Unsaved Word Document Recovery Mac [Recover Unsaved or Deleted Word Documents]

Accidentally close a Word document (.doc or .docx) without saving it on Mac? Do you know how to recover unsaved Word documents on a Mac? According to the unique features of Microsoft Word for Mac, you may find the unsaved item in the AutoRecovery folder, Temporary folder, or Recovered item in Trash. Besides, if you unintentionally lose, delete, or format your Word document, you can recover a Word document on a Mac with EaseUS Word file recovery software.

Word document loss scenario	Ways to recover
✅Word shut down without saving on Mac. I need to recover unsaved Word document Mac without AutoRecovery.	Recover unsaved Word documents on Mac with unsaved file recovery software
🔃My Mac shut down and restarted. Word didn't save my changes, and I lost my Word document.	Recover unsaved Word documents on Mac with AutoRecovery
👊Word crashed and didn't autosave on Mac.	Recover Word document that was not saved on Mac in Mac Terminal
📗Accidentally closed Word without saving it on Mac.	Recover unsaved Word document on Mac from Recovered Item
🚩I deleted Word documents by mistake and emptied the Trash later. How to get back my lost Word document	Recover deleted Word on Mac with the EaseUS file recovery tool

Microsoft Word offers standard DOC or DOCX file formats that are compatible with almost every OS platform. Word 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018...2011 featured auto-saving, which enables us to recover a Word document before we could hit Save. In this article, you will learn four ways to recover Word documents not saved on a Mac. 

Recover Unsaved Word Documents with Word Recovery Software

Reliable Mac data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac upgraded with an unsaved document recovery feature that any one of you can recover unsaved Word files from Mac with only a few clicks. It supports Mac SD card recovery, USB flash drive recovery, external hard drive recovery, and SSD recovery.

Download this Mac file recovery tool and follow these steps to recover unsaved Word documents quickly.

1. Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Choose the disk where you lost an unsaved file, and click "Search for lost files".
2. Step 2. On the left side of the scan results window,  click "Type" and "Unsaved Documents". Use filters to choose Word files. 
3. Step 3. Double-click to preview the selected Word document. Then, click "Recover" to restore lost files. 

Note: Be careful not to revert to the original location, as this may overwrite the file being recovered.

If you are also interested in how to recover unsaved Word documents on Windows 10, you can read this article.

If this Mac data recovery program helps you restore unsaved Word documents on Mac, don't forget to share it with your SNS.

Suppose you don't like to use a file recovery program; the three ways below allow you to recover unsaved Word documents on a Mac without software. Based on the features of Microsoft Word for Mac, there are three potential ways to recover your unsaved Word documents. These methods can also be applied to recover unsaved Excel files on Mac.

Video Tutorial to Recover Unsaved Word Documents on a Mac

Embedded with more useful features in certain collaborative situations than recovering pages of documents, Microsoft Word has become increasingly popular among Mac computers. Office 365 even allows users to create Word files on their Mac. Based on this, more and more Mac users are searching for how to recover unsaved Word documents.

We provide you with a video tutorial on Mac unsaved Word document recovery. 

• 00:00 - Options for Word Recovery
• 00:37 - AutoRecovery in Word
• 02:04 - Recover Doc from TMP Folder
• 03:06 - Recover Doc from Mac Trash
• 03:39 - Mac Recovery Software

Perform Mac Unsaved Word Documents Recovery with AutoRecovery

The Word for Mac includes an AutoSave option. It is turned on by default. The app will automatically save a copy of an open Word file every 10 minutes. Suppose Word freezes while you're working on a document or the computer crashes. In that case, you can use the AutoRecovery copy to recover an unsaved Word document with the changes or additions you made in your last Word for Mac session.

How to recover unsaved Word documents with AutoRecovery

1. Step 1. Open Finder on your Mac.
2. Step 2. Select Go from the top Finder menu. Then, go to Folder.
3. Step 3. Type: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery and hit Enter.
4. Step 4. Open the AutoRecovery folder, and locate the files that start with the words "AutoRecovery save of". Find the one you want to recover. 
5. Step 4. Double-click the file. The document now opens in Word for Mac. Click the File menu and select "Save As"'. 

Recover Word Documents Not Saved on Mac from the TMP Folder

The Word for Mac saves a copy of the unsaved document named Word Work File in the Temporary folder. Your Mac also temporarily keeps files in this folder. However, it's not easy for many Mac users to find it.

Steps to recover an unsaved Word document on Mac with Terminal:

1. Step 1. Go to "Applications" > "Utilities" and double-click "Terminal".
2. Step 2. In Terminal, enter open $TMPDIR, and you will be directed to the TMP folder, which keeps files temporarily.
3. Step 3. In the TMP folder, find and open the "TemporaryItems" folder. Right-click the desired unsaved Word files in it and "Open with..." Microsoft Word.
4. Step 4. Save the Word file by clicking on "File" > "Save As" and save it to another location.

Find an Unsaved Word Document on a Mac from Recovered Items

The Word for Mac temporarily saves documents that the user has not yet saved themselves in a folder named "Recovered items" in the Trash. If there are no recovered files, this folder will not appear.

Steps on how to find unsaved Word files on Mac

1. Step 1. Open "Trash" by clicking its icon on the dock.
2. Step 2. Look for a folder labeled "Recovered items" and click into it to look for your unsaved Word file. If you cannot find it, try the next solution.

How to Recover Deleted Word Documents with Mac File Recovery Software

The aforementioned ways are exclusively for saving the file you're working on but suddenly disappear before clicking the Save button. Specifically, the methods will only work for files that are being worked on when they disappear. Hence, if you lost a Word document that already existed by deletion, disk formatting, or losing its access, you must turn to other ways to recover a Word document on a Mac.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is a specialized Mac data recovery software that can scour your hard drive, external hard drive, SD card, or USB flash drive to recover deleted files on Mac. It doesn't matter whether you emptied the trash bin, and the deleted file will show up after you use the program to scan your selected drive.

Note: You can create a backup by clicking the "Disk Backup" on the left first. The software will recover the document from the backup image. It can prevent further damage to your disk and data, making it safer and more reliable.

Step 1. Scan for lost documents

Select the location where your important Word/Excel/PPT/Numbers/Pages documents were lost and click "Search for lost files".

Step 2. Find lost documents on Mac

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately start a scan on your selected disk volume. Meanwhile, the scanning results will be presented in the left pane. Select "Documents" and you can quickly filter the DOC/PDF/PPT/XLS files you've lost earlier.

Step 3. Recover lost/deleted documents

Select the target files and preview them by double-clicking them. Then, click "Recover" to get lost documents back at once.

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How to Increase the Chance of Recovering an Unsaved Word Document

After suffering from the fear of losing your Word documents, you must not want to experience this kind of situation again. Thus, it's necessary for you to know how to avoid losing your Word files. To avoid completely losing your files, you can:

Tip 1. Save the Word Document Whenever You Create a New One

An ever-unsaved Word document exists in the computer's RAM, not on the hard disk. Thus, the chances of saving a Word Document that has never been saved before are slim. Knowing this should give you a hint that you should save the Word document at least once whenever you create a new one.

Tip 2. Change the AutoSave Interval

After you save your Word document, the AutoSave feature will work. To minimize the loss of progress on the file you are working on, you can change the frequency of AutoSave:

Step 1. Open Microsoft Word on your Mac.

Step 2. Go to "Word" > "Preferences" and click "Save" under Output and Sharing.

Step 3. Check all the items under Save Options (Recommended) and change the interval of AutoSave, for example, from every 10 minutes to every 5 minutes.

Following the two tips above will substantially decrease the risk of losing your Word documents. What if you carelessly deleted your important Word files on your Mac? No worry. Try the free method to retrieve permanently deleted Word documents with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

Recover Unsaved Word Documents on a Mac FAQs

Don't worry if you still have problems recovering unsaved/deleted documents on macOS. Read the questions and answers below to get additional help.

1. How to recover unsaved Word documents on Mac without Autorecovery?

There are at least two ways to recover unsaved Word documents on Mac. You can use data recovery software to restore unsaved documents or use Time Machine backup. To restore unsaved documents on Mac with Time Machine:

• Connect the drive containing your Time Machine backup to your Mac.
• Click the Time Machine icon and choose Enter Time Machine.
• Open the folder where the document should be located.
• Use the arrows on the right side to choose the needed backup version and search for the lost file.
• Click the needed Word document and click Restore.

2. Can I recover a Word document I didn't save on Mac?

Yes, you can recover an unsaved document as long as other files don't overwrite the Word.

Open its current version and then click Version History to find the earlier version. Try Time Machine or EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac if this operation fails.

3. Where do I find Autorecover files in Word for Mac?

The AutoRecovery files are in a hidden folder on your Mac. Thus, it is impossible to find such files by simply navigating through Finder. To find the unsaved Word documents on your Mac, head to Go > Go to Folder and enter this folder path (replace username with your username):

Users > username > Library > Containers > com.Microsoft > Data > Library > Preferences > AutoRecovery

4. Can I recover an overwritten Word document on a Mac?

Yes, there are multiple ways to recover an overwritten Word document on Mac:

• Use Time Machine backup
• Turn to iCloud backup
• Run data recovery software