If you find the document, select it, and click the Restore button ( Figure A). OneDrive and other storage sites hold onto your deleted files for up to 30 days–you can sort your deleted files by name, location, deleted date, or size. Otherwise, click the entry for Recycle Bin. You can search across all folders for your document by name or wildcard combination. In the case of OneDrive, open your online storage space. Here’s another tip: Do you sync your documents through OneDrive or another online service? Most cloud-based storage sites offer a Recycle Bin or Trash folder where you can restore deleted files. Here’s one tip: Do you use File History in Windows 10 to back up important folders, including those for your Word documents? If so, open your backup drive to look for the document in the proper location. To start, let’s assume you’ve already checked your hard drive and your Recycle Bin for the file, either by the specific name or a wildcard combination, but you came up empty. Whatever the scenario, you can often recover the entire file–complete with the latest changes. In these cases, you may lose the entire Word document or just the latest changes, or the file itself may become corrupted and unreadable. Sometimes you may create or revise a document and simply forget to save it other times, your computer may freeze, crash, or otherwise hiccup, preventing your document from saving properly. Your Word documents, like other files, can lose their way. SEE: Software usage policy (Tech Pro Research) Must-read Windows coverageĭefend your network with Microsoft outside-in security services You may still be able to locate and revive the Word document by taking certain precautions ahead of time and looking for the right files in the right places. Is it gone for good? Do you have to recreate the document from scratch? No, at least not yet. You’ve searched your default document location, your entire hard drive, and the Recycle Bin, but the Word document is still nowhere to be found. You’ve been working on an important document in Microsoft Word, and now it’s missing.

For more info, visit our Terms of Use page. This may influence how and where their products appear on our site, but vendors cannot pay to influence the content of our reviews. We may be compensated by vendors who appear on this page through methods such as affiliate links or sponsored partnerships. If you are trying to track down a missing Word document, these tips and tricks might be helpful. How to find and recover a lost Microsoft Word document

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