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How to Recover Deleted or Unsaved Word Document for Free




Method #1: Searching for AutoRecover Files

If you lose your files due to human error or system crashes, Microsoft Word has a beneficial feature called AutoRecover that can help you restore your documents. If you’ve enabled AutoRecovery, Word will keep saving your file at regular intervals of time while you’re working on it. This eliminates the need to save the document manually and even creates a temporary folder to recover the file if a data-loss situation arises.

You can turn on AutoRecover by following these steps:

Go to File < Options < Save < Save AutoRecover information every _ minutes.

There’s another way for you to find your lost files using AutoRecover. If you also have the Always Create Backup Copy selected, Word automatically creates backup copies of your files. 

These files are saved with the .wbk extension, and you can find them by going to this field:

Go to File < Options < Save < AutoRecover File Location

Now, head to the mentioned AutoRecover location and open the .wbk backup files just like you would regular Word documents.




Bonus: Recover from Temporary Files


There’s another way to find previous versions of your Word documents using the AutoRecover feature. If Word does not show your file even after AutoRecover has been turned on, you can look for them manually. These files use the .asd extension. You can recover these .asd files by following these steps:

  1. Open the File tab in MS Word.

  2. Go to Manage Document and select Recover Unsaved Documents.

  3. If you’ve lost your file recently, it should appear in the dialogue box.

  4. Now, open your recovered Word document and click the Save As button.



Method #2: Restarting Word to open AutoRecover Files

If you’ve turned on AutoRecover and you experience an unexpected computer crash, you don’t need to worry. There is a simple, straightforward method that will help recover your file. Word automatically restores the document you had been working on. You just need to follow these instructions:

  1. Once you restart your device and Word comes back online, you will find the Document Recovery panel on the left. 

  2. Under this panel, you will find Autosaved versions of your file along with a timestamp.

  3. Open the version you want to recover, and you’re done.



Method #3: Restore Deleted Word Documents From OneDrive


For some time now, Word can save documents to the cloud, allowing you to access your files from anywhere and easily collaborate with others. To take advantage of this feature, you need to be a user of OneDrive, which is Microsoft’s file hosting service and synchronization service.

You will then get the option to save files to your OneDrive account instead of saving them locally on your computer. When a file is stored on OneDrive, you can enable the AutoSave feature by clicking on a button located in the top-left corner of the main Word window to save your documents automatically, every few seconds, as you work.

💡 Because OneDrive has its own Recycle Bin, it can help you recover documents that were accidentally deleted using the Shift + Delete shortcut.


Steps to Restore Deleted Word Documents in OneDrive

  1. Visit OneDrive and sign in.

  1. Select Recycle bin in the navigation panel.

  2. Select the Word document you want to recover and click the Restore button.



Method #4: Checking the Recycle Bin


🗑️ Another effective method that can help restore the Word doc files you’ve deleted accidentally or purposefully is from the Recycle Bin. This folder stores your files temporarily, and you can recover your recently lost files using this method without a lot of effort.

Let’s look at the Word file recovery process from the Recycle Bin:

  1. Click on the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop.

  2. Once you’ve opened the folder, find the file you want to recover. If you can’t find it by name, search for DOC, DOCX, and DOT extensions files.

  3. Now, select your file and right-click on it. Use the Restore option to send the file back to its original location.




Method #5: Data recovery software for Windows


Disk Drill is a data recovery tool that delivers professional results even though it was developed with the average user in mind.


Thanks to Disk Drill, you can avoid spending hundreds and maybe even thousands of dollars on professional data recovery services while achieving the same results—just from the comfort of your own home and possibly even for free because Disk Drill lets you recover up to 500 MB of data without paying, which is more than enough for hundreds of Word documents.


Steps to Recover Deleted Word Documents on Windows

  1. Download Disk Drill from its official website.

  2. Open Disk Drill.

  3. Click the Search for lost data button next to your storage device.

  4. Select Word documents for recovery.

  5. Begin the recovery process by clicking the Recover button one last time.

The second you launch Disk Drill, you notice that it certainly doesn’t look like your average data recovery tool. For starters, Disk Drill has a beautiful user interface that makes it effortless even for complete novices to figure out how to recover deleted Word documents with it. 


When you instruct Disk Drill to begin the recovery process, its advanced data recovery algorithms start analyzing the content of your hard drive and looking for even the tiniest bits and pieces of files, which it can then piece together to recover the original file as if it was never deleted in the first place.







Have a question or need help! Contact me 😊❤️

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