Fix Mac Error 'The Document Could Not Be Autosaved' in 4 Ways

Many people reported the error "The document could not be autosaved" when they edited a document on their Mac. If this error occurs to you, don't worry!

This post will guide you on how to fix the "document could not be autosaved" problem and, the top-priority part, recover the unsaved document without data loss.

Recover the Unsaved Document with EaseUS Software

If the "could not be autosaved" error happens, and you didn't save the documents manually, don't panic! You can choose a professional and safe document recovery tool, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, to recover unsaved documents with clicks.

The EaseUS software can recover unsaved Word documents, unsaved Excel files, and more document types. To avoid losing the changes of the edited documents, install EaseUS software and follow the steps below to recover unsaved documents on your Mac:

Note: You can create a backup by clicking the "Disk Backup" on the left first. When the disk is damaged or the unsaved document on the disk is accidentally deleted or lost, you can get the data back from the backup image.

Step 1. Select the disk

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, hover the mouse over the device where you lost an unsaved file, and click "Search for lost files".

Step 2. Choose unsaved documents

After the scan, click "Type", and expand "Unsaved Documents". Click the exact file type - Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Keynote, Pages, or Numbers you lost without saving.

Step 3. Preview and recover unsaved files

Double-click to preview your unsaved file, select the right version and click "Recover" to save the file to another secure location on Mac.

This powerful document recovery tool can help users recover previous versions of Word documents, Excel files, PowerPoint files, and other documents.

It can recover unsaved iWork documents without advanced backups in Time Machine, such as recovering Mac Pages Autosave documents.

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Clear Recent Menu to Fix the Document Not Autosaved Error

Clearing the recent menu may fix a document that could not be autosaved. Check out the following steps:

Step 1. Open the app that reminds you, "The document could not be autosaved", on your Mac.

Step 2. Click "File" on the top menu, and choose the "Open Recent" option.

You will see a list of files that you opened recently.

Step 3. Scroll down to the bottom and clear the recent menu.

Duplicate the Document that Could Not Autosaved

In this part, we provide a way to save the affected document without data loss; however, this method doesn't actually resolve the "could not be autosaved" error.

Open the document, click on the "Duplicate" option, and remember to save the new document in a different storage location rather than the original storage location, such as Photoshop autosave location on a Mac.

After saving the duplicate document, you can edit it rather than the original one to check if the autosave is working.

Disable the Autosave Option and Save Documents Manually

Another option is to turn off the autosave option and manually save the changes you have made to the file. This method ensures that your file will not lose data as long as you remember to click Save before exiting the edit.

Generally, you can see the autosave option in the window at the top left corner of the file app, and you can turn it off manually.

Conclusion

This article introduces how to recover unsaved documents with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac and provides effective ways to fix the documents that could not be autosaved on Mac issue: learning the recent menu, duplicating the document that could not be autosaved, and disabling the "Autosave" option in document apps.

The Document Could Not Be Autosaved FAQs

Here are questions people also ask when they search for how to solve the "document could not be autosaved" error:

1 . Why won't my document AutoSave on Mac?

If your documents are locally saved on your Mac, you won't be able to use the "Autosave " feature. Another possible reason is your documents are stored in the local folder and failed to upload to your cloud drive.

2. Why does Pages says "document could not be autosaved"?

If you are using Google Drive, you should notice that Pages' autosave feature is designed to work with a supported filesystem format, which doesn't include Google Drive. You can autosave the Pages documents in your iCloud Drive.