Recovering Unsaved Office Documents

Overview

If you accidentally quit a new Office document (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) without saving it, there is a chance you might be able to recover your work.

Steps to Potentially Recover Your Unsaved Work

Windows

  1. In Word. PowerPoint, or Excel, go to File >> Open.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of your recent documents listed, and click Recover Unsaved Documents. This will open a folder containing all unsaved documents from the last 4 days.
  3. Double-click your file to open it. Below the ribbon, you’ll see a message that This is a recovered file that is temporarily stored on your computer.
  4. Click Save As and choose somewhere on your system to permanently store the file. Once chosen, click Save.
Print Article