Recover Word Files

Recover files that you close without saving

In earlier versions of Microsoft Office, you could often recover unsaved changes if the program closed unexpectedly, such as if the power goes out and shuts down your computer. But if you closed the file yourself without saving (and who hasn’t done that at some point or another?), you were out of luck. The time you spent and the work you created were lost. Well, not anymore.

If you work for a while and then accidentally close the document without saving, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now enable you to recover content—even if you never saved the file.

Access drafts of documents that were never saved. To do this, in Backstage view (Click on File at the top, this is now called Backstage view), on the Info tab, click Manage Document.

You can also access up to the last five autosave versions of your previously saved active document from the Info tab in Backstage view. By default, the last autosave version remains available temporarily if you close the document without saving.

Access recovered unsaved files and autosave versions in Backstage view, on the Info tab.

Tip: Right-click an available autosave version for the option to compare it to the current version of your active document.