How to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Mac? Top 7 Ways

How do you recover unsaved PowerPoint Mac? Can you recover PowerPoint files that are unsaved or accidentally deleted? You can perform a full PowerPoint recovery on Mac by restoring from the AutoRecover, temporary files, and older versions as well as the capable EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac

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Can I recover unsaved PPT files in Mac with these steps as well? Sure, the steps are quite the same on both Windows and Mac. Navigate to the following path - "Go" > "Go to Folder" and locate to: /Users/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.

PowerPoint didn't save my work mac, what to do? Generally speaking, you want to recover PowerPoint files on your Mac in two situations: your files are lost or deleted accidentally, or the PowerPoint software closes unexpectedly without being saved. You may know that it is different to recover unsaved PowerPoint Mac, which is more complex and has a lower chance of success. Figure out the situation you are in and choose the corresponding solution to apply:

How to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint on Mac (Top 4 Methods)

Like recovering unsaved Word documents on Mac, there are four potential ways to recover unsaved Microsoft Office PowerPoint files. Read them one by one to get solutions for your errors.

Method 1. Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files Using EaseUS PPT Recovery Software 🏅

There are lots of Mac recovery tools, but to achieve the best PPT/PPTX recovery result, you need to choose the best Mac data recovery software. Considering the product quality, usability, and versatility, we recommend you try EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

It is a powerful Mac data recovery software that works perfectly well to recover files such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint files when you accidentally click don't save PowerPoint on Mac. This functional recovery program can also recover unsaved Excel files on Mac.

You can check the following tutorial to restore unsaved .ppt files on Mac:

Step 1. Launch the software on your Mac and click "Hardware Disk" > choose a disk and click "Search for lost files". If you want to recover unsaved PPT from the other storage device, remember to connect it to the Mac in advance.

select a location and click scan

Step 2. This software can help you recover unsaved files on Mac. After clicking the scan button, all the lost files will show up in the window, and you can click "Type" > "Unsaved Documents" to find the unsaved PPT work pages on Mac.

click unsaved document

Step 3. You can double-click the PowerPoint file to preview it. After ensuring the PPT file is the wanted one, click "Recover" to save it.

recover unsaved ppt

Also lost PPT files in Windows? Don't worry. EaseUS data recovery software also has a Windows version, and you can recover unsaved PowerPoint with EaseUS in Windows as well. Please share this functional PPT recovery tool on social media to let more users know!

 

Method 2. Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files from the AutoRecover Folder

Before you are going to recover unsaved PowerPoint files on Mac, watch this video first. It provides you with more details on Mac PPT recovery.

  • 00:29 - Method 1. Recover PPT on Mac from Time Machine Backup
  • 01:19 - Method 2. Recover Deleted and Unsaved PPT with Software
  • 02:23 - Method 3. Recover Unsaved PPT on Mac with Autosave
  • 03:07 - Method 4. Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files from Temp Folder
Mac PPT recovery
 

AutoRecover, a built-in feature in Microsoft Office, is able to restore your PPT files from the AutoSave PowerPoint Mac location after a system crash. It will save a copy of your PowerPoint in the background every 10 minutes (by default). Thus, it's possible to find the backup of your desired PowerPoint in the AutoRecover folder. But where are PowerPoint recovery files stored Mac? Follow the steps below to autorecover PowerPoint Mac:

Step 1. Click "Go" > "Go to Folder".

Step 2. Go to the PowerPoint autosave location on Mac by navigating to: /Users/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.

recover unsaved powerpoint mac from autorecover location

Step 3. If you find the file you need, open it with Microsoft Office and save it on your computer.

Notice:
If you unsaved your PowerPoint file by clicking "Don't Save", the AutoRecovered files will be deleted because the Office thinks that they are not needed. If that's how you make your PPT files unsaved, this method will not work for you. How do I recover a deleted PowerPoint presentation on a Mac? Please skip to the deleted recovery part.

Method 3. Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files from Temp Folder

macOS will keep the temp files that the software has created. MS Office PowerPoint will also keep temporary files, and you still have a chance to recover unsaved PPT from the Temp folder on Mac:

Step 1. Wake up Mac Terminal with the Spotlight.

open Terminal with Spotlight

Step 2. In Terminal, enter open $TMPDIR, and you will be directed to the TMP folder used to keep files temporarily.

open Temp folder in Terminal

Step 3. In the TMP folder, find and open the "TemporaryItems" folder. In it, right-click the desired unsaved PowerPoint file and open it with Microsoft PowerPoint.

Step 4. Save the PPT file by clicking on "File" > "Save As" and save it to another location.

click Sava As in MS Office PPT

Method 4. Recover Unsaved and Overwritten PowerPoint Files from Older Versions

At last, if you set up a regular Time Machine backup on your Mac, you may be fortunate to restore the previous version of the lost PowerPoint files that were deleted, corrupted, overwritten, and unsaved.

Step 1. Go to Finder and open the folder where the disappeared PowerPoint file was located.

Step 2. Select Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu to find the Time Machine backups you created.

Step 3. Filter a time before the PowerPoint file was lost, corrupted, or overwritten. Click on the file and then click Restore.

reover files from Time Machine backup

If the four methods above can't help you recover your unsaved PowerPoint files, you may not be able to get them back anymore. To prevent such terrible things from happening, you should develop a good habit of saving your files frequently or at least decrease the Auto-Save interval.

However, if your PPT file has been saved before but was missing after a system crash, using the data recovery for Mac to recover it is well worth trying. 

Recover Deleted PowerPoint on Mac (Top 3 Methods)

After learning how to recover unsaved PowerPints files on macOS, you can follow these three methods to recover deleted or overwritten PPTs on a Mac:

Method 1. Recover Deleted PowerPoint on Mac with Recovery Software

EaseUS file recovery software also offers a great basic feature for recovering deleted PowerPoint files on a Mac from any device. Suppose your PowerPoint files are lost due to deletion, formatting, or other misoperations. In that case, you have a rather high chance of getting them back with the help of Mac's effective data recovery software.

To guarantee a maximum PowerPoint recovery result on Mac, try not to overwrite the lost files by saving new data to the drive where the PPT files had been lost. Download and apply it to recover deleted files on Mac now.

Steps to recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint on Mac:

Step 1. Launch the EaseUS recovery software on your Mac and choose a disk on which you have lost PPTs. You can also recover deleted or lost PPT files from USBs, SD cards, and external SSD/HDDs.

select a location and click scan

Step 2. Click "Type" > "Documents" to find the PPT files on Mac. You can recover PowerPoints from this page if you have found target files.

recover deleted ppt

Step 3. You can also choose to preview the PPT by double-clicking. Click the Recover button after viewing the detailed information on the PPT.

recover deleted ppt

Method 2. Restore Deleted PPT Files from Trash

Mac Trash is a recovery chance after deleting documents on Mac. All the deleted files will be transferred to the Mac Trash folder and remain there for a while. You can quickly restore the deleted PPT files in the Trash folder with the Put Back option.

Step 1. Locate the Trash on the destop or from Dock and double-click it to open the Trash folder.

Trash icon in Sonoma

Step 2. Find the deleted PPT files in the Trash folder > right-click the file > click "Put Back".

put back PPT file

Method 3. Retrieve Permanently Deleted PPT Files from iCloud

 If the PPT files are permanently deleted from your Mac because of overwriting, you should rely on Time Machine or iCloud backup. It is essential to create backups regularly, as they can help you restore important data. Log in with your Apple ID to iCloud's official website > click your personal profile photo > find Advanced settings > click "Restore Files". 

icloud recover deleted files

Conclusion

We have discussed 7 different solutions in this passage to recover unsaved or deleted PowerPoint files on a Mac. Have you found a suitable method to recover lost PPTs? EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is highly recommended because it has a user-friendly interface and can handle deleted and unsaved files.

Haven't you downloaded this software yet? Click the following button and try the EaseUS recovery tool for Mac today!

Unsaved PowerPoint Recovery Mac FAQs

Here are some additional questions and answers about unsaved PPT recovery on Mac:

1. Is it possible to recover a PowerPoint you haven't saved on a Mac?

Yes, you can recover an unsaved PowerPoint on a Mac, thanks to its AutoRecover utility. Once you have enabled this option on Mac, you can file the unsaved PPT folder on Mac and recover these unsaved documents easily.

2. Does MS PPT have an AutoSave option on Mac?

Yes, there is an AutoSave option on Mac. You can save the PPT file manually by clicking the Save button or enabling AutoSave in MS Office PPT to make the file save automatically.

3. How do I recover an unsaved PowerPoint on a Mac?

You have many possible ways to recover an unsaved PowerPoint on a Mac:

  • Apply EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
  • Recover from AutoRecover Folder
  • Recover from the Temp Folder
  • Restore PPT's Previous Version

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Updated by Jaden

Jaden is one of the editors of EaseUS, who focuses on topics concerning PCs and Mac data recovery. Jaden is committed to enhancing professional IT knowledge and writing abilities. She is always keen on new and intelligent products.

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Written by Daisy

Daisy is the Senior editor of the writing team for EaseUS. She has been working at EaseUS for over ten years, starting as a technical writer and moving on to being a team leader of the content group. As a professional author for over ten years, she writes a lot to help people overcome their tech troubles.

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