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HOW TO RECOVER UNSAVED DOCUMENT

Sabrine Elouali 0 Reputation points
2025-12-13T14:19:27.2833333+00:00

Hello,

I was using Microsoft Word on my iPad when it began not responding. I made sure the document was set to Autosave and then I force closed the app. Upon reopening the app, my document is gone, only an older version from previous days ago exists, not the version I hasd been working on today. My autosave documents are supposed to be saved to my Onedrive, but I searched this and also looked under "recover unsaved documents" but it's not there either!

What else can I do? Where else can I look? Or have I lost the changes I've been making all morning?

Please HELP!

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For education | iOS

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  1. Ryan-N 13,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-12-13T16:02:19.5366667+00:00

    Hi @Sabrine Elouali,

    Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    Thank you for reaching out to us. I would like to provide the following information:

    If you have enabled the Auto Save feature, you can follow the steps below to restore your OneDrive to a point before the app crashed:

     

    Step 1: Go to https://onedrive.live.com

    Step 2: Click Settings → Restore your OneDrive

    User's image

    Step 3: Select a restore point before the issue occurred

     User's image

    After completing the steps, please access your document again to check.

    I noticed that your case is tagged under Education, so I’m providing information based on an education account type.

    Since your account is an Education account, it is managed by your school’s administrator. If restoring OneDrive does not fix the issue, please contact your admin to check whether the data can be recovered from the admin level.

    I hope the information above is helpful. Please give it a try and let me know the result. If the issue persists, we can continue working together to resolve it.

    Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to leave a comment on this post so I can support you further.

    I’m looking forward to your response.

     If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

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  2. AI answer

    2025-12-13T14:20:37.96+00:00

    To recover your unsaved document in Microsoft Word on your iPad, you can try the following steps:

    1. Check AutoRecover Files: Even though you mentioned that you have checked for unsaved documents, ensure that you have looked in the AutoRecover section. Open Word, go to File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents. This may help you find any automatically saved versions of your document.
    2. Search for Temporary Files: Sometimes, temporary files may be created. You can look for files with a .tmp extension. However, this may be more applicable to desktop versions of Word.
    3. Check OneDrive: Since you have Autosave enabled and your documents are supposed to be saved to OneDrive, double-check your OneDrive folder. Look for any recent files or versions that might not be immediately visible.
    4. Recycle Bin: If you accidentally deleted the document, check the Recycle Bin in OneDrive to see if it's there.
    5. Restart Word: Close and reopen the Word app. Sometimes, reopening the app can trigger the recovery of unsaved documents.

    If none of these methods work, it is possible that the changes made during your last session may not be recoverable. It's always a good practice to save your work frequently to avoid losing important changes.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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