An unsaved Word document can be recovered only if some copy of its content was retained: an AutoRecover file, a saved version, a backup or another exported copy. Start with Word’s own recovery entries. Turning on AutoRecover now protects future work; it cannot recreate text that was never captured.
Use Word’s recovery interface first
These instructions cover Microsoft 365 Word for Windows and the desktop recovery route Microsoft documents. After an unexpected shutdown, reopen Word and inspect any Document Recovery entries. Open useful candidates and use Save As with a new name and a known destination before continuing to edit. Do not dismiss or delete all recovery entries before checking their content.
If nothing opens automatically, select File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents. Open candidates from the relevant working period, then save any useful version as a normal Word document. The newest timestamp is a clue, not proof of the most complete text.
Microsoft also lists %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Word and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles as places to check. Search for .asd recovery files; in Word use File > Open > Browse, choose All Files, and open the relevant candidate. These locations and the menu route are documented in Microsoft’s unsaved Word recovery article.
Confirm the settings that applied before the loss
Look under File > Options > Save for the configured AutoRecover location and interval. A managed installation or changed location can differ from the common folders. The option to retain the last AutoRecovered version after closing without saving matters to that scenario, but its current state does not prove it was enabled during the lost session.
AutoRecover is periodic crash protection. AutoSave for a document stored in OneDrive or SharePoint is a different mechanism, and it depends on the relevant Office/cloud conditions. Microsoft explains these distinctions in its save, backup and recovery overview.
Evaluate an older or incomplete candidate
Compare headings, final paragraphs, tables and images with what you remember writing. A recovered document may legitimately end before the crash because the last recovery interval had not completed. Save both a more complete older candidate and a newer partial one when necessary; compare them before merging content into a separate document.
If the candidate cannot open, retain it and try another recovery entry or saved copy. A temporary lock file beginning with ~$ is not a normal document backup. Do not assume every .tmp file can be converted to DOCX by renaming it.
When the recovery list and folders are empty
Check whether the work was saved to another account or location, attached to an email, or captured in a backup. A disk recovery scan can sometimes locate deleted files that previously existed, but it cannot recover text that stayed only in memory. XRecovery supports common Word-file recovery and repair of listed Word formats; those capabilities do not create a missing AutoRecover record.
After preserving whatever survives, save new work early and verify AutoRecover settings for future sessions. The fact that the option is enabled is not a substitute for periodically reopening a saved document and confirming that the expected content is there.
For the next step, see Document Recovery: Deleted, Unsaved, Overwritten or Damaged?.