Getting files back

The document you never saved

Updated 2026-07-31 · 4 min read

The app crashed, or the Mac restarted, and the document was never saved. It probably still exists — apps write recovery copies constantly.

Apple apps: relaunch first

Pages, Numbers, Keynote and TextEdit autosave continuously. Simply reopening the app almost always restores the document — including ones never saved at all. Do not create a new document first; just relaunch.

Autosave data lives in:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Autosave Information
~/Library/Autosave Information

Microsoft Word

Word writes AutoRecovery files every ten minutes by default. Relaunching Word normally offers them. If it does not, look directly (the path varies slightly by version):

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery

Files there are named AutoRecovery save of…. Open them from Word rather than double-clicking.

Excel and PowerPoint

Same pattern, their own containers:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery

Finding recovery files generally

Every one of these locations is inside ~/Library/Containers, which Spotlight will not search. From the Terminal:

find ~/Library/Containers -iname "*AutoRecovery*" -mtime -2 2>/dev/null
find ~/Library -iname "*autosave*" -mtime -2 2>/dev/null

-mtime -2 limits it to the last two days, which is what matters after a crash.

Increase your odds for next time

In Word: Preferences → Save → shorten the AutoRecover interval to 5 minutes. For Apple apps nothing is needed — autosave is continuous and versions are kept automatically.

Common questions

Does Word on Mac autosave?

It writes AutoRecovery files every 10 minutes by default, offered on relaunch after a crash. Autosave-to-cloud applies only to files on OneDrive or SharePoint.

Where does TextEdit keep unsaved documents?

In Autosave Information inside its container and your Library. Relaunching the app restores them automatically.