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what do do when a word doc disappears?

wfriedwald

wfriedwald

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 1, 2017
523
48
I thought WORD automatically made back-ups, but apparently not!



So I have a document that I worked on over the last week, and it just disappeared.



It shows up in the recent document list, on the opening screen, but when I click that it says it's not there.



when I go into the "open recent" list in the file menu, it says the following:

"Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges"



does that mean the document is somewhere and word just can't open it for some reason?



I look in the trash, and it's not there. I have NOT emptied the trash in a few days at least, there are many documents from yesterday that are still in there.



So where can it be? Help!



w

PS: I tried going into the autoRecovery folder, but that folder is empty.
 
try spotlight, searching for the document title, or some of the text content in the doc. if/when you find it, perhaps cut & paste the content into a new file (as there could be permissions issues with the original)...

just some thoughts (i don't use office)...
 
yeah, that's what I tried ... it's a mystery how it could just disappear, I mean, if I accidentally deleted it, it would be in the trash, right? oh well. there goes a week's worth of labor.

PS: just a rant - I hate that publishers insist on using MS Word, which is just not made for Mac. It's always a very buggy experience for me, and knowing this, I should have been more careful to make sure the file was backed up. My bad.
 
wfriedwald said:
I hate that publishers insist on using MS Word, which is just not made for Mac.
Click to expand...
If you have to use Word, Word 365 is free and all your files will be stored in the cloud, so you don't have to worry about losing your work.
 
wfriedwald said:
yeah, that's what I tried ... it's a mystery how it could just disappear, I mean, if I accidentally deleted it, it would be in the trash, right? oh well. there goes a week's worth of labor.

PS: just a rant - I hate that publishers insist on using MS Word, which is just not made for Mac. It's always a very buggy experience for me, and knowing this, I should have been more careful to make sure the file was backed up. My bad.
Click to expand...
do you have a time machine (or other) backup?

anyway, it seems unlikely it's simply disappeared. i'd google the 'access privledges' message, see if it's tucked away somewhere on your drive. good luck with this.
 
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Fisherking - thanks - I spent time on the phone with MS & then with Apple, and they both concluded it's simply gone. I've done all kinds of thorough searches on the drive, and it's just not there, no sign of it anywhere.
 
wfriedwald said:
Fisherking - thanks - I spent time on the phone with MS & then with Apple, and they both concluded it's simply gone. I've done all kinds of thorough searches on the drive, and it's just not there, no sign of it anywhere.
Click to expand...
what about time machine? do you backup regularly? this is a good reminder (for all of us) as to why backing up regularly is so important. sorry, tho if it's truly gone...
 
okay - I managed to find the file - it was corrupted and hidden. I have the file, but it's impossible to open, unless someone wants to take a hack at it! (I zipped it and attached it ...)
 

Attachments

  • WF corrupted word file.docx.zip
    1.3 KB · Views: 60
probably need someone with word.... but it won't open in pages, and textedit shows a blank page. hopefully, someone with office can find the content for you (IF it's in there).
 
thanks for looking, I'm pretty sure it is Gone with the Wind, it is one with Ninevah and Tyre. It's history. It's toast.
 
1. I thought MS Word's autobackup was on, but, alas, I switched computers a few months ago and apparently I forgot to set the autobackups on the new system.

2. I am very much accustomed to google doc's, which is a much better program (MS Word stinks!) and on google doc's, backing up is truly irrelevant, you can pretty much never accidentally lose anything.

yes, my bad. And I am paying for it!

w
 
wfriedwald said:
1. I thought MS Word's autobackup was on, but, alas, I switched computers a few months ago and apparently I forgot to set the autobackups on the new system.

2. I am very much accustomed to google doc's, which is a much better program (MS Word stinks!) and on google doc's, backing up is truly irrelevant, you can pretty much never accidentally lose anything.

yes, my bad. And I am paying for it!

w
Click to expand...
autobackups or not, make sure you have time machine or something equivalent running with your mac; backing up everything (or at least, everything that matters) can be a life-saver. 👍
 
wfriedwald said:
okay - I managed to find the file - it was corrupted and hidden. I have the file, but it's impossible to open, unless someone wants to take a hack at it! (I zipped it and attached it ...)
Click to expand...
Word .docx files are actually .zip files with a different suffix. I've tried a few different unzippers but none of them want to touch that file :(
 
I ran a "deep" recovery program on that drive, and I came up with about 25 versions of the file. They ALL seem to be corrupted. I could zip them into a bigger ZIP file for you, but I don't think it would make any difference... Oh well, I guess I could try it!
 

Attachments

  • All the corrupted Red Steinway files.zip
    33.6 KB · Views: 47
There's nothing recoverable in these files. The screenshot below shows what they look like when opening them in a command-line text editor in Terminal. I know .docx isn't a plain text format, but I would have expected random gibberish (and possibly some human-readable text). These files are just filled with a bunch of null characters, which are represented as ^@.

1713489386547.png
 
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wfriedwald said:
on google doc's, backing up is truly irrelevant, you can pretty much never accidentally lose anything.
Click to expand...

Not that familiar with google docs but a quick search indicates that it, like iCloud, is not a backup service. Revisions are only kept for 30 days. Suggest you investigate setting up a recommended 3-2-1 backup program.
 
OP:

I downloaded your document.
I tried opening with various applications.
Some apps will actually "open" the document.
However, once it IS opened...
... there is nothing IN it.

It appears to be a "blank" file (no text entered), that is also corrupted in some way.

My advice:
Forget this file ever existed, and start over.
 
thanks ... there's almost a week's worth of hard work in there, my bad for not backing up properly ... and for assuming that MS Word would NOT screw up on me! my bad! thanks!
 
wfriedwald said:
Fisherking - thanks - I spent time on the phone with MS & then with Apple, and they both concluded it's simply gone. I've done all kinds of thorough searches on the drive, and it's just not there, no sign of it anywhere.
Click to expand...
The you must have deleted the Doc - Search for it in spotlight - variations on the name etc..
 
@HDFan - I was under the impression that this only worked for cloud based servers, which does not appear to be where the OP saved the file?
 
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