Click to select a document to recover. The document may have an unusual name, especially when it has never been saved. Click the Open button to open and recover the document. The document you recover might not be the one you wanted it to be. If so, try again and choose another document.
![Where is the auto recovery folder for word 2016 mac pdf Where is the auto recovery folder for word 2016 mac pdf](https://cdn2.macworld.co.uk/cmsdata/features/3655085/how-to-recover-lost-documents-in-word-for-mac-auto_thumb.jpg)
I looked everywhere online and have FINALLY found the answer to retrieving your lost document EVEN if AutoRecovery did not save it. This is free with no external software needed, you just need to follow these quick couple steps. So If you did as everyone else said and found the folder 'Office 2008/09/11 AutoRecovery' and your file is still NOT there, that means it is being stored in your computers Temporary or '-Tmp-' folder. The '-Tmp-' folder is very hard to find, even if you have made hidden folders visible, so what you need to do is go to 'Applications'- 'Utilities'- 'Terminal' Once you are in the terminal copy this phrase: 'open $TMPDIR' and press ENTER. That will open your Temporary files folder where you will see another folder named 'Temporaryitems' Open up the 'Temporaryitems' folder and you will find your lost file, that even AutoRecovery could not find. However when you do find your file, make sure you open up the document with 'TextEdit' because a.tmp file will not work with Word.
An example name of your lost document will be 'WordWorkfile D-57238.tmp' I spent hours on the internet looking for a solution and this is the only way I have actually been able to find the lost or unsaved file. The best free antivirus for mac 2016. I hope this helps and I can save everyone some extra hours of time. Many thanks, msw103! I took your advice and paid the big bucks (worth it to me) for 'uFlysoft,' and it worked.
I am most relieved, because I had DAYS of work into a highly technical report that must get published in a few weeks, and I thought it lost forever. I lost it by reopening my MacBook Air late last night and closing a few Word docs just to get them out of the way. I was presented with a message from Word asking if I want to 'revert to the save document,' and I selected 'OK,' which was a BIG mistake. All I had left was the name of the doc, but not one scrap of my new work.
I tell this story as a cautionary tale. Good luck to you and all readers here. Here is the link again for anyone as desperate as I was. I looked everywhere online and have FINALLY found the answer to retrieving your lost document EVEN if AutoRecovery did not save it. This is free with no external software needed, you just need to follow these quick couple steps. So If you did as everyone else said and found the folder 'Office 2008/09/11 AutoRecovery' and your file is still NOT there, that means it is being stored in your computers Temporary or '-Tmp-' folder. The '-Tmp-' folder is very hard to find, even if you have made hidden folders visible, so what you need to do is go to 'Applications'- 'Utilities'- 'Terminal' Once you are in the terminal copy this phrase: 'open $TMPDIR' and press ENTER.