Recover an unsaved Word document

Word crashed, the laptop went flat, or you clicked Don't Save by mistake. Everything on this page is free, and you should try it before you open Word to start again, because new work can push old AutoRecover copies out.

Honest note: our tool repairs files that exist but won't open. It can't recover a document that was never saved. The steps below are your best chance.

1. Let Word find it

Open Word. After a crash it usually shows a Document Recovery pane on the left with the versions it kept. Open each one and save the best with File → Save As straight away.

2. Recover Unsaved Documents (Windows)

In Word: File → Info → Manage Document → Recover Unsaved Documents (in some versions, File → Open and the Recover Unsaved Documents button at the bottom of the recent list). This opens the folder where Word keeps drafts of documents that were never saved. Open the file and save it somewhere sensible.

3. Look in the AutoRecover folders yourself

Paste these into the address bar of File Explorer:

%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
%AppData%\Microsoft\Word

Your own AutoRecover folder is shown in File → Options → Save → AutoRecover file location. Files ending in .asd are AutoRecover copies. To open one, use File → Open → Browse, change the file type to All Files, and open it from Word.

Also search your whole computer for *.asd, *.wbk (backup copies) and files starting with ~WR and ending .tmp, sorted by date. Word writes temporary copies while you work, and one of them sometimes holds the lost text.

4. On a Mac

Word for Mac saves AutoRecovery files in a hidden folder. In Finder choose Go → Go to Folder and paste:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery

Files named “AutoRecovery save of …” are your drafts. Open them in Word and save them under a new name.

5. If the document was in OneDrive or SharePoint

With AutoSave on, there's no “unsaved” document: every change was saved. Open the file and use File → Info → Version History, or the version history on the OneDrive website, to go back to the version you want. Also check the OneDrive recycle bin if the file disappeared.

When there's no copy anywhere

If the document was never saved, AutoRecover was off, and none of the folders above has a copy, the text only ever lived in memory and is gone. Microsoft has no other way to get it back, and nor does anyone else, whatever a recovery program's advert says. Two last places worth checking: an email you sent with the document attached, and any copy you printed to PDF.

To protect yourself next time: turn on AutoSave by keeping documents in OneDrive, and set AutoRecover to every 1–5 minutes in File → Options → Save.

If you found a copy but it won't open

Sometimes the recovered or saved file exists but Word says it's corrupt or has unreadable content. That's a different problem, and it is one Office File Repair can help with: it rebuilds damaged .docx files in your browser and shows a free preview of what came back. See Word found unreadable content.

Common questions

Where does Word save unsaved documents?

On Windows, in %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles, and AutoRecover copies in %AppData%\Microsoft\Word (check File, Options, Save for your own location). On a Mac, in ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.

How do I open an .asd file?

Start Word, choose File, Open, Browse, change the file type to All Files, and open the .asd file. Save it straight away with Save As as a normal .docx.

Can I recover a Word document I closed without saving?

Often, yes, through File, Info, Manage Document, Recover Unsaved Documents, as long as AutoRecover was on and Word had time to save a draft. If no draft exists in any of the AutoRecover folders, the text can't be recovered.

Can a file repair tool recover an unsaved document?

No. Repair tools, including ours, fix files that exist but won't open. If the document was never written to disk, there is no file to repair.