Written byStevenUpdated on Jan 01, 1970
Best Solutions for Word Document Recovery on Mac
Approved byGerhard Chou
Before we start: Donemax Data Recovery for Mac is a reliable software to rescue data if you wrongly deleted files, formatted drive, or lost files in any other scenarios. If the lost files were not backed up and cannot be found in Trash, temp folders, you can still try to restore the lost documents using the data recovery software. Mostly, it can recover data successfully if you take action immediately once data loss happened.
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Word program is one of the best document process applications that is very popular for Mac users. While using the application to edit and use the Word documents, many Mac users encountered issue and lead to Word documents get lost.
There are some methods to recover deleted, unsaved or other lost Word documents on Mac. You can use the built-in system or Word application features to recover unsaved/deleted Word documents. Also, it's able to restore lost Word documents from backups. Besides, you can use data recovery software as the last chance to recover lost Word document on Mac. Please check and try the following methods for Word document recovery on Mac.
Recover Deleted Word Documents from Trash
Normally, if you delete Word documents or other files on Mac, the deleted files will be put into the Trash first. If the Trash is not emptied or the deleted files are not removed from the Trash, you can simply restore the deleted files from Trash directly.
Open Trash from dock of your Mac. Then you will see all the deleted files in Trash. Please check and find the deleted Word documents. Right-click the deleted Word documents and click Put Back. Then it will recover the deleted Word documents back to the original location. Actually, you can drag the Word documents from Trash to another specific location directly.
Also, if you delete Word documents, you can undo the last deletion operation. Please open Finder and click Edit from the top menu bar. Click Undo Move of ... to undo the last deletion operation.
Recover Unsaved Word Documents on Mac
If the power is is off suddenly while editing a Word document, the editing Word document will be missing while saving it. Please don't worry. If such an issue happen, please try to recover the unsaved Word document with the following methods.
Method 1. Recover with Auto Recovery
The Word application uses the default and built-in Auto Recovery feature to save the Word documents to avoid such an issue. With this feature enabled, the software is able to save the document while editing the document. So if the application is crashed or closed without saving the document, it's still able to recover the unsaved Word documents with this feature.
If the issue happen, please don't start the Word program. Please do as follows to recover the Word document with the Auto Recovery feature.
- Open Finder and click Go from the top menu bar > Go to Folder.
- Enter the following path and click Go.
- ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery
- If the unsaved documents were saved here, you will see some documents with the names like AutoRecovery save of ...
- Open the files with Word application. Please then save the documents directly and you can get back the unsaved Word documents.
Method 2. Recover from temp folder
Also, system will save the temp data of the editing Word document in system temp folder. You can also check and try to find the unsaved document there. Here is how:
- Open the tool Terminal under Application > Utilities.
- Enter the command open $TMPDIR and click Enter key to go to the temp folder and find TemporaryItems.
- If you can find any temp files for the word documents there, please open the temp files with Word application. Save the temp files as Word documents directly to another location.
Restore Word Documents from Time Machine Backup
It's fortunate if you have ever backed up your Word documents, you can easily restore the deleted/lost Word documents from the Time Machine backups.
- Connect the external drive for Time Machine. Click the Time Machine icon in the top menu bar.
- Click Browse Time Machine Backups to view the backups in Time Machine.
- Check and find the Word documents in the backup.
- Choose the Word documents and click the Restore button to recover the documents.
Mac Data Recovery Software for Word Documents
In other cases, if the Word documents are deleted permanently or lost due to other issues, you can only try to recover the lost Word documents in another way. We suggest you download and use Donemax Data Recovery for Mac to help you in such situations.
The Mac data recovery software is able to recover permanently deleted Word documents. Or you can use it to recover Word documents that are lost due to formatting, partition loss, file system crash, system update, or other issues.
The software is able to recover deleted/lost Word documents simply in a few steps. You can do as follows to recover Word documents on Mac with the software.
Step 1. Choose the drive where you lost Word documents.
If you deleted or lost Word documents on a drive, please start the software and choose this drive from the drive/device list.
Step 2. Scan the drive to search for the Word documents.
After selecting the drive, please click the Scan button. Then the software will automatically scan the drive to search for the deleted/lost Word documents from the drive.
Step 3. Preview and recover the lost Word documents.
You are able to preview the found files after the scan is done. Please check and choose the lost Word documents and click Recover button to save the files to another drive.
The software can not only recover the lost Word documents, but also support data recovery for more than 2000 types of data, including documents, audio, pictures, videos, and other files. Should you lose data in any case, stop using the drive and immediately download and recover lost files with Donemax Data Recovery for Mac.
Conclusion
Recover Word documents on Mac is a common task for users. Data loss may happen in different situations. Fortunately, there is a great chance to recover the deleted, unsaved, or lost Word documents or other files on Mac. Just following this guide to get back your missing files on Mac in different ways.
To avoid data loss on Mac, we suggest you back up your Word documents regularly with Time Machine or other backup software. Also, please save the editing Word documents frequently, then you will not lost the entire documents when issues happen with application or system. If some issues happen and cause data loss on Mac, please stop running any software or using the drive where you lost data. Download and use Donemax Data Recovery for Mac to recover the lost Word documents or other files immediately.
Donemax Data Recovery for Mac
Donemax Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best Mac data recovery software. It is easy-to-use and can help in recovering deleted, formatted, inaccessible or lost data from Mac HDD/SSD, external disk, USB drive, SD card, camera or other storage devices.
FAQs about Recovering Word Documents on Mac
- Delete Word documents by mistake.
- Format the drive with Word documents wrongly.
- Word program or system crashed when editing documents.
- File system corrupted on a drive that contains Word documents.
Yes, in some cases, it's able to recover missing Word documents without using third-party data recovery software on Mac. For example:
- If you deleted Word documents recently and haven't emptied the Trash on Mac;
- Using auto-recovery feature or check temp folder for unsaved Word documents;
- If the lost Word documents were backed up via Time Machine, cloud, or external drive.
It's necessary to recover data with recovery software if the other methods don't work. Donemax Data Recovery for Mac offers a simple way to recover deleted or lost Word documents on Mac:
- Download, install and run the data recovery software on Mac.
- Select the drive where you deleted or lost Word documents.
- Scan the drive to search for the missing documents and other files.
- Check and preview the found Word documents.
- Choose the wanted files and recover to another drive.
- Enable auto-recovery feature for Word documents.
- Frequently save a Word document while editing it.
- Regularly back up your Word documents and other files.
- Be careful and think twice before you delete files or format a drive.
- Safely eject an external drive before unplugging it from Mac.
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Contributing Writer
Steven
Steven has been a senior writer & editor of Donemax software since 2020. He's a super nerd and can't imagine the life without a computer. Over 6 years of experience of writing technical solutions and software tesing, he is passionate about providing solutions and tips for Windows and Mac users.
Editor in chief
Gerhard Chou
In order to effectively solve the problems for our customers, every article and troubleshooting solution published on our website has been strictly tested and practiced. Our editors love researching and using computers and testing software, and are willing to help computer users with their problems