Help Retrieving TextEdit Files

[cloudedup8789]

Well, Ive been working on a business plan for the past 5 weeks and haven't saved the text files, Ive just kept them open. Now this morning they were not responding so i quit Textedit, it didn't give me an option to save the files or anything. I'm thinking they were going to be there still when I opened Textedit back up but they weren't. Im about to cry, I really need those files back, I will never meet my deadline If i don't.

I found this but the thread is outdated so I'm thinking maybe the procedure is different now.
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/18744/unsaved-files-in-os-x-lion

But I'm also not very familiar with iMacs so i may not know what I'm doing. Someone Please Help me out.....

 

[JustMartin]

ok - I haven't tested this, but it might work.

Open Terminal (you can find that in applications/utilities)

Type (or copy/paste from here) the following command into terminal

cd "~/library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Autosave Information"

that should take you to where your unsaved documents are stored
Type the command

ls

and that should give you a list of files that should represent your business plan. They should have a name like 'unsaved something'

Copy those files somewhere safe with a meaningful name. Here is a terminal command example

cp "Unsaved TextEdit Document.rtf" ~/Documents/rescuedfile1.rtf

Alternatively you could try clicking through to the folder through Finder. Hold option key, click on menu item 'go' and choose library. Then navigate to the directory specified above and drag the files somewhere safe.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote above:
[[ Well, Ive been working on a business plan for the past 5 weeks and haven't saved the text files, Ive just kept them open. Now this morning they were not responding so i quit Textedit, it didn't give me an option to save the files or anything. ]]

Simply stated, this is why one SAVES files that are important, and also why one keeps something called a BACKUP.

Go forth from this day, and learn...

 

[redheeler]

OP wrote above:
[[ Well, Ive been working on a business plan for the past 5 weeks and haven't saved the text files, Ive just kept them open. Now this morning they were not responding so i quit Textedit, it didn't give me an option to save the files or anything. ]]

Simply stated, this is why one SAVES files that are important, and also why one keeps something called a BACKUP.

Go forth from this day, and learn...

I used to do this with TextEdit on my rMBP. In fact, I still have a half-dozen or more unsaved files, some over a year old, pop up whenever I open TextEdit. Always Force Quit to close.

Not a good practice as you pointed out, I don't do this anymore. I will have to save anything I still may want, after I figure out what it even is.