How to recover overwritten Word files? DETAILED ANSWER

Are you struggling because you don't know how to restore overwritten Word files? Is there any solution to this unfortunate case? TipsMake will reveal details for your reference.

Before over-saving a file, there will usually be a message to let you know if you agree to over-save this file. But in some cases, many users act too quickly and accidentally click agree. And of course, the overwritten file will immediately disappear. So how to restore overwritten Word files ? The next part will help you answer this question, see now.

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Instructions on how to recover overwritten Word files in detail from A to Z

Note: I will reveal both cases where a Word file overwrites another Word file and you want to get the old file back. The second case is that the Word document has been changed, overwritten and you want to restore the old document. Specifically the steps are as follows:

1/ Recover oversaved Word documents via the Auto-save feature

Here's how you can restore a Word document that has been oversaved. The condition is that the user has previously enabled autosave. First, users open the Word document > Click the File tab > Select Info > In the Manage Versions section > Select the Word version you want to restore.

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Click ' Restore ' on the yellow notification bar to restore this version and you're done.

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Note: In some new versions of Word, click the arrow next to Manage Versions > Select Recover Unsaved Documents > Select the file you want to restore from the list then click Open > If you want to restore, click File > Save As is to save as a new file and you're done.

2/ Restore Word files that have been oversaved from the previous version

For files that have been oversaved, they do not appear in the trash folder like the deletion operation. But you can use the File Explorer utility to restore this document. Note, the computer needs to be configured with the appropriate parameters for the Previous Version feature. Therefore, if you have enabled this feature, retrieving overwritten Word files from 2010 or other versions is not difficult.

1. Step 1 : Press the Windows + E key combination to open Windows File Explorer > Navigate to the folder containing the Word document you want to restore.
2. Step 2 : Right-click on this Word document and click Properties > In the next interface, click 'Previous Versions' .
3. Step 3 : At this point, you will see many copies of the Word document> Select one of these files and click Restore to get it back and you're done.

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Note: If you don't see a version, there are no restoreable copies.

3/ Restore Word files from backup

If you are a careful user and regularly perform Backups on Windows, you can restore overwritten Word files through backups. How to retrieve previously saved Word files via backup as follows:

1. Step 1 : Click the magnifying glass search icon on the taskbar > Type Control Panel and open it.
2. Step 2 : Navigate to 'System and Security' > Click on 'Backup and Restore' > Then, click on the ' Restore my files' button .
3. Step 3 : Continue to follow the instructions on the screen to select the Word file you need to restore > Click Restore to restore the file you need > Wait for the process to complete, then go to the location you specified to restore the file. finished.

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In addition, users can restore files in other ways below:

Click the search icon on the taskbar > Type the keyword File History > Click 'Restore Files using File History' when the results are displayed > A list of backed up files will appear > Click on the file you want to restore > Click the green button as shown to retrieve the oversaved word file.

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Hopefully the above 3 ways will help you recover overwritten Word files. TipsMake wishes you success!

Lesley Montoya

Update 11 December 2023