Getting files back

Where Office hides its safety net

Updated 2026-08-08 · 4 min read

Office crashed, or the document closed on Don't Save. Microsoft's apps keep AutoRecovery files precisely for this — buried in sandbox container paths that neither Finder search nor Spotlight will show you.

First: relaunch the app

Word and Excel offer recovered documents on next launch after a crash. If the Document Recovery pane appears, that is the good path — open the recovered copy and save it somewhere real immediately, because recovery copies are pruned.

The AutoRecovery folder

No pane? Go direct. Office is sandboxed, so its safety net lives inside app containers. In Finder, Go → Go to Folder (⇧⌘G):

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft

and for Excel the same path under com.microsoft.Excel. Inside, an AutoRecovery folder (the exact nesting shifts between Office versions — searching within the container for "AutoRecovery" is quicker than memorising it). Files are named like AutoRecovery save of Report.docx; sort by date, newest first.

Copy candidates to the Desktop *before* opening them — opening from inside the container can trigger cleanup.

Why searching never finds these

Two independent exclusions: ~/Library is outside Spotlight's index, and sandbox containers are opaque even to most people who know Library exists. An AutoRecovery file can sit on disk for days while every search comes back empty — a whole-disk indexed tool is the only search that reaches them, which is worth knowing before the emergency rather than during it.

Make the net wider for next time

Word → Preferences → Save: AutoRecovery interval down from 10 minutes to 2 or 3, and turn on *Always create backup copy* if losing work costs you real money. OneDrive-stored documents additionally get AutoSave, the continuous kind, which retires this entire article for those files.

Common questions

How long do AutoRecovery files survive?

Until Office decides they are stale — assume days, not weeks. Copy out anything you might want the moment you find it.

The AutoRecovery folder is empty — is it over?

Check the other app's container and the temporary items the OS holds for open documents; then Time Machine. After that, yes, likely over.