If Word, Excel or PowerPoint closed before you saved, your work may still be on the PC. Office keeps recovery copies while you work. Knowing where they live helps when Office did not offer them back, or when you dismissed the offer too quickly.
The easy way first: let Office show them
Word looks for AutoRecover files every time it starts. [R1] If it finds any, it shows a Document Recovery pane listing them. Reopen the program, and look at that pane before you open anything else.
Open the version that looks newest, check it has your work, and use File > Save As to save it under a normal name straight away.
If nothing was offered
Try these menus. They search the recovery folders for you.
- Word: File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents. [R1]
- Excel and PowerPoint: File > Info > Manage, then pick the entry labelled "(when I closed without saving)". [R3]
- PowerPoint: the Recover Unsaved Presentations button, which takes you to the folder where its AutoRecover files are stored. [R4]
Where the files actually are
For Microsoft 365, Microsoft lists two folders to check for Word backup and recovery files [R1]:
C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\WordC:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
For PowerPoint, Microsoft's instructions point to AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\PowerPoint. [R4] To see the exact AutoRecover path on your PC, open File > Options > Save; the setting is listed there.
AppData is a hidden folder. Type the path into the File Explorer address bar rather than clicking toward it.
What the file names mean
.asdfiles are Word's AutoRecover files. You can open one by choosing File > Open, setting the file type to All Files, and selecting it. [R1].xarfiles are what Excel leaves in its AutoRecover folder. Names look random, starting with~. Microsoft's current help pages do not describe this file type, so this article does not rely on a source for it. If Excel does not offer one, copy it to your desktop first, never work on the only copy, and try opening the copy in Excel.- PowerPoint recovery files have random names and are found through the folder above.
Copy before you open. Opening and saving over the only copy of a recovery file removes your last chance to try again.
Recovery files and saved files are different
Recovery files are a safety net, not a backup. A recovered file only holds what was saved at the last AutoRecover save, so a long interval means more lost work. [R2] You control the interval in File > Options > Save, where the "Save AutoRecover information every x minutes" box lives. [R2]
Microsoft's own advice is that AutoRecover does not replace saving: "the Save button is still your best friend". [R2]
Files saved in OneDrive or SharePoint
If a document was opened from OneDrive or SharePoint, Word uses AutoSave rather than AutoRecover, and changes are saved to the cloud copy as you go. [R1] AutoSave works when your file is saved to OneDrive or SharePoint. [R5]
For those files, look at Version History (see "I lost a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document") rather than the recovery folders.
Old recovery files
Recovery files can be left behind in these folders and pile up over the years. Do not delete them in a hurry. A file that looks stale may be the only copy of something you still want. Open the newest few first.
What should I do now?
- Reopen the program and check the Document Recovery pane.
- Use the File > Info > Manage menu.
- If those show nothing, look in the folders above.
- Copy any file you find before opening it.
- Save the recovered file under a normal name, and then check it holds the work you lost.