Losing an essential Word document can be stress and frustrating. It cannot be denied that MS Word is convenient to create, edit, and transfer documents. However, there are a few scenarios where your documents will be lost. For example, you forgot to save a document before closing Word, you accidentally delete a Word file, or a document is corrupted. The good news is that you can recover unsaved Word documents on Windows and macOS.

Part 1: How to Recover a Document in Word by AutoRecover

AutoRecover is the built-in feature in MS Word. Once you turn it on, Word will automatically save your document regularly. It is an easy way to recover an unsaved Word document, even if you have never saved it.

On Mac

Step 1. Choose the File menu in Word for Mac, and click Open.

Step 2. Select the unsaved document in the dialog.

Step 3. Pick Recover Text or Repair at the bottom, and click the Open button.

On Windows

Step 1. Go to the File menu in Word.

Step 2. Choose Info and click Manage Document.

Step 3. Click Recover Unsaved Documents.

Step 4. Select the file and click Open.

Step 5. Next, click the Save As button on the Recovered Unsaved File notification.

Step 6. Follow the onscreen instructions to save the document.

Part 2: How to Restore a Deleted Word Document from the Recycle Bin or Trash

To recover deleted Word documents, you can try the Recycle Bin or Trash. Once you delete a document, it will go to the Recycle Bin or Trash folder rather than being completely removed from your drive.

On Mac

Step 1. Open the Trash from your Dock bar.

Step 2. Highlight the desired documents.

Step 3. Right-click on one selected document, and choose Put Back.

On Windows

Step 1. Open the Recycle Bin from your desktop.

Step 2. Find and select the documents you want to recover.

Step 3. Right-click on one selected document and pick Restore. Or expand the top menu bar, go to Manage, and click Restore the selected items.

Step 4. Locate the original folder or find recovered documents in Word, and check if your documents have been recovered successfully.

Part 3: How to Recover Word Document by Command Lines

The command line is another way to recover a corrupted Word file. In fact, both Windows and macOS have integrated the command lines to recover your files, including Word documents.

On Mac

Step 1. Open the Terminal app from the Applications folder.

Step 2. Type the command: cd $TMPDIR and press the Return key to access the temp folder.

Step 3. Next, enter ls and press Return to view the content.

Step 4. Find the desired Word file.

Step 5. Type in open $TMPDIR and press Return.

Step 6. Now, save the recovered document as a new file.

On Windows

Step 1. Right-click the Start menu and choose Command Prompt(Admin) or PowerShell(Admin).

Step 2. Input chkdsk *: /f and press the Enter key on your keyboard.

Step 3. Once done, type ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D D:*.*, and hit Enter. Replace D with your hard drive letter.

Step 4. The corrupted Word file will be recovered to the original location.

Part 4: How to Recover the Previous Version of a Word Document

How to Recover the Previous Version of a Word Document on Mac

Time Machine is the built-in backup and restore feature on macOS. If you have created a Time Machine backup, you can recover a previous version of a Word document on your Mac quickly.

Step 1. Insert the external backup device into your Mac.

Step 2. Open Finder and locate where your documents are stored.

Step 3. Click the Time Machine button on the toolbar and choose Enter Time Machine.

Step 4. Use the Arrow buttons to find the right version.

Step 5. Select the documents and click Restore.

How to Recover the Previous Version of a Word Document on Windows

The File History feature is a built-in way to recover lost files. It can recover previous versions of Word documents on Windows quickly if you have set up this feature on your PC. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Search for File History in the Start menu.

Step 2. Then, open it from the result.

Step 3. Click Restore personal files to open the File History window.

Step 4. Navigate to the folder where your documents are saved in the address box.

Step 5. Use the Forward and Backward buttons to find the right version of the document.

Step 6. Next, click the Restore button to recover the earlier version of Word documents to the original folder.

Part 5: How to Recover Any Word Without Backup

If the methods above are unavailable, Apeaksoft Data Recovery is the ultimate solution to recover overwritten or replaced Word documents on Mac and Windows quickly. It works on corrupted and unsaved documents, too.

How to Recover Deleted Word Documents

Step 1. Scan your disk
Launch the document recovery tool after installing it on your computer. Go to the Hard Drive Recovery tab, click the right disk, and click Start Scan to start scanning your disk. If your documents were stored in an external hard drive, connect it to your computer, go to the USB / SD Card Recovery tab in the tool, pick the drive, and click Scan Disk.

Step 2. Preview documents
When it is done, head to the Type List tab and check Document. Now, preview all documents on your disk. Quickly locate specific documents with the Filter option. Or go to the Path List tab, and locate the lost documents by path.

Step 3. Recover deleted documents
Tick all the documents you want to retrieve, and click Recover. Set an output folder and confirm recovering deleted documents. You’d better select another location rather than the original folder.

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