--- title: "Apple Tech Tip: How To Recover A File You Forgot To Save" description: "Apple Tech Tip: How To Recover A File You Forgot To Save" image: https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/GettyImages-929128392.jpg --- [![360 Smart Networks Logo - Technology Solutions For Business](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/360%20Smart%20Networks%20(with%20BG)%20RGB-01.png?width=869&height=300&name=360%20Smart%20Networks%20(with%20BG)%20RGB-01.png "360 Smart Networks Logo - Technology Solutions For Business")](https://www.360smartnetworks.com/) Open main menu Close main menu [techbytes](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/tag/techbytes) [360 Smart Networks Business Tech Insights](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/tag/blog) # Apple Tech Tip: How To Recover A File You Forgot To Save [Marius Nel](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/author/ulisticadmin) [Share this blog post on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=I+found+this+interesting+blog+post&url=https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/apple-tech-tip-how-to-recover-a-file-you-forgot-to-save) [Share this blog post on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/apple-tech-tip-how-to-recover-a-file-you-forgot-to-save) [Share this blog post on LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/apple-tech-tip-how-to-recover-a-file-you-forgot-to-save) ![](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/GettyImages-929128392.jpg) ![Apple Recover File](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/GettyImages-929128392.jpg) It happens to the best of us. You’ve invested serious time and effort into a Microsoft Office file for an upcoming presentation. You may even be moments away from finishing your work. Then it happens: your Mac goes down, hard. Maybe the power goes out, or maybe you get the dreaded “Sad Mac” screen of death. You know it’s been next to forever since you manually saved the file. Worst case scenario, your presentation or executive meeting is just hours (or even minutes) away. What do you do? ## Step One: Check the Auto-recover Pane First things first: don’t panic. As soon as your Mac is up and running again, go ahead and open the Microsoft Office application you were using. Often, Word or Excel or whatever program you’re using can sense that it has crashed. If that’s the case, it should have saved an Auto-recover version of the document and will ask you if you want to view it when you first open the program. You might get a pop-up asking you this question, or you may see various files listed in the Auto-recover pane on the left side of the program window. If you see an option like this, try it. Chances are you’ll get back a version of your document that’s only missing 5, maybe 10, minutes of your work. Congratulations, you’re back in business. ## Step Two: Dive Deeper If you tried step one but don’t see an Auto-recover pane and don’t receive a pop-up, there’s still one more thing to try. At this point there’s no guarantee that your work is still available, but there is still a chance. Your Office program may have saved an Auto-recover file deep in the recesses of your hard drive, but it’s having trouble telling you about it. It’s possible to manually locate the file following these steps. 1. Open Finder and select the **Users** folder. 2. You should see your username. Click on it. 3. Then click on the **Library** folder. 4. Next, select the **Containers** folder. 5. Within the Containers folder, you should see folders named **com.microsoft.Word** (and **com.microsoft.Excel**, and so on). Look for the folder with the name corresponding to the Office program that crashed on you. You’ve now located the folders where Office stores behind-the-scenes folders, so you’re almost there. 6. Now click on the **Data** folder, and within that click on the **Library** folder. 7. Within the Library folder, open **Preferences**, and finally, **AutoRecovery**. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a file within that folder with a similar name to the one that you were working in. Now, you won’t be able to open it just by clicking on it, because it has a different file extension. Instead, right-click, choose “Open with…”, and select the Office program you need. Or rename the file, giving it the proper extension (.docx for Word, .pptx for PowerPoint, and so on). Hopefully one of these two methods enabled you to recover your file. If not, it’s time to contact IT support. They may be able to further troubleshoot beyond the scope of this guide. ### Leave a Comment ## Related Articles [![](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/GettyImages-512058584.jpg)](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/how-to-download-audio-from-facebook-messenger) [techbytes](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/tag/techbytes) [360 Smart Networks Business Tech Insights](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/tag/blog) ### [How To Download Audio From Facebook Messenger](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/how-to-download-audio-from-facebook-messenger) ## How To Download Audio From Facebook Messenger [Marius Nel](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/author/ulisticadmin) [Read More](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/how-to-download-audio-from-facebook-messenger) [![](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/GettyImages-1023437762-300x142.jpg)](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/octobers-featured-training-the-abcs-of-cyber-security) [webinarbytes](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/tag/webinarbytes) [360 Smart Networks Business Tech Insights](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/tag/blog) ### [October’s Featured Training: The ABCs Of Cyber Security](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/octobers-featured-training-the-abcs-of-cyber-security) **October Is Cyber Security Awareness Month Tune In At Any Time To Watch Our 15 Minute On-Demand Training** [Marius Nel](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/author/ulisticadmin) [Read More](https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/octobers-featured-training-the-abcs-of-cyber-security) #### About - Menu Item One - Menu Item Two - Menu Item Three #### Services - Menu Item One - Menu Item Two - Menu Item Three #### News - Menu Item One - Menu Item Two - Menu Item Three Follow us on Facebook Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Marius Nel", "url" : "https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/author/ulisticadmin" }, "dateModified" : "2022-10-28T09:04:16.573Z", "datePublished" : "2019-02-22T11:52:00.000Z", "headline" : "Apple Tech Tip: How To Recover A File You Forgot To Save", "image" : [ "https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/GettyImages-929128392.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/blog/apple-tech-tip-how-to-recover-a-file-you-forgot-to-save", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.360smartnetworks.com/hubfs/360%20Smart%20Networks%20(with%20BG)%20RGB-01.png" }, "name" : "360 Smart Networks" } } ```