Document disappeared after saving from Word 2010

slthomasagain

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Jun 24, 2012
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Hello,
I downloaded a file from email, worked on it while saving it every few minutes. Save the final copy. Then closed it. Can\'t find it anyplace. Microsoft Word Auto Recovery is not showing it any place. Search the date for files modified, it doesn\'t show anyplace. I was working in Microsoft Word 2010 on my laptop. Please help me. This document is uber important.
 

inanition02

Distinguished
Where did you put it when you "downloaded" it from the email? What email system were you using?

If you were using outlook, it opens "Read Only" - you're using a web mail client, then it depends on the browser where it would go.
 

slthomasagain

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Jun 24, 2012
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10,510



So if I did that, how could I find it?
 

slthomasagain

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Jun 24, 2012
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10,510


I thought I was saving it as 'Ad works', and had been saving as I went for 12 hours. Then just gone.
 

inanition02

Distinguished
Odd, which version of outlook? Most of the newer ones open files in Read Only.

Regardless, try opening a new file and clicking save ..if it lets you just save without choosing a location click "save as" and see where it takes you.
 
Here is what happens. When you open a document from email, it gets saved and opened from a temp directory in your temp user files. You can see a similar action if you download a large file in I.E., you will see it download, but to the temp files folder, then you will see it copy the file from there to where you wanted to save it. If you click SAVE directly without doing a SAVE AS, it saves it in that temp file. If you first Downloaded the file, without just double-clicking to open it, it will be in the place you downloaded it. If you just opened it without first saving it to the hard-drive, it will be in the temp files, which can get deleted, for example if you clear temp files in your web browser.

You can do a search for the document, and make sure you select to search hidden and system files, see if it finds it. If not, the edits you made may be gone.

You can try a file restore program like Recuva, they may find it in the temp folder if it was deleted.

 

Carolyn Garza

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Jul 3, 2013
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This just happened to me tonight, exactly the same circumstances...I "Save As"'d with my new file name but it must be in that temporary folder somewhere? Not coming up in a title, date or recent places search, downloads or documents...looking for a "temp" folder in word...
 


Do a search by all document types you saved this at and select it to search hidden folders.