How to Recover Unsaved Word Document After Computer Restarts/Shutdown

Summary

If you happen to encounter computer suddenly restarts or shuts down before clicking save on a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, take it easy. There are three ways you can try to recover unsaved Word document after the computer restarts or shutting down. What's more, if you have lost the saved Word document, you can use EaseUS free data recovery software to recover the deleted document with ease.

Can Word recovery software recover unsaved Word document?

In fact, none of the data recovery software on the market can recover unsaved Word documents. Typically, the third-party software only helps when you at least have an original file located on your computer's hard disk or a connected USB drive. You can use these data recovery tools to restore lost saved Word document, which is later missing due to accidental deletion, disk formatting, virus attack, partition loss, etc.

But for unsaved Word document caused by an unexpected computer crash or shutting down, the answer is NO. Even the EaseUS data recovery software on this page, which is very famous in the field of data recovery. Then, how to recover a Word document that you forgot to save after computer restarts? Follow the three effective solutions below. 

How to Recover A Word Document Didn't Save After Computer Restart

Microsoft Office offers users the AutoRecover to restore the on-editing Word document automatically. You can enable this function by going to "File" > "Options" > "Save" > checking "Save AutoRecover". You can change the time of AutoSave interval. As long as this feature starts to work, you can recover the unsaved Word document after a computer restart, crash, or shutting down with the following methods. If your word version is below version 10, see another post on how to recover unsaved Word document 2007/2003.

Method 1. Recover from Recent Documents (Word 2010/2013/2016/2019)

• Open Word application and click the "Open" > "File" tab.
• Click "Recent".
• Scroll to the bottom of your Recent Documents and then click "Recover Unsaved Documents".
• The saved drafts will open in a new window. Click "Save As" to restore the disappeared unsaved Word document after a computer problem.

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Method 2. Recover from Manage Document

• Run Word > open a new file or an existing file.
• Click the "File" tab > "Info" > click "Manage Document".
• Click "Recover Unsaved Documents".
• You will see the list of your unsaved files. Select the file and click "Open" > "Save As" to store the Word file. 

Method 3. Recover from Temporary Files

• You can find the temp files in this path: C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles.
• Choose the one you need to recover and open with Word application to save again. 

If you have deleted the Unsaved Files folder and lost all the temporary files, you can use EaseUS Data Recovery to restore the deleted tempory files. 

How to Recover Deleted or Lost Word Document on Windows 10/8/7 for Free

As explained before, a data recovery tool can't help you get back the unsaved Word document, but it provides you with an effective and easy way to recover deleted files. And EaseUS free data recovery software, a renowned document recovery program, enables you to restore lost DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, PDF, CWK, HTML/HTM, INDD, and EPS with a few clicks. 

Supporting 200+ file types, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is good at recovering (permanently) deleted files from hard drive, SSD, USB flash drive, pen drive, external hard drive, and so on. Now, download this free data recovery software and use it to restore any lost files as you need with the detailed guides below. 

Step 1. Choose the Word file location

It's the first step. You must clearly know where your Word files got lost, choose a hard disk drive or a specific folder. If it's on a USB flash drive or SD card, take one more step to connect it to your computer.

Right-click on the drive X: and click the Scan button.

Step 2. Scan all lost data

The software will start immediately scanning all lost data on the selected drive, and you'll see more and more data showing up in the scan results.

Step 3. Select Word files and recover

After the scan, use the quickest way to the wanted Word documents by choosing "Documents" from the drop-down list in "Filter". You're allowed to preview a Word file if you have Microsoft Word application installed on your computer. Finally, select the desired documents and click "Recover".