Recovering damaged Word documents. Don't worry, I'll explain everything now! How AutoSave a Word Document Works

If, when you try to open a Microsoft Word document, you receive an error message that the file is damaged or that the file cannot be opened, there are several ways to troubleshoot the problem.

To store Microsoft Word documents, files with the extensions are used .DOC And .DOCX. Older versions of Microsoft Word prior to Office 2007 only use the format .DOC.

The latest versions of Microsoft Word by default use files with the extension .DOCX. This format is compatible with Open Office.

1. Recovery using Microsoft Word

If the file is only partially damaged, then it is more convenient to restore the data it contains using the following algorithm:

1. Launch Microsoft Word
2. Open a blank document
3. Click on the “FILE” button in the upper left corner.
4. In the menu that appears, select the “Open” option.
5. Select damaged file on disk
6. In the drop-down menu of the “Open” button, you must select “Open and Repair”.

Microsoft Word may take a long time to process a damaged file and, as a result, may open a document with recovered data or report that it is impossible to fix the file.

If Microsoft Word is not able to fix a doc/docx file, then you can use special programs or services.

2. Recovery using online services

The most convenient, simple and affordable online service is Online File Repair Service.

This online service can recover more than 10 different file types, including damaged Microsoft Word files. The online service works on all platforms (PC, tablets, phones, etc.) and all operating systems (Windows, iOS, MacOS).

How to recover a Word file online

Restoring a Word file with an online service is a very simple operation, divided into several steps. The user needs:

1. Select a file on the disk/device;
2. Type captcha characters;
3. Enter email;
4. Click the “Upload file for recovery” button;
5. If the service was able to recover a Word file, then you can view the contents of the document, pay for file recovery ($5) and download the recovered file.

3. Recovery using programs

If you have a lot of damaged files or if the file contains confidential information, then an online service will not be the best solution. In these cases it is preferable to use a special program, for example Recovery Toolbox for Word. Advantages Recovery Toolbox for Word:

• Ease of use
• Small program size
• Recovery efficiency

How to recover a damaged Word file

To recover a damaged Word file you need to:

1. Select damaged Word file
2. Click the “Analyze” button
3. If the file was successfully recovered, then click the “Start recovery” button and select a method for saving the recovered text:

   — export recovered data to Microsoft Word
   — save the recovered text to a regular text file

Despite all the apparent simplicity, Recovery Toolbox for Word is an effective document recovery tool that can cope with the most serious damage.

4. Conclusion

Using one of the above methods will most likely give a positive result and allow you to recover data from a damaged Microsoft Word file. You must first use the simplest method (recovery using Microsoft Word), since in most cases this is sufficient.

We can safely say that every user is familiar with this terrible scenario. You are working on a file, not touching anyone, and suddenly the Word application (Excel, PowerPoint or any other) freezes completely, crashes, or your computer crashes. The file, of course, was not saved in time and all the work was lost. Similar situations happen to everyone. Fortunately, Microsoft, the creator of the office suite, which includes Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and so on, has taken care of a whole set of file recovery mechanisms. You can not only recover an unsaved document file, but also retrieve information from damaged or lost file. This instruction will tell you more about how to recover a document in Word. Although this article focuses primarily on Word, similar techniques can be applied to other programs in the Office suite. The details may vary, but the principle is generally the same.

note: in this article we are not talking about how to restore deleted file. To avoid the need to recover deleted files, always make backup copies, store important information in the cloud, or activate the . First of all, this article will describe the recovery procedure unsaved information V existing file.

For reference: The instructions describe the procedure for restoring files in the current version of Office 365 at the beginning of 2018 (Word 2016, build December 2017). The restore feature has been present in Office for a long time, so the principle described in this article will help you get back unsaved work in previous versions of Office, like 2013, 2010, or 2007.

How to Recover an Unsaved Microsoft Word Document

Let’s say the electricity went out, the computer turned off, or Word froze and you had to “cancel the task.” First of all, launch the application back. In the side menu, you'll immediately notice that "Word has recovered files you may have wanted to keep." Click Show recovered files.

A new document will open and a list of versions available for recovery will be displayed on the left side. Select the one you need and save it.

If the app doesn't offer you this option, try a different approach. Open Word, click File – Details – Document Management – ​​Recover Unsaved Documents.

Word will open an Explorer window containing a list autosave recent documents you have worked with. All of them are available in .asd format. Please note that you will also have the option to delete all unsaved files that are placed in backup storage. This button will only be available when opening a new document.

As you've probably already realized, Office automatically makes a temporary copy of files on your computer's hard drive so you can recover even files that have never been saved. The standard autosave period is 10 minutes. This means that every 10 minutes Word will create a copy of your document, necessary in case of recovery.

How to set up automatic saving in Word

10 minutes is a very long time, so many users prefer to reduce it. And yes, the auto-save feature is always enabled by default. There is no need to turn it off.

Open menu File and press Options. A window with Word application settings will open. In the left menu, find the tab Preservation.

You need a parameter Autosave every. Change the auto-save interval to whatever you prefer. For example, 3 minutes. Here you can configure the location of temporary autosave files.

You can set the autosave period from 1 minute to 120 minutes (2 hours). Practice shows that automatic saving does not in any way affect your work and does not degrade the performance of the application. Microsoft engineers did a very good job on this feature, so the rule of thumb is “less is more.” The shorter the interval you have between backups, the less work you'll have to redo after a sudden shutdown.

Autosave documents to OneDrive

Recently (at the time of writing), Office 365 has a wonderful ability to automatically save all objects located in the OneDrive cloud. With this feature, you won't have to worry about saving your files at all. If the object is in your cloud, Word, Excel and PowerPoint will automatically save each your action. You just need to make sure that the switch Autosave in the upper left corner of the window will move to the position included(white fill with a bird).

Please note that this feature works only for files saved in the cloud. Local files, as well as new documents that have not yet been saved, must be saved in the traditional way or use the automatic saving function. We recommend keeping all documents in the cloud. In this case, you will have nothing to fear at all. All changes will be saved on the go, and a file lost from your computer can be easily restored from the cloud. Profit.

How to recover a damaged Word document

Losing a saved work and a damaged object are two completely different things. In the second case, the problem is much more serious, since the work is saved in a file that itself is damaged and cannot be opened. Fortunately, appropriate recovery mechanisms are provided for such a case. The only catch is that their quality of work will depend on how badly the object is damaged.

When trying to open a file, you may be greeted with the following error: “Word has an error trying to open the file. Try the following: Check document and disk permissions. Check if you have enough memory and disk space. Open the file using a backup converter."

Do not panic. First of all, you need to really check whether you have rights to this file, and also check the status of your computer's drive. If all these parameters pass the test, proceed to attempts to recover the damaged document.

Another way to recover a damaged document

It is possible that the method above did not work. Do not despair. You still have a way to extract information from a damaged document.

Trust that Word is up to the task.

How to Recover a Lost Word Document

This is also a very familiar scenario that many users have encountered (including the author of the article). You try to open a file, but Word tells you that it has been moved, renamed, or deleted. If trying to find the file you need does not lead to anything, you will have to use mechanisms for restoring backup copies of documents. These instructions are valid for Word 2016.

1. Click File – Open – Browse. Open a File Explorer window to the last location where the last copy of the file was located.
2. From the file type drop-down menu (the line to the right of the file name field), select All files. A file called “Backup of file name" Click on it and open it. If it's not there, try searching for files with the .wbk extension on your computer. and open the found objects.

In this case, it will be a little more difficult to find the file you need (especially if you have a lot of them), since wbk files do not display the exact name of your document. You will have to search each of the documents you find, but there is a good chance that you will be able to find the object you need.

If this method does not help you find the file you need, it is best to use a utility to recover information deleted from the disk, but this is a topic for a separate article. To avoid such unpleasant stressful situations, you should always store files in a safe place, make backup copies and use recovery systems. But even the most reliable systems fail, so Word’s built-in file recovery mechanisms will come to your aid at any time.

On a PC, not paying attention to the warnings that at some point, for various reasons, a failure may occur, as a result of which the operating system or software will crash. The file may also become damaged and you will not be able to open it again.

Surely many have encountered a situation where an important document was created using the Microsoft Word office application, but when the need arose to open it, a message appeared in front of the user, informing them that the file was damaged and could not be opened. If a lot of effort was put into creating it and it has any value, such a message can trigger a heart attack.

To protect your health and not worry again when such a notification occurs, it is better to familiarize yourself with the recommendations on how to open a damaged Word file.

The developers of Microsoft Office software, anticipating such emergency situations, took care of methods for restoring damaged files. In this regard, it is initially important to figure out how to restore a damaged Word file without resorting to the use of third-party tools or software.

Microsoft Word functionality

If a document typed in Microsoft Word has been slightly changed, as a result of which it no longer opens correctly, you can easily restore it and resume working with it using the capabilities of the office application itself.

To do this, you should first open a new document. Next, in the top menu bar, you need to hover the mouse cursor over the “File” group, a context menu will immediately open, in the list of which you need to find the “Open” line. Now a selection window appears in which you should specify the path where the damaged document is saved.

Typically, the user clicked on a button that led to opening a document. In this case, you should open a list of additional options by clicking on the drop-down menu. This is where you can easily find the "Open and Restore" prompt. If, indeed, the document has not undergone catastrophic changes, the office application will be able to easily revive it.

Even if such attempts are unsuccessful, you should not fall into despair, since there are other possibilities for document recovery.

Recovery using third-party software

If it is impossible to open an important document using an office application, there are other ways to achieve the stated goal. Experienced users offer valuable recommendations on how to recover a damaged Word document using special software or service resources.

Potential of online services

On the wide expanses of the Internet, it is easy to find many services that offer effective assistance in case of serious damage to documents when the office application itself could not fix the problem.

One such service is online.officerecovery.com. The resource is absolutely clear, so even a beginner will find it easy to understand.

Upon entering the site, you should first select a document, indicating the path where it is saved on your PC. When opening, it is important to take into account that if the document is accompanied by a set password, you must enter it in a special window, otherwise all attempts made will simply be unsuccessful.

After this, all you have to do is click on the “Safe” button. The process is short, takes about two minutes. Upon completion, the user will be shown a small piece of the recovered document. If it is unreadable, it means that it was so damaged that it is difficult to restore it even with powerful resources. If everything is fine, you can request the full text of the document. Unfortunately, this resource is paid, so you will have to pay for the services. Many users agree, especially in cases where the file is of great value.

This online service is not the only one; there are many others, some of which are free.

Special software

You can also download special programs that are equipped with functions for restoring damaged documents. Among them is Recovery Toolbox for Word. The program is easy to use, does not take up much space on your hard drive, so it can be used on “weak” machines.

After starting the program, the user must again indicate the location where the document that is important to be restored is saved. Next, the program conducts an analysis, after which it immediately starts the recovery process.

Recovery Toolbox for Word is a powerful tool with which you can revive even seriously damaged documents.

So, there are several ways to fix the problem associated with the inability to open any document created in Word. If the file is of value, it is important to try all methods, including paid resources.

Wrote a text in "Office" and did not save the document? Let's try to restore the Word file in doc/docx format.

Recovering documents in the latest versions of Word is not such a difficult task. The fact is that Office has options for autosaving and automatic recovery of Word files. With their help, text documents, tables, and other important documents are recovered

Not all users are aware of their existence or do not know how to use them. We will talk about some (non-)standard methods below.

1. How to recover Word documents using the standard method

Even if the recovery features are not enabled, you can recover unsaved or damaged data from temporary files created in Office. But provided that you are currently working on the document.

Finding temporary files

When creating a new Word/Excel document, the information is duplicated into a temporary file. It is stored in the Temp folder at:

C:\Documents and Settings\<имя пользователя>\Application Data\Microsoft

This temporary file contains several letters after the tilde (~). This is a good reference point for finding some lost documents.

Office reserves information in other doc/docx/xls/xlsx documents; files with a tilde contain data necessary for recovery.

Using autosave files

If you created a document and the file was opened during a failure (sudden power outage or Windows system error), you need to reopen the Word word processor. MS Office will try to recover the lost document automatically.

By default, the autosave interval for Word documents is 10 minutes. You can change the time limit through the options in the "Save" tab.

Auto-saved files are located in one of two folders:

• C:\Documents and Settings\<имя пользователя>\Application Data\Microsoft Word
• C:\Documents and Settings\<имя пользователя>\Local Settings\Temp

In Windows 7 and Vista, backup copies of files are located in the system folders:

• C:\Users\<имя пользователя>\AppData\Local\MicrosoftWord
• C:Users\<имя пользователя>\AppData\Local\Temp

The table shows the file types and extensions that can be found in the folder with temporary files (“XXXX” is the document number):

• Word document doc/docx – wrdxxxx.tmp
• Temporary Word document – ​​wrfxxxx.tmp
• Automatic recovery file – wraxxxx.tmp
• The full Word document for autorecovery has the extension .wbk.

Once you've found your lost (or damaged) file, you can view its contents directly through Word.

Another way is to open Notepad or, for example, the text editor Sublime Text, as shown in the screenshot.

Opening a Source Word Document in Sublime Text 3

If you opened a file in Word, but the information in the document was damaged/erased/overwritten, save it in a different format. By changing the extension to rtf or txt, you can sometimes return the text content of the document.

How to recover a Word document file in Microsoft Office 2010 >

In Office 2010 and later, you can find an additional option to recover unsaved and damaged documents.

1. Open the "File" tab in the upper left corner of MS Office.

2. Select “Recent” from the menu

3. In the lower left corner of MS Office Word, select the option "Recover unsaved documents"

4. A folder with drafts will open (SavedDrafts or UnsavedFiles, depending on the version of Microsoft Office)

5. Find the file you want and double click to open it

6. Save the file.

Note. Doc/docx files can also be found in the following locations (on Windows 7/8/Windows 10):

C:\Users\<имя пользователя>\AppData\Local\MicrosoftOffice\UnsavedFiles

2. Recover Word documents using Windows operating system

If you need a previous version of a document (Word, Excel, text), but you managed to overwrite it, try restoring the file using Windows.

Windows Vista, 7 and higher have a built-in rollback mechanism to the previous version. The recovery is applicable to Word, Notepad, WordPad documents and other types of data.

Recovering documents is very simple:

1. Open the context menu (right-click on the file name)
2. Select the Restore previous versions option in the context menu.

3. Recover damaged Word documents using Recuva

It is possible that during the time the document was deleted, some applications, such as MS Word, may have overwritten part of the document. The structure of a Word file, in addition to text, contains formatting information. Any corruption of the data structure in doc or docx makes the document unreadable.

With Recuva you can recover any document with a high degree of certainty. You can download this program.

Recuva program interface: search for damaged and deleted Word documents

4. Using a text converter in a Word document

Using the MS Office text converter, you can restore a Word document (doc, docx), Excel file (xls, xlsx) or at least part of it. In this scenario, it is only possible to recover ASCII documents with loss of formatting and images. This is very similar to extracting plain text from a document, as discussed above.

1. File > Open.
2. In the dialog that appears, select the problematic word document.
3. Select the Recover Text From Any File command from the drop-down list.

To restore a damaged Word document, simply upload the file to the service. The online service will analyze the data and save as much text information from the damaged doc, docx, dot, dotx or rtf file.

Features of the online Word document recovery service:

• Recovering text from all versions of Microsoft Word documents, starting with Word 95/98/2000/2003/2007/2010 and onwards;
• Recovering texts from Rich Text documents (*.rtf files);
• Recovering texts from documents with ACSII and/or Unicode encodings;
• Using several text search algorithms;
• Using different algorithms for filtering out garbage when restoring texts;
• High recovery rate;

The online service also allows you to fix the following Microsoft Word errors:

• The document name or path is incorrect. You may need to check the access rights to the file or folder. Use Open to locate the document.
• Word cannot open the document: the user does not have sufficient rights.
• Word can't open the document template.
• Word can't read the document. It may be damaged.
• The file "FileName.doc" cannot be opened.
• The Word document is damaged.
• Unexpected error, Microsoft Word needs to be closed. We apologize for the inconvenience. Contact Microsoft about this issue.
• The document contained serious errors when last opened. Do you want to open it further?
• There is not enough memory or disk space to complete the operation.
• This document may be damaged.
• The submitted file is corrupted.
• The file is damaged and cannot be opened.
• The document template is incorrect.
• An error occurred with the file.
• The file filename.docx Office Open XML cannot be opened due to content problems.

Online recovery of DOCX Word files

To restore files on the service, you do not need to download, install and configure special programs for restoring damaged Word documents. Just upload a doc, docx, dot, dotx or rtf file to the service to restore it.

Note:

• The service recovers only text information from files.
• The service does not restore tables, images, hyperlinks and other objects from documents.
• The service does not recover data from password-protected doc/docx/dot/dotx/rtf files;
• The service does not recover data from encrypted doc/docx/dot/dotx/rtf files.