Recovery of an unsaved Word document
When Word closes without saving, the document does not disappear at once: an AutoRecover file (.asd), a backup copy (.wbk) or a working temporary file is usually left behind. All of them are binary Word documents that browsers cannot open and that Word itself often refuses to take from an unfamiliar folder. This tool reads them directly, shows the text and gives it back as a .docx.
The paths are at the bottom of the page. In Chromium browsers there is a button that searches a whole folder at once.
Several at a time is fine — the tool works out which of them still holds the document and which is an empty shell.
Each recovered document is shown as it will be saved, so it is clear straight away whether this is the right version.
The .docx opens in Word, in Google Docs and on a phone; the text file is for when only the words matter.
Read the text out of the files Word left behind after the crash
Where these files live
- Word AutoRecover files (.asd)
%AppData%\Microsoft\Word\- Documents that were never saved
%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles\- Working temporary files (~WRD*.tmp)
the folder the document was in, and %Temp%- Backup copies (.wbk)
next to the document itself- On a Mac
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery/
