Word - how to access Auto-recover and document auto-save

Word has a feature to auto-recover and save documents in case of crashes or problems to the file. This area is hidden on the computer under a hidden folder and therefore accessed using a method that's different from accessing a regular file.

 

  • Click into the start menu and begin typing the word "Run", this will search the computer for the run program. Once you see it in the list, open 'run':  Illustrative image
  • Once run is open, type "%Appdata%" into the run window that appears and press 'ok', this will open up the hidden file area:  Illustrative image
  • Navigate to the 'Microsoft' folder inside this window, then the 'Word' folder and finally in here will will see any documents that have been autosaved/recovered:  Illustrative image
  • To open these files, right click one of them and select "Open With" and select word from the list of apps, you will need to click 'show more apps' before you can see Word:  Illustrative image

Once the document opens, if it's the best open you will need to choose File --> Save as and choose another location to save the file before continuing. 

 

if however this has not worked or there are no backups/recovery of your save, please feel free to contact ITSkills@chi.ac.uk to have the IT skills trainer have a look with you.

 

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