. Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Mac Osx
3. Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Macbook Pro
4. Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Mac Os

The following steps show how to recover an unsaved document in Word 2016. Open Word 2016 At the bottom left of the screen click on ‘Open Other Documents' (TIP: If you don't see this screen, click ‘FILE' - ‘Open') Scroll to the bottom of the ‘Recent Documents' list and click on the ‘Recover Unsaved Documents' button.

If you are working on a Word document on mac and the file is somehow closed without saving, here are some detailed instructions you can follow to recover unsaved Word doc on mac.

Last Updated on December 8, 2020 by Ian McEwan

Losing your Word doc can be stressful, especially if you have spent hours working on it and the deadline is approaching. Luckily, in this article, you can recover your unsaved Word document on mac in 5 different ways depending on the situation you encounter.

Different Situations and corresponding solutions

#1. Recover/ Retrieve Unsaved Word Document Mac From the Temporally Folder

The Microsoft Word application saves a copy of your work just in case you close the document without saving. The copy might be saved in the temporary folder on your Mac. In case of unexpected shutdown or crush your unsaved document may be kept in this folder. If this is the case then here are the steps you need to follow.

1. On your Mac, go to 'applications' then click on 'Utilities' and then open the 'Terminal'
2. Once you have opened the terminal type in open $TMPDIR.
3. Press the enter key and a TMP folder will open. The TMP folder is used to store temporally files.
4. Once you in the TMP folder, look for the 'Temporary Items' folder and click on it to open.
5. Here you will look for your lost document. If you find it, right-click on it and select the 'open with' option.
6. Open the file using the Microsoft Word application. Head to 'file' and select 'save as'. You can now save your document in your desired location.

#2. Find Unsaved Word Document from the Recovered Items Folder on Mac

The Microsoft Word application saves documents that you are still working on in the recovered items folder. This folder is located in the Trash of your PC. When you accidentally close your work without saving, you can look for it in this folder. The chances of retrieving the entire Word document are little, but you can recover a huge percentage of your work. Here are the steps you need to follow.

1. On your Mac, go to 'Trash.'
2. Look for the 'recovered items' folder.
3. Once inside the folder, look for your lost document in the files available. If your document was saved here, you should be able to find it.
4. If you find your document, you can move it to another location on your Mac. You can then open it with the Word application and proceed with your work.

#3. Recover Unsaved Word Doc on Mac with Auto Recovery

The Word application for Mac is designed to autosave changes made to a document. The design ensures that you don't lose your work when you accidentally close your work without saving. It autosaves any progress or changes you make to the document in intervals. The standard saving interval is 10 minutes. When this time interval passes any changes that you would have made to your document are saved. In the event of a Mac shutdown or crush, you can retrieve a copy of your document from the Auto Recovery files. If you wish to recover your file, here are the steps you need to follow.

1. Ensure the Word application for mac is not running
2. On your Mac, click on 'Finder.'
3. On the Finder menu, click on 'Go' and then select 'Home.'
4. Once you are in the Home menu, click on the 'documents' option and then select and open the 'Microsoft User Data' folder.
5. In the folder, look for the files with the name that starts with' AutoRecovery save of.' From these files, you should be able to find your document.
6. Once you have located your document right-click on it to rename it. Type in the name of the document and then use the .doc extension. The extension enables the file to be opened using the Word for mac application.
7. After renaming, click on it to open the file.
8. Read the file's content to check if it is the document you were looking for, then go to 'File' and select 'save as.' Chose a name and save the document in the location that you desire.

The autosave feature only saves the work after the given interval. Using the AutoRecovery option does not guarantee recovery of the entire document. To maximize the amount of work to be saved, you might want to consider reducing the autosave time interval.

#4. Unsaved Word Recovery on Mac with Aiseesoft Mac Data Recovery

Sometimes a Word file can not only be closed without saving, but also be lost or deleted in certain situations. Such as the Word is forced to close by a system error, or your MacBook runs out of power, etc. However, you can still get a chance to recover your lost unsaved Word document on Mac with a professional Mac Data Recovery software, like Aiseesoft Mac Data Recovery.

Here's every step the procedure of Unsaved Word Recovery involves with this excellent Mac Data Recovery tool.

1. Download, install and run the software on your Mac.
2. Find out the storage path of your unsaved Word doc. If it was stored on an external memory drive, connect it to your Mac. Then select the location and tick the file type, then click the scan button from the program window.
   Note: If you can't find your Word file from the scanning result, you can use the Deep Scan function.
3. Check the tree view or locate the file with the filer or manual search. And the last step is to click the Recover button when you select your desired file.

#5. Repair Corrupt Word Documents and Restores unsaved Formatting with Stellar Repair for Word

If your Word doc was unsaved due to a file corruption error or USB drive disconnected, and after that, the Word document won't open normally, you can use Stellar Repair for Word to fix the corrupt Word doc and restore all the unsaved information.

• Fix Microsoft Word 2003/2007/2010/2013/2016 not opening in 3 different modes: Simple, Advance, and Raw Recovery
• Restore all information of your Word doc including original text, images, fonts, headers/footers, hyperlinks, bookmarks, charts, comments, etc.
• Preview before saving.
• Able to repairs up to 20 damaged Word documents all at once.

Here are a few steps you can follow to Restore Unsaved Word doc on Mac with Stellar Repair for Word:

Step 1. Installation

Stop running Microsoft Word throughout the repairing. Then download Stellar and have it run on your Mac.

Step 2. Corrupt File selection

From the main interface, click on the File tab > Add file. With the Stellar Phoenix window pops up, you can use those three buttons, which are Select File, Select Folder and Find Files to quickly locate your corrupted Word doc. And finish this step by clicking the Scan button.

Step 3. Repair corrupt Word document.

In the last step, also the critical moment, you can repair your file in Simple, Advance, or Raw Recovery mode, depending on how severely your Word is corrupt.

Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Note

This article suggests ways in which you can recover a lost, unsaved, or corrupted Microsoft Word document.
If you're looking for information about how to recover recent Office documents, see the following articles:

• Recover your Office files (for Word versions through Office 2019)

Note

For more information about earlier versions of Word, see the following Knowledge Base article:

Quick resolution

Try the following options to help recover your lost, unsaved, or corrupted Word document. Select the image at the left or the option heading to see more detailed instructions about that option.

Additional resources

If you experience specific issues when you use Word, go to the following website to search for more information about your program version:

Detailed view of the options

The following section provides more detailed descriptions of these options.

Option 1: Search for the original document

Type the document name, in the Search box (in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8) or in the Start Search box on the Start menu (in earlier versions of Windows), and then press Enter.

• If the File list contains the document, double-click the document to open it in Word.
• If the File list does not contain the file, go to Option 2.

Option 2: Search for Word Backup files

Word backup file names end with the .wbk extension. If you have the option Always create Backup copy selected, there may be a backup copy of the file.

Note

To locate this option:

• Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013:Select File, then Options, and then Advanced. Scroll down to the Save section and select Always create backup copy.
• Word 2010:Select File, then Options. In the Save tab, select Always create backup copy.

To find the backup copy of the file, follow these steps:

1. Locate the folder in which you last saved the missing file.
2. Search for files that have the .wbk file name extension.
3. Right-click the backup file that you found and select Open.

If there are no .wbk files in the original folder, search the computer for any .wbk files. To do this, follow these steps.

1. Select Start, type *.wbk in the Search box (in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8) or in the Start Search box on the Start menu (in earlier versions of Windows). Then, press Enter.

• If the File list contains the backup file, repeat the steps in Option 2 to open the file.
• If the File list does not contain the backup file, go to Option 4.

If you find any files that have the name 'Backup of' followed by the name of the missing file, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Word that you're running.

Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013

1. On the File menu, select Open > Browse. (In some versions of Word, select Computer > Browse.)
2. In the Files of type list (All Word Documents), select All Files.
3. Right-click the backup file that you found, and select Open.

Word 2010

1. On the File menu, select Open.
2. In the Files of type list (All Word documents), select All Files.
3. Right-click the backup file that you found, and select Open.

Option 3: Check the Recycle Bin

Recovering deleted Word documents from the Recycle Bin

If you deleted a Word document without emptying the recycle bin, you may be able to restore the document.

1. Double-click the Recycle Bin on the Desktop.

2. Search through the list of documents to see if the deleted word file is still there. If you don't know the name, look for file types such as DOC, DOCX, DOT, etc.

3. Right-click the Word file and select Restore to recover it.

   If you have emptied the recycle bin after deleting files, the deleted Word file may have been permanently removed. If so, go to Option 4.

Restore a SharePoint item from the Microsoft 365 site collection Recycle Bin

The Microsoft Word application saves documents that you are still working on in the recovered items folder. This folder is located in the Trash of your PC. When you accidentally close your work without saving, you can look for it in this folder. The chances of retrieving the entire Word document are little, but you can recover a huge percentage of your work. Here are the steps you need to follow.

1. On your Mac, go to 'Trash.'
2. Look for the 'recovered items' folder.
3. Once inside the folder, look for your lost document in the files available. If your document was saved here, you should be able to find it.
4. If you find your document, you can move it to another location on your Mac. You can then open it with the Word application and proceed with your work.

#3. Recover Unsaved Word Doc on Mac with Auto Recovery

The Word application for Mac is designed to autosave changes made to a document. The design ensures that you don't lose your work when you accidentally close your work without saving. It autosaves any progress or changes you make to the document in intervals. The standard saving interval is 10 minutes. When this time interval passes any changes that you would have made to your document are saved. In the event of a Mac shutdown or crush, you can retrieve a copy of your document from the Auto Recovery files. If you wish to recover your file, here are the steps you need to follow.

1. Ensure the Word application for mac is not running
2. On your Mac, click on 'Finder.'
3. On the Finder menu, click on 'Go' and then select 'Home.'
4. Once you are in the Home menu, click on the 'documents' option and then select and open the 'Microsoft User Data' folder.
5. In the folder, look for the files with the name that starts with' AutoRecovery save of.' From these files, you should be able to find your document.
6. Once you have located your document right-click on it to rename it. Type in the name of the document and then use the .doc extension. The extension enables the file to be opened using the Word for mac application.
7. After renaming, click on it to open the file.
8. Read the file's content to check if it is the document you were looking for, then go to 'File' and select 'save as.' Chose a name and save the document in the location that you desire.

The autosave feature only saves the work after the given interval. Using the AutoRecovery option does not guarantee recovery of the entire document. To maximize the amount of work to be saved, you might want to consider reducing the autosave time interval.

#4. Unsaved Word Recovery on Mac with Aiseesoft Mac Data Recovery

Sometimes a Word file can not only be closed without saving, but also be lost or deleted in certain situations. Such as the Word is forced to close by a system error, or your MacBook runs out of power, etc. However, you can still get a chance to recover your lost unsaved Word document on Mac with a professional Mac Data Recovery software, like Aiseesoft Mac Data Recovery.

Here's every step the procedure of Unsaved Word Recovery involves with this excellent Mac Data Recovery tool.

1. Download, install and run the software on your Mac.
2. Find out the storage path of your unsaved Word doc. If it was stored on an external memory drive, connect it to your Mac. Then select the location and tick the file type, then click the scan button from the program window.
   Note: If you can't find your Word file from the scanning result, you can use the Deep Scan function.
3. Check the tree view or locate the file with the filer or manual search. And the last step is to click the Recover button when you select your desired file.

#5. Repair Corrupt Word Documents and Restores unsaved Formatting with Stellar Repair for Word

If your Word doc was unsaved due to a file corruption error or USB drive disconnected, and after that, the Word document won't open normally, you can use Stellar Repair for Word to fix the corrupt Word doc and restore all the unsaved information.

• Fix Microsoft Word 2003/2007/2010/2013/2016 not opening in 3 different modes: Simple, Advance, and Raw Recovery
• Restore all information of your Word doc including original text, images, fonts, headers/footers, hyperlinks, bookmarks, charts, comments, etc.
• Preview before saving.
• Able to repairs up to 20 damaged Word documents all at once.

Here are a few steps you can follow to Restore Unsaved Word doc on Mac with Stellar Repair for Word:

Step 1. Installation

Stop running Microsoft Word throughout the repairing. Then download Stellar and have it run on your Mac.

Step 2. Corrupt File selection

From the main interface, click on the File tab > Add file. With the Stellar Phoenix window pops up, you can use those three buttons, which are Select File, Select Folder and Find Files to quickly locate your corrupted Word doc. And finish this step by clicking the Scan button.

Step 3. Repair corrupt Word document.

In the last step, also the critical moment, you can repair your file in Simple, Advance, or Raw Recovery mode, depending on how severely your Word is corrupt.

Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Note

This article suggests ways in which you can recover a lost, unsaved, or corrupted Microsoft Word document.
If you're looking for information about how to recover recent Office documents, see the following articles:

• Recover your Office files (for Word versions through Office 2019)

Note

For more information about earlier versions of Word, see the following Knowledge Base article:

Quick resolution

Try the following options to help recover your lost, unsaved, or corrupted Word document. Select the image at the left or the option heading to see more detailed instructions about that option.

Additional resources

If you experience specific issues when you use Word, go to the following website to search for more information about your program version:

Detailed view of the options

The following section provides more detailed descriptions of these options.

Option 1: Search for the original document

Type the document name, in the Search box (in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8) or in the Start Search box on the Start menu (in earlier versions of Windows), and then press Enter.

• If the File list contains the document, double-click the document to open it in Word.
• If the File list does not contain the file, go to Option 2.

Option 2: Search for Word Backup files

Word backup file names end with the .wbk extension. If you have the option Always create Backup copy selected, there may be a backup copy of the file.

Note

To locate this option:

• Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013:Select File, then Options, and then Advanced. Scroll down to the Save section and select Always create backup copy.
• Word 2010:Select File, then Options. In the Save tab, select Always create backup copy.

To find the backup copy of the file, follow these steps:

1. Locate the folder in which you last saved the missing file.
2. Search for files that have the .wbk file name extension.
3. Right-click the backup file that you found and select Open.

If there are no .wbk files in the original folder, search the computer for any .wbk files. To do this, follow these steps.

1. Select Start, type *.wbk in the Search box (in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8) or in the Start Search box on the Start menu (in earlier versions of Windows). Then, press Enter.

• If the File list contains the backup file, repeat the steps in Option 2 to open the file.
• If the File list does not contain the backup file, go to Option 4.

If you find any files that have the name 'Backup of' followed by the name of the missing file, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Word that you're running.

Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013

1. On the File menu, select Open > Browse. (In some versions of Word, select Computer > Browse.)
2. In the Files of type list (All Word Documents), select All Files.
3. Right-click the backup file that you found, and select Open.

Word 2010

1. On the File menu, select Open.
2. In the Files of type list (All Word documents), select All Files.
3. Right-click the backup file that you found, and select Open.

Option 3: Check the Recycle Bin

Recovering deleted Word documents from the Recycle Bin

If you deleted a Word document without emptying the recycle bin, you may be able to restore the document.

1. Double-click the Recycle Bin on the Desktop.

2. Search through the list of documents to see if the deleted word file is still there. If you don't know the name, look for file types such as DOC, DOCX, DOT, etc.

3. Right-click the Word file and select Restore to recover it.

   If you have emptied the recycle bin after deleting files, the deleted Word file may have been permanently removed. If so, go to Option 4.

Restore a SharePoint item from the Microsoft 365 site collection Recycle Bin

1. Open the Recycle Bin, depending on the type of site you are using:

   1. Modern Team and Classic sites (or subsites): In the left pane, select Recycle Bin.

   2. Modern Communication sites: Select Site contents, and then select Recycle Bin in the top navigation bar.

      Note

      If you don't see the Recycle Bin, follow these steps:

      1. Select Settings > Site settings. (If you don't see Site settings, select Site information > View all site settings. Some pages might require you to select Site contents > Site settings.)
      2. On Site settings, under Site Collection Administration, select Recycle bin.

2. At the bottom of the Recycle Bin page, select Second-stage recycle bin.

   Note

   You need administrator or owner permissions to use the site collection Recycle Bin. If you don't see it, then either you don't have permission to access it or it may have been disabled.

3. Select the check icon to the right of each document to recover, and then select Restore.

If you restore an item that was originally located in a deleted folder, the folder is recreated in its original location and the item is restored in that folder.

Option 4: Search for AutoRecover unsaved or corrupted files

AutoRecover file names end in the .asd file name extension. By default, Word searches for auto-recover files every time that it starts, and then it displays any files found in the Document Recovery task pane.

1. Use Word to automatically find the auto-recovered files. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Right-click the taskbar, and select Task Manager.

   2. On the Processes tab, select any instance of Winword.exe or Microsoft Word, and then select End Task or End Process. Repeat this step until you have exited all instances of Winword.exe and Word.

   3. Close the Windows Task Manager dialog box, and then start Word.

If Word finds the auto-recovered file, the Document Recovery task pane opens on the left side of the screen, and the missing document is listed as 'document name [Original]' or as 'document name [Recovered].' If this occurs, double-click the file in the Document Recovery pane, select File > Save As, and then save the document as a .docx file. To manually change the extension to .docx, right-click the file, and select Rename.

Manually search for auto-recovered files

If the Document Recovery pane does not open, manually search for auto-recovered files. To do this, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Word that you're running.

Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Macs

Word for Office 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013

1. On the File menu, select Open, and then Browse. (In Word 2013, select File > Open > Computer > Browse.)
2. Browse to the folder where you last saved your document and look for files that end in .asd.
3. If you don't see your document listed, select File > Info > Manage Documents (or Manage Versions) > Recover Unsaved Documents.

Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Mac Osx

Word 2010

1. On the File menu, select Recent.
2. If you don't see your document listed, select Recover Unsaved Documents.

Search for .asd files

If you can't locate an auto-recovered file in the location that is identified in the Folder name list, search your whole drive for any .asd files. To do this, follow these steps:

Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Macbook Pro

Type .asd in the Search box (in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8) or in the Start Search box on the Start menu (in earlier versions of Windows), and then press Enter.

• If the File list does not contain auto-recovered files, go to Option 5.

• If you find any files that have the .asd extension, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Word that you're running:

  Word 2019, Word 2016, or Word 2013

  1. On the File menu, select Open, and then Browse. (In some versions, you may have to select Computer and then Browse.)
  2. In the Files of type list (All Word Documents), select All Files.
  3. Select the .asd file that you found, and then select Open.

  Word 2010

  1. On the File menu, select Open.
  2. In the Files of type list (All Word Documents), select All Files.
  3. Select the .asd file that you found, and then select Open.

Note

In the Recovery pane, if you find an auto-recovered file that does not open correctly, go to Option 6 for more information about how to open damaged files.

Option 5: Search for temporary files

Temporary file names end in a .tmp extension. To find these files, follow these steps:

1. Type .tmp in the Search box (in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8) or in the Start Search box on the Start menu (in earlier versions of Windows), and then press Enter.
2. On the Show only toolbar, select Other.
3. Scroll through the files and search for files that match the last few dates and times that you edited the document. If you find the document that you're looking for, go to Option 7 to find out how to recover information from the file.

Option 6: Search for '~' files

Some temporary file names start in a tilde (~) character. To find these files, follow these steps:

1. Type ~ in the Search box (in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8) or in the Start Search box on the Start menu (in earlier versions of Windows), and then press Enter.

2. Select See more results.

3. Scroll through the files, and look for any that match the last few dates and times that you edited the document.

If you find the document that you're looking for, go to Option 7 to find out how to recover information from the file.

Is There A Way To Recover Unsaved Changes In Word 2016 For Mac Os

For more information about how Word creates and uses temporary files, see Description of how Word creates temporary files.

Option 7: How to troubleshoot damaged documents

For information about how to troubleshoot damaged Word documents, see How to troubleshoot damaged documents in Word.

More information

In certain situations, it's possible to completely lose a Word document. For example:

• If an error occurs that forces Word to close
• If you experience a power interruption while editing
• If you close the document without saving your changes

Note

The whole document may be lost if you have not recently saved the document. If you have saved your document, you may lose only the changes that you made since the last save. Be aware that some lost documents may not be recoverable.

The AutoRecover feature in Word performs an emergency Backup of open documents when an error occurs. Some errors can interfere with the auto-recovery functionality. The AutoRecover feature is not a substitute for saving your files.

We do not provide any utilities to recover deleted documents. However, some third-party utilities to recover deleted documents might be available from the internet.

For more information about AutoRecover, see the following articles:

Third-party information disclaimer

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.

Still need help? Go to Microsoft Community.