Word doc permissions issue, then disappeared completely

[sim84]

Hi, first post here, I just lost a Microsoft Word document I was working on for uni and am at a loss for how to get it back. I went to open it from the recents list, and got the error message: "Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges". So I repaired disk permissions on my hard drive, after which the file was no longer in the recents list, and no longer in the location where it was saved. A spotlight search didn't turn up anything, and I don't have Time Machine or any backup. Am I screwed? I'm on a Macbook Pro mid 2015, OSX 10.10.5.

Cheers,

Simon

 

[chscag]

Trying to recover lost documents in Mac Word is a real problem. Unless you choose to "always make a backup" in settings, recovering lost documents is a hit and miss thing. Just because the document shows up in your recent list does not necessarily mean it can be found or recovered. And the auto save feature infamously does not work right. (according to MS Mac Word MVPs). To answer your question... your document is likely lost since you admit to having no backup.

 

[sim84]

It's weird, I've never had this happen to a file before. I've had the odd corrupted file on my early 2011 MBP, and once I lost a file because text edit crashed while saving, but with this it's like the repair disk permissions process in disk utility just decided to obliterate the file. Thank for the tip chscag, I've now checked the "always make a backup" option. It was only a couple of pages of work, which is why I hadn't made a backup yet, but it's good to know that option is there.