So, I wanted to make this blog post in case it’ll be useful for anyone or myself to refer too later since this thing happened to me again and again to the point that I’m really sick of it.

Basically, as the title said, I’m going to give tips on how to recover unsaved document/file from Word 2016. I saw that users of Word 2010 and above used the same tip when I was searching for how to open ASD file on the Internet. This is for those who were in the middle of writing something or already finished writing something BUT did not save the document, accidentally closed Microsoft Word without saving or if your laptop suddenly died.

After clicking file, this is the buttons that you're going to use. Keep referring to this picture if you don't know where to find them.

How to recover unsaved document?

My fist option is to use the AutoRecovery file. Usually, when your laptop died or you’ve closed Microsoft Word before saving, once you open Word again, an AutoRecovery pane will appear on the left side, next to the blank document. So, just do these simple steps and you’re good to go.

1. Open Word.

2. On the left side, there should be an AutoRecovery pane asking which file you’d like to save from the last saved time. (This photo is taken from Google Images but it looks the same on Word 2016).

3. Click on it.

4. Save.

My second option (when you accidentally closed the AutoRecovery pane) is like this.

1. Open Word.

2. Click File.

3. Click Open.

4. Scroll down till you see Recover Unsaved Documents and click on it.

5. Click on the one that you want to recover (check the date and the time, it’ll help you to know which one is the recent one.)

6. Save.

OR

Do steps 1 until 2.

3. In the Info section, click Manage Document.

4. Click Recover Unsaved Documents.

Repeat step 5 to 6.

Now, this is the worse out of all situations that I had ever faced. You can use this if you deleted the recovered version. When I finished writing the first chapter of my new JiKook fiction, my laptop died. I did click on the AutoRecovery file but then I deleted the recovered one. It took me 4 freaking long hour to complete that 4k words chapter! So what did I do?

1. Go to Recycle Bin.

2. Recover the deleted AutoRecovery file (it should be in .ASD format).

3. Locate it in your laptop and copy the file.

4. Open Word.

5. Using the 2^nd option, do steps 1 till 5 then paste the copied one there.

6. Open it.

7. Tadahhh~ Now, save your work!

How to locate the recovered file? (.asd format)

On top of that, I had difficulties on locating the recovered .asd file. Here are some of the ways that you can follow to find it.

This one is if you’ve accidentally deleted your recovered file.

1. Go to Quick Access (if it doesn’t appear there, you can go to Recycle Bin and undo delete/move, recover, undo delete/move and recover again so it’ll appear on your Quick Access).

2. Right-click on the file that you wanted to recover then click Open File Location.

Another way is done using Word.

1. Open Word.

2. Click File.

3. Click Options.

4. Click Save.

5. Find AutoRecover File Location then click Browse.

It should lead you to the place where the recovered document is saved. Important tip: Change file type to ‘All Files’ so any type of recovered documents could be found and listed there.

How to open .asd file?

I couldn't open the recovered document because there's no suitable application for it to be opened in my laptop. But, there is a solution to it.

1. Locate it in your laptop and copy the file.

2. Open Word.

3. Click File.

4. Click Save.

5. Scroll down till you see the Recover Unsaved Documents and click on it.

6. Once a box that listed the unsaved documents appeared, paste the file you copied.

7. Open the file.

OR if your file allows you to open it with Word:

1. Locate the file in your laptop.

2. Right click on it and click Open With.

3. Choose Word.

OR if your file allows you to change it format to .DOC, change it. I never tried this one so I suggest you to search how to change .asd to .doc format, sorry!

How to use AutoRecover?

1. Open Word.

2. Click File.

3. Click Options.

4. Click Save.

5. Reset your AutoRecovery options to your liking.

Hopefully this blog post helped some of you! I would like to shamelessly promote my JiKook fiction here too lmao. Just click on this link: Queen of the Night. Thanks for reading!

- JAE.