How Often Does Word Autosave and How Do I Access It?

Word's AutoRecovery feature can recover unsaved documents.
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The AutoRecovery feature of Microsoft Word 2013 automatically saves your document every 10 minutes by default. A lot of hard work can potentially be lost in those 10-minute intervals, but Word enables you to change this time to a more suitable value. If Word crashes, you're automatically presented with an AutoRecovery side panel, from which you can open the saved file. However, you can manually select unsaved documents that were previously captured by the AutoRecovery feature or view the current save location for AutoRecovery files.

1 Recovering Documents

2 Open Microsoft Word 2013

Open Microsoft Word 2013, then click a file from the left AutoRecovery panel. This panel only appears if Word was irregularly shut down after auto-saving a document. If the AutoRecovery panel does not appear, continue the procedure.

3 Open the last version

Open the last version of the document you saved, if applicable. If you never saved the document, skip this step.

4 Click File

Click "File," select "Info," and then choose the latest "...(When I Closed Without Saving)" option in the Recovery section. Click "Restore" and then "OK" to overwrite the previously saved file with the AutoRecovery version. If no version appears in the Recovery section, continue the procedure.

5 Click Manage Versions

Click "Manage Versions," then select "Recover Unsaved Documents." Double-click a version from the Open dialog to view the file. Because these files were previously unsaved, the file names might not be recognizable, which means you'll need to use a little trial-and-error to find the correct file. If you can't find the file, you might find it in the default AutoRecovery location.

6 Opening the Default AutoRecovery Folder

7 Click File Options and Save

Click "File," "Options" and "Save."

8 Drag your mouse

Drag your mouse across the full directory location, then press "Ctrl-C" to copy it.

9 Click to close the Word Options dialog

Click "OK" to close the Word Options dialog. If you keep this dialog open, you'll be unable to open AutoRecovery files.

10 Press

Press "Win-E" to open File Explorer.

11 Click the address bar

Click the address bar, press "Ctrl-V," and then press "Enter" to open the AutoRecovery location. Double-click any listed file to open it in Word.

12 Changing AutoRecovery Options

13 Click File Options and Save

Click "File," "Options" and "Save."

14 Check the Save AutoRecovery Information Every

Check the "Save AutoRecovery Information Every..." and "Keep the Last Autosaved Version If I Close Without Saving" options.

15 Enter a new value

Enter a new value in the "Minutes" field to change the default save interval.

16 Click Browse in the AutoRecovery File Location section

Click "Browse" in the AutoRecovery File Location section to choose a new file location.

17 Click to save your changes

Click "OK" to save your changes.

C. Taylor embarked on a professional writing career in 2009 and frequently writes about technology, science, business, finance, martial arts and the great outdoors. He writes for both online and offline publications, including the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Samsung, Radio Shack, Motley Fool, Chron, Synonym and more. He received a Master of Science degree in wildlife biology from Clemson University and a Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences at College of Charleston. He also holds minors in statistics, physics and visual arts.

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