Top 4 Ways to Recover Word Document on Mac

Part 1: How to Recover A Word Document on Mac

There are many reasons that can lead to unsaved word files. Sometimes, your word crashes or the computer shuts down unexpectedly while you were working on a file. In these situations, you lose the progress of your work and start to panic, but we assure you there is nothing really to panic. There is always a solution to fix such problems. So, check out all the solutions and try each of them to see what works best for you. Let's begin.

• Way 1: Recover Word Document on Mac with AutoRecover Feature
• Way 2: Recover Word Document on Mac from Trash
• Way 3: Recover Word Document on Mac via Temporary Folder
• Way 4: Recover Word Document on Mac via Time Machine

Way 1: Recover Word Document on Mac with AutoRecover Feature

The first and the easiest way to recover your unsaved word document on Mac is through its Auto-recovery feature. Word has a default auto-recovery option. It saves your current document in the auto-recovery folder in case your application crashes or your PC shuts down accidentally. See the steps to access the folder.

• 01To recover your unsaved document, open "Finder" on your Mac. Move to Go> Go to folder.
• 02Then, type ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery
• 03Open the auto-recovery folder. There, you will see files with "Autorecovery save of –filename". Select the file and add a .doc extension.

• 04Double-click to open the file on Mac. Then click "save as" and save your lost file.

  

Way 2: Recover Word Document on Mac from Trash

Another way to recover your unsaved word document on Mac is from the Trash folder. You can recover your deleted or lost file within a 30-day time as, after that, trash automatically empties. Check the steps below to see how to recover a word document from Mac Trash.

• 01First, double-click the trash icon to open the Trash folder.
• 02Then, locate your unsaved document in the pop-up window.

• 03Right-click document and select "Put Back" to the original folder.

  

Way 3: Recover Word Document on Mac via Temporary Folder

Basically, Word for Mac saves a copy of your word file in the folder named "Temporary Folder." So, our third way to recover the unsaved word document is via the Temporary folder of Mac. Check the steps below.

• 01First, go to Applications and then navigate to Utilities. Double-click on the Terminal.
• 02Then, type “open $TMPDIR ” in the Terminal and hit Enter. It will direct you to the TMP folder on Mac, which is a temporary file saving folder.
• 03Here, locate a folder called TemporaryItems. Open it and check for your unsaved document.

• 04Once you find the file, open it in Word. Then, click "Save as" to save the file.

  

Way 4: Recover Word Document on Mac via Time Machine

In case you have Time Machine enabled on your Mac, this method can help you recover your unsaved word document efficiently. Time Machine feature creates a backup of everything, and it remains for 24 hours. So, if you accidentally deleted the Word file or did not save it, the Time machine must have a backed-up word file. Follow the steps below to see how to recover the unsaved document on Mac in a time machine feature.

• 01Select cmd+spacebar and type "Time Machine". Tap to open it.
• 02Then, use the timeline to locate the lost or unsaved word document.

• 03Once you find the word document, select it. Then, hit "Restore".

  

Part 2: Recover Lost/Unsaved Word Document Using Stellar Repair for Word [on Windows]

Above were the methods to recover unsaved word documents on Mac. In case you are using windows, we have a useful tool for you. Stellar Phoenix Word Repair software is the most reliable and easy-to-use tool that will recover all your text from MS Word. Check the steps below to see how to recover a word document using Stellar Repair for Word.

• 01Download and Install Stellar Phoenix Repair for Word Software.

• 02Launch the software. In case you don't know the location of your file. You can search for it using the search option. For that, you can click "Search" to search the corrupted file.

  

• 03A list of all the searched files will appear. Then, click "Scan" to scan all the contents of the file.

  

• 04The software will start repairing your Word document.

  
• 05You can also preview the file. To see the preview, double-click the file to preview it in different modes.

Hopefully your Word document has been repaired successfully.

Summary

We know how frustrating it is to work on a word file for hours, and it accidentally gets deleted. Therefore, we have brought you four best ways on how to recover your unsaved or deleted word document on Mac quickly. Furthermore, if you are a Windows user, we have an amazing and efficient tool for you to recover your lost files on windows computer as well. Stellar Word for repair is a reliable tool to recover and restore all your lost and corrupted word documents by following a few simple steps.

By the way, if you forgot your Word document open password, you can recover your Word password using PassFab for Word.

Part 3: FAQs About Recovering Word Document

Q1: Where are recovered Word files stored?

In Windows, you can check the autosave files in "C:\ Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word” or "C:\ Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp. In case of Mac, you will find recovery folder, “~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery”

Q2: Can I recover a Word doc that I didn't save?

Yes, there are many methods to recover your unsaved word document on Windows as well as Mac.

Q3: How do I recover a Word document?

You can try to look for a temporary folder or recovery folder on Mac. Other than that, you can use stellar word repair software to restore the deleted word file.