If you lose Word documents from your Mac, which generally occurs due to abrupt power supply, system crashes, etc., don’t start freaking out. There are several Mac data recovery methods and professional tools available that you can try to get your lost Word documents back. Whether it’s due to accidental deletion, software crash, or sudden power failure, you are always left with multiple options to recover your valuable work.
Mac operating system offers several methods that you can try to recover lost Word documents. Here, in this article, we will discuss those methods to help you know how to recover lost Word documents on Mac. Just go with these workarounds of data recovery for Mac to recover your lost files efficiently.
What Causes Deletion of Word Documents on Mac?
Before you proceed with any Mac data recovery methods to restore your lost or deleted Word documents, it is important to find the main cause for the data loss issues. Some prominent reasons for the deletion of Word documents are:
- Accidental Deletion: You might have mistakenly deleted Word files from your Mac while organizing or cleaning up its storage.
- Emptying Trash: Files are permanently removed when you empty the Trash without checking its contents.
- File Corruption: Corrupted Word files can make them inaccessible or prevent users from accessing or deleting them from devices.
- Formatting Drives: Formatting storage devices erase all data, including Word documents. It is important to create proper backups of your important files in order to manage data loss issues.
- Malware or Viruses: Malicious software, like viruses or malware, may delete or corrupt files on a Mac, including Word documents.
- Improper Ejection: It is important to properly connect or disconnect external drives from your device as this can lead to data loss issues.
Quick Methods to Recover Lost Word Documents on Mac
Here, we will discuss some commonly used Mac data recovery methods that you can try to recover lost Word documents on Mac devices. So let’s get started!
Method 01: Check Trash Folder
Usually deleted files on Mac devices go to the Trash folder before getting permanently deleted from it. However, if you delete it using the Command + Del keys, it gets permanently removed from your device, bypassing the Trash. It is important to check the Trash folder first before applying other advanced recovery methods.
Go through the following steps to know how to recover lost Word documents on Mac using the Trash folder:
- Launch the Trash folder and go to Recovered Items.
- Locate and select the unsaved Word file that you want to recover.
- Click the Put Back option to move that file to safe location and start working on it.
Method 02: Recover Lost Word Documents with Autorecovery
Microsoft Word for Mac provides an in-built AutoRecovery option that you can use to recover unsaved Word documents. This option is enabled by default when you install the MS Office suite on your device. It automatically saves a copy of open documents every 10 minutes. To recover your deleted Word files using this method, you need to:
- Open Finder on your Mac and navigate to Go > Go to Folder.
- Type the path:
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.
- Now, locate the file that you want to recover from the AutoRecovery folder.
- Add the .doc extension to the file name and open it in Word.
- At last, click the Save button to save your file.
Method 03: Recover Deleted Word Documents Using Time Machine
Another best method to recover lost or deleted files, including Word documents, on your Mac is by using the Time Machine backup utility. If you have enabled Time Machine on your Mac computer, it will create a backup of your files for the past 24 hours.
You need to go through the following methods for data recovery for Mac to restore lost Word documents using Time Machine backup:
- Use the Spotlight to launch the Time Machine.
- Now, navigate through the Timeline using the arrow keys to locate the lost Word documents.
- Once you get the Word file that you need to restore, select it and tap the Restore button.
Method 04: Recover Lost Word Documents Using Data Recovery Software
If the above manual methods to restore lost Word files on your Mac, you can use a professional Mac data recovery software to get these files back. There are several ultimate data recovery tools available online that you can use to restore unsaved or even permanently deleted Word documents on Mac. One of the professional data recovery programs, the Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac offers several amazing features which can help you to easily restore your lost files. These features include:
- Supports recovery of Word documents deleted due to various reasons, including accidental deletion, disk formatting, virus attacks, etc.
- Along with deleted Word documents recovery, the software supports the recovery of several file formats, including emails, archives, images, videos, pictures and audio.
- Support recovery of deleted files from all internal or external storage devices, such as hard drives, external hard drives, SD cards, and many more.
- Enable you to preview the recoverable files before saving them on your device.
- The data recovery software is compatible with all Windows and macOS versions.
Now let’s see how to recover lost Word documents on Mac using the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool:
Step 1: Download, install and launch the Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac tool on your device. Select the type of file you need to recover and click the Next button.
Step 2: Now, from the Recover From window, select the storage drive from where your data was deleted. Click the Scan button to continue.
Step 3: After completion of the scanning process, your lost files will be displayed. You can preview the files and then select what you would like to recover and click Recover.
Conclusion
When you lose Word file on your Mac computer, you don’t need to fret. You can easily try the above-mentioned Mac data recovery solutions and the steps outlined to get the file back. Among the above recovery workarounds, the Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac is undoubtedly the most powerful one. This software offers several amazing features to recover unsaved Word documents within no time. The software is capable of recovering your files deleted due to any reason, including malware/virus attacks, accidental deletion, hard drive formatting, etc. Just download the software and start the recovery process!
