Recovering Unsaved Word and Excel Files and Checking for Duplicates

/ Duplicate Documents, Removing Duplicates, Solutions / By

The modern versions of Microsoft Office Word and Excel come with an automatic file-saving feature. However, there are still chances of losing your Word Document or Excel Spreadsheet due to other reasons. This tutorial will help you recover such unsaved Word Documents or Excel Spreadsheets.

If you have to often recover Word Documents and Excel Spreadsheets, chances are there are tons of duplicate documents and spreadsheets on your computer. Before this issue gets out of hand, use Clone Files Checker to sweep away the duplicates.

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The problem of Unsaved Word Documents or Excel Spreadsheets

Power Failures

Unexpected power failures can have adverse effects on your computer and unsaved data. If you’re halfway through a Word Document or an Excel Worksheet, a sudden power failure can cause you to lose any unsaved data. Not just that, power failures can have far adverse effects on your computer’s hardware. Repeated power failures may cause your hard disk, RAM, system board and other components to become damaged.

Application Crashes

Much like power failure, you may also lose your Word Document or Excel Spreadsheet due to an application crash. If the Office program stops responding all of sudden and crashes to Desktop, any unsaved work may be lost.

Solutions

Case 1: Recover an Unsaved Word Document or Excel Spreadsheet

    1. Open Microsoft Office Word/ Excel.
    1. Click on File | Manage Document.
    1. A new Open dialog will open with the folder named Unsaved Files.
    1. Select a document or spreadsheet that you lost recently.
    1. Click on Open.
    1. Wait for a while. Once the document or spreadsheet is opened in Word, you will see a message that says “Recovered Unsaved File: This is a recovered file that is temporarily stored on your computer.”
    1. Click on Save As.
  1. Type a name for your file and then click on Save.

Case 2: Recover a Document or Spreadsheet Lost After an Application Crash

Method 1:

    1. Open Microsoft Office Word or Excel.
    1. Word or Excel will automatically attempt to recover your lost file.
    1. If it succeeds, your file will appear on the left-hand side panel under the Recovered section.
    1. Click on Show Recovered Files and select your document/ spreadsheet.
  1. Your recovered document or spreadsheet will now open up.

Method 2:

    1. Open Microsoft Office Word or Excel.
    1. Click on the File button and then select Options.
    1. In the Options dialog, click on the Save tab on the left.
    1. Look for the AutoRecover File Location under the Save Documents.
    1. Copy that path.
    1. Press Windows Key + R.
    1. Paste the copied path, and click on OK.
    1. Double-click a folder with your document name.
    1. Sort the folder contents by time and right-click the most recent file with the .asd extension and select Copy as path (Only available in Windows 11).
    1. Return back to Microsoft Word or Excel.
    1. Click on the File button, select Open.
    1. Click on Recover Unsaved Documents.
    1. In the Open dialog, paste the copied path to your file.
    1. Click on Open.
  1. Your lost file will now open. Click on File > Save As to save it as a regular file.

Avoid Such Issues in the Future

Activate Auto-Save Feature

Thankfully, the modern versions of Microsoft Office come with an Auto-Save feature. When enabled, Word or Excel automatically saves your document or spreadsheet on a regular interval so that you don’t lose any changes due to accidentally closing the application. Even in the case of power failure, your data is less likely to get affected.

To activate the Auto-Save feature, just move the Auto-Save slider to the right. This slider is located on the extreme left on the Ribbon toolbar.

If you’re using an older version of Microsoft Office, make sure to save your work on a periodic basis.

Checking for Duplicates

After recovering your unsaved Word Document or Excel Spreadsheet, you might want to look for duplicates. Finding and removing dupes will help you free up storage and store new files.

    1. Download Clone Files Checker, which is the best duplicate file finder.
    1. Double-click the Clone Files Checker setup file to install the program.
    1. Click on the Add button.
    1. Add the following locations:
      • C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\
      • C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\
    1. Click on Start Search.
  1. Once the scan finishes, you can mark the duplicates automatically and delete them at once using the Quick-Fix Wizard. Similarly, you can also review & fix dupes manually.
Raza Ali Kazmi
Website

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Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms. If you have any question about the content, you can message me or the company's support team.