Microsoft Word is an amazing office program widely used in study and work. To be more specific, it is indispensable to contents writing. Writing itself takes time and effort, and when accidents happen, such as you accidentally closed Word without saving it, you may get into panic. In the event that all your writing just vanish without trace, then you'll have to start over again, which is a nightmare of course.

1. Accidentally Hit Discard Changes Microsoft Word Download
2. Accidentally Hit Discard Changes Microsoft Word 2016 Markups And Ink
3. Accidentally Hit Discard Changes Microsoft Word 2010

Fortunately, there is something we can do to save the situation. In this article, we'll show how you can recover accidentally closed Word document without going through the stress of re-writing. Do take your time to read through.

• • 1. Use Recover Unsaved Documents Option

  • 2. Use AutoRecover Feature

• • 1. Recover Deleted Word Document From the Recycle Bin

  • 2. Recover Permanently Deleted Word Document With AnyRecover (Windows 11 Supported)

• • 1. Adjust the AutoRecover Settings

  • 2. Turn On Real-Time AutoSave

Re: Assignments review and return. Solution Found: It is not built into Teams but makes it possible for feedback to be viewed after turning in. When a student works on an assignment that has been allocated by the teacher, the teacher can see the working file. If the student add files, the teacher can not see the file until the assignment has. Alternatively, if you meant to Save As before making the changes, so you need to retain the changes in a new document but save the original without the changes, you have three options: If you haven't saved the document with the changes, you can go ahead and Save As under a new name; the original document will be unaffected.

Part 1. How to Recover Files After Accidentally Closed Word Without Saving on Windows 11

Losing Word document as a result of accidental close up of the software can be frustrating. Should you not have a way around it, you will have to start all over again and you'd end up writing the same content twice. The wasted effort and time aren't easy to chew. Therefore, to save your strength, follow the necessary steps below.

I could understand your feeling when you can't find recent changes made to the document. If you click 'Don't Save' when closing the document, the changes you made since you last saved the document will be not saved. We can't find them back. About the changes you made before last time the file was saved, it may be two scenarios: 1. Search for backup files of your Word document. Look in the folder your document is saved in and search for a file with a WBK extension. This is a backup file of your document, and you can open it with Word to view the older version of the document. If you don't see one there, go back to the Search utility in Step 1 and look for files. This happened to me today, but it was after I overwrote local changes with an unshelved version. I tried decompiling the dll, but it was too old and didn't have the changes. I finally found the changes in the TFS temporary diff files in 'AppData Local Temp TFSTemp'.

1. Use Recover Unsaved Documents Option

There are ways to recover Word documents and 'Recovering Unsaved Documents' is one of them. It can help restore your lost documents in no time. All you need do is follow the steps to be listed below.

Step 1: Open your Word and create a new blank document.

Step 2: Then navigate to 'File' menu.

Step 3: Tap 'Info'. In the 'Manage Documents' section, select 'Recover Unsaved Documents'.

Step 4: Click on the document you need to recover and then click 'Open'.

2. Use AutoRecover Feature

If the unsaved files folder is empty, you can turn to the AutoRecover feature to restore Word document closed without saving. The steps are very simple and can be done within seconds.

Step 1: Launch your Word and create a new blank document.

Step 2: Locate on the 'File' menu and click on 'Options'.

Step 3: Then click 'Save', find 'AutoRecover file location' path under 'Save documents' option. Right click on it and then select 'Copy'.

Step 4: Press Windows key + E on the keyboard to open File Explorer. Paste the path in the address bar then press the Enter key.

Step 5: Find the '.asd' file you want to recover and choose the proper app to open it.

Part 2. How to Recover Deleted Word Document on Windows 11

1. Recover Deleted Word Document From the Recycle Bin

Mistaken deletion of Word files can be annoyingly dispiriting especially when the document is too valuable to lose. Don't give up, though, first check if you can recover the content via Recycle Bin.

Step 1: Double-click the Recycle Bin on your PC.

Step 2: Of all deleted files, find the Word document you deleted before.

Step 3: Next, drag it back to the initial folder or desktop to recover it.

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2. Recover Permanently Deleted Word Document With AnyRecover (Windows 11 Supported)

What if you cannot find your deleted Word document in Recycle Bin or you have accidentally empty the Recycle Bin? Is there any way to recover permanently deleted Word document?

Yes, of course. Another unique tool to help recover permanently deleted Word document is AnyRecover. It is a highly-professional data recovery program that is capable of addressing almost any data loss issues in any scenario: emptied trash, partition error, system crash, formatted device, virus attack, etc.

Key features of AnyRecover

• Support over 1000 types of file: videos, audios, pictures, emails, etc.
• Recover data from any storage device: hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, SSDs, cameras, etc.
• Fast scanning and recovering speed; simple operating steps.
• Guarantee a 98% high success rate and 100% security.
• Fully compatible with all versions of Windows and Mac systems.
• Frial trial available: recover 8 files for free without size limitation.

Steps to recover deleted Word document with AnyRecover:

Step 1. Download and install AnyRecover on your PC. Launch the software, select 'Recycle Bin' as the location to recover data and click the 'Start' button.

Step 2. The program will perform an all-round scan on your emptied Recycle Bin. You can pause, resume or stop the process anytime you want.

Step 3. When the process finishes, all your deleted Word documents will be listed. You can then preview and recover the document by clicking on the 'Recover'button.

Part 3. How to Avoid Losing Word Ducuments

1. Adjust the AutoRecover Settings

Microsoft Office already has a default AutoRecover function set to 10-minute interval. This is to ensure that all the changes made will be saved automatically, and the interval can be down-set to like 1 minute to avoid losing too many contents if you mistakenly close the tab.

• Launch Word and tap on the 'File' Menu.

• Click on 'Options' and then click on 'Save'.

• At the 'Save documents' section, modify the 'AutoRecover information' form every 10 minutes to 1 minute.

• Then click 'OK' to save the change.

2. Turn On Real-Time AutoSave

AutoSave is enabled by default when a file is stored on OneDrive. It is a different feature from AutoRecover and automatically saves the changes made to the file every few seconds as you work. In this way, you don't have to worry about losing important content when you fail to save it manually during the working process.

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• Launch Word and tap on the 'File' Menu.

• Then switch on the AutoSave icon at the top-left corner. Your document will be automatically saved immediately upon changes.

Hopefully, you'll never find yourself in a position that you accidentally closed Word without saving. If you do, do not panic, the steps listed above will come in handy. Even if you have permanenly deleted your Word document - for example, emptied then Recycle Bin, AnyRecover will get your lost files back without any hassle.

By Alva Doris , to Document Recovery

Updated: Jul 20, 2021

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• How to Recover Accidentally Closed Word File Without Saving

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You can try to recover a Word document by:

If you're looking for information about how to recover other recent Office files, see the following articles:

If you can’t open the document, or the content in the document is damaged, see How to troubleshoot damaged documents in Word.

To find a lost document:

Search for Word documents

Try searching for the document in Windows:

1. Select Start, type the document name (in Windows 8.1, type the name in the Search box), and then press Enter.
2. If the Documents list (or Files list in Windows 8.1) contains the document, double-click the document to open it in Word.

If the search results don't contain the file, go to the next method.

Searching for Word backup files

Word backup file names have a '.wbk' extension. If you have the 'backup copy' option selected in Word, there might be a backup copy of the file.

To check whether this option is on, select File > Options > Advanced, scroll down to the Save section, and then select Always create backup copy.

If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, check these two folder locations for a backup file:

• C:Users<UserName>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWord
• C:Users<UserName>AppDataLocalMicrosoftOfficeUnsavedFiles

Note: In these paths, replace <UserName> with your username.

To find the backup copy of the file, select Start, enter .wbk in the Search box, and then press Enter. If you find any files that have the name 'Backup of' followed by the name of the missing file, double-click the file name to open it.

If you don’t find a backup file for the document, go to the next method.

Checking the Recycle Bin

If you deleted a Word document without emptying the Recycle Bin, you might be able to restore the document.

1. Double-click the Recycle Bin on the Desktop.
2. Search through the list of documents to see whether the deleted Word document is still there. If you don't know the file name, look for file types such as .doc, .docx, and .dot.
3. If you find the desired Word file, right-click the file name, and then select Restore to recover the file.

If you don't find the desired file, go to the next method.

Windows File Recovery Tool

If you are using Windows 10, version 2004 or later, you can try the Windows File Recovery tool. Windows File Recovery is available from the Microsoft Store. You can use it to recover files that have been permanently deleted. For more information about this tool, see Recover lost files on Windows 10.

Restoring documents saved to SharePoint and OneDrive

For documents that you saved or synced to SharePoint, see Restore items in the recycle bin that were deleted from SharePoint or Teams.

For documents that you saved or synced to OneDrive, see Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive.

To find missing content or a newer version:

Word takes different actions to protect your changes in Word documents:

• If Word opens a document from SharePoint or OneDrive, the program uses AutoSave to save changes to the “cloud” document. We recommend that you leave the AutoSave feature set to On.

• If Word opens a document from your local disk or network shared folder, Word uses AutoRecover to save changes to an AutoRecover file. The default AutoRecover save interval is 10 minutes. We recommend that you leave the AutoRecover feature set to On.

Restarting Word to open AutoRecover files

Word searches for AutoRecover files every time it starts. Therefore, you can try using the AutoRecover feature by closing and reopening Word. If Word finds any automatically recovered file, the Document Recovery task pane opens, and the missing document should be listed as 'document name [Original]' or as 'document name [Recovered].' If this occurs, double-click the file name in the Document Recovery pane, select File > Save as, and then save the document as a .docx file. To manually change the extension to .docx, right-click the file, and select Rename.

Note In Microsoft 365 Subscription, when Word starts, it searches for AutoRecover files. If any recovered files are found, Word opens them by having a Message Bar. Select Save to save the recovered file as a .docx file. If there are many recovered files, Word usually opens the last-changed files, and puts the remaining files into the Document Recovery task pane.

Searching for AutoRecover files

If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, check the following folder locations for backup files:

• C:Users<UserName>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWord
• C:Users<UserName>AppDataLocalMicrosoftOfficeUnsavedFiles

Note: In these paths, replace <UserName> with your username.

If you don’t find the missing file in these locations, open Word, and select File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents.

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If you still haven’t found the file, try manually searching for AutoRecover files. To do this, select Start, enter .asd in the Search box, then press Enter.

If you find any files that have the .asd extension, follow these steps:

1. Open Word, and then go to File > Open > Browse.
2. In the files of type list to the right of File name, select All Files.
3. Right-click the backup file that you found, and then select Open.

If there are no .asd files, go to the next method.

Searching for temporary files

Temporary file names have a .tmp extension. To find these files, follow these steps:

1. Select Start, type .tmp (in Windows 8.1, type .asd in the Search box), and then press Enter.
2. Select the Documents tab.
3. Scroll through the files to search for file names that match the last few dates and times that you edited the document.
   • If you find the missing file, go to step 4.
   • If you don’t find the file, repeat steps 1 through 3, but search on the tilde character (~) instead of .tmp (temporary file names start with a tilde).
4. In Word, go to File > Open, and then select the Folders tab.
5. Navigate to or search for the folder where you found the .tmp file, and then select the folder name to open the folder contents pane.
6. At the top of the pane, select the name of the folder. This opens File Explorer.
7. In File Explorer, change the file type (next to the file name field, near the bottom) to All files.
8. Open the .tmp file.

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