How to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint with Ease [Free]

This post provides some effective ways of recovering unsaved PowerPoint documents. Keep reading to retrieve your unsaved/lost/deleted PPT files without paying.

Lora

By Lora / Updated on September 13, 2024

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Have you lost unsaved PowerPoint files due to Windows or PowerPoint crash? Can I Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files?Word/Excel/PPT file loss is always common, but don't worry, please refer to this article to find quick and easy ways to recover unsaved PowerPoint files.

About PowerPoint document recovery

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful graphical presentation software. It creates rich and varied presentations and enhances visual effects with animations and transitions. It improves communication efficiency, enriches presentation forms, and promotes remote communication and collaboration.

PowerPoint brings many conveniences to users, but it can't be avoided that PPT files are frequently lost due to unsaved, accidentally deleted, corrupted, and more. Although PowerPoint's auto save and auto recovery features can solve some problems, an effective data recovery solution is still needed.

Now follow the detailed instructions below to recover unsaved PPT files. In addition, some tips to improve the success rate of recovery and precautions to prevent PPT files from being lost again will be provided too.

recover-unsaved-powerpoint

How to recover PowerPoint file [6 ways]

Before recovering PowerPoint documents, you need to figure out what are the causes of PPT document loss and the corresponding solutions.

Reasons for PowerPoint loss Solutions
Closed PPT document without saving Recover Unsaved Presentations; Find in Temporary Files; Try Data Recovery Software
Deleted PPT document by mistake Recover from the Recycle Bin; Try Data Recovery Software; Restore from Backups; AutoRecover Function
Virus or malware Try Data Recovery Software; Restore from backup
Operating system or software crashed Find in Temporary Files; Try Data Recovery Software; Restore from Backup
Formatted drive Try Data Recovery Software; Restore from Backup

Please note that when PowerPoint is lost, please avoid writing new data to that drive, which will increase the possibility of successful recovery, and then you need to recover the data as soon as possible.

▶ Method 1. Recover unsaved PowerPoint from the Windows Temp folder

The easiest way to do this before trying other operations is to recover unsaved PowerPoint from the Windows Temp folder. It is usually located at C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Temp.You can also press "Windows+R" and type "%temp%" to open Temp folder.

▶ Method 2.  Recover PowerPoint from Recycle Bin

Accidentally deleted PowerPoint will be temporarily stored in Recycle Bin, you can find the PowerPoint documents in the Recycle Bin when it is not emptied and Recover.

Step 1. Open the Recycle Bin on the desktop.

Step 2. Find the deleted WPS document. Then right-click it and select Restore.

Restore

▶ Method 3.  Recover PPT files by File History

If PowerPoint is lost due to the operating system, it may be feasible to restore the backup.

Step 1. Start Control Panel > System and Security > File History.

file-history

Step 2. Click Restore personal files.

restore-personal-files

Step 3. Select the deleted files you need > click the Recover button. Click the arrow icon to see earlier versions. For example, you could navigate to the desktop folder and recover a deleted folder from the desktop.

restore-deleted-file

▶ Method 4. Recover deleted PowerPoint with MyRecover

Sometimes, recovering deleted files as early as possible with professional data recovery software can not only improve the success rate of recovery, but also save more time. What's the reliable software to do this?MyRecovermight be the best choice, it can quickly scan the hard disk with advanced scanning methods to locate the deleted and missing files you need.

♦Recover deleted or missing PowerPoint files effortlessly
  • Get back deleted/formatted/missing files easily in 3 simple steps.
  • Restore deleted files from all devices and keep their formats/paths/names intact.
  • Support recovering 200+ types of data, including 12 kinds of PowerPoint files.
  • Support data recovery while scanning.
  • Compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7 SP 1 & Server, NTFS/FAT32/exFAT/ReFS
  • Helps you recover deleted files from PowerPoint 2019, 2016, 2013, etc.
Download SoftwareWin 11/10/8/7/Server
Secure Download
It is not suggested to store your recovered files in their original location. Saving to an external hard drive is preferable.

Step 1. Install and run the data recovery tool > hover the mouse over the drive where you have stored the PPT files > click Scan.

select-a-partition-to-scan

Step 2. While scanning, you could view/check and also target your wanted files using the filters: Size, Type, Path, etc.

scan-lost-data

Step 3. Go to Deleted files > locate the deleted PowerPoint files > select the PPT files you need > click Recover x files. If failed to find the files, go to Other missing files > Documents > PowerPoint > recover all PPT files.

select-deleted-ppt-files-click-recover

Thus, you could recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint with ease. What’s more, you could restore data from formatted hard drives as well.

▶ Method 5. Recover unsaved PPT files by Recover Unsaved Presentations

If your system or PowerPoint crashes randomly, the first thing to try may be to check the "Recover Unsaved Presentations" feature. To do so, you should make sure that AutoSave File is enabled in PowerPoint.

Notes:✎...
If you cannot find the button Recover unsaved presentations, it means the PowerPoint didn’t save your file, please head over to the next method.

Step 1. Start PowerPoint > come to the Welcome page > click Recover Unsaved Presentations.

recover-unsaved-presentations

Step 2. Then it prompts you to the unsaved files path in File Explorer. You could also navigate to the directory manually. All recoverable PPT files will be listed. Choose the latest version to restore.

C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

Don’t forget to save your recovered PPT file in a safe place; saving a copy is preferable. Excel is also built with this function, which could help you recover unsaved Excel files.

▶ Method 6. Recover unsaved PPT using the AutoRecover feature

If no files can be found using the first method, you could also turn to the AutoSave file and temporary files folder.

Some users may ask: does PowerPoint autosave? Yes, PowerPoint is embedded with this tool to record your changes automatically.

But this feature only works when it is enabled. That is to say, you have to activate it in advance before any crashes happen.

Notes:✎...
If you cannot find any auto-saved files, please follow the precautions to enable this feature as a file backup.

Step 1. Click File > Options > Save > find AutoRecover file location > copy the path.

ppt-autorecover-file-location

If you haven’t modified it manually, the auto-recovered files will be stored in this path by default. You could also visit it in File Explorer directly.

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\PowerPoint

Tab on Win+E to open File Explorer > input the path.

powerpoint-autosave-file-path

Step 2. Locate the unsaved file you need > copy it to a safe place > change its extension to pptx/ppt > see if you can open it > save your files to another place.

In this way, you could recover unsaved PowerPoint files. Similarly, temp Word documents are stored in the Roaming path as well. You could hear over there and recover deleted Word documents.

How to prevent PowerPoint from being lost again

Except for unexpected crashes, sometimes, users may also face problems like accidentally saving a document. They might need to recover overwritten PowerPoint files.

To prevent the PPT files from being lost again, it is suggested to turn on the AutoSave feature. Using this function, all created PPT files will be saved regularly following the periodical saving settings.

Step 1. Start PowerPoint > lick File > Info > Options.

file-info-options

Step 2. Click Save > toggle the option Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving. And shorten the AutoSave interval to 10, 5, etc., according to your preferences.

ppt-auto-save-options

This feature can help you recover closed PowerPoint files.

Let it automatically save your PPT files, and you won’t be bothered by the same problem anymore.

What’s more, to enhance the security of your precious data, it is sincerely recommended to back up your data using professional data backup software. AOMEI Backupper could be a good choice due to its amazing features.

FAQ about recover unsaved PowerPoint

This article provides users with detailed info and instructions to settle the problem “How to recover PowerPoint files”. In addition, some frequently asked questions are prepared with simple answers to help you.

Lora
Lora · Editor
Lora is an editor of AOMEI Technology. She is also a tester and editor of AOMEI Data Recovery Tools. -- "Keep testing, write the most useful tutorials for helping people recover the lost data for Windows and phones" is the most meaningful thing for her. Dedicated to creating helpful tutorials, she hopes her tutorial can assist users to effortlessly solve data loss problems on their personal computers and mobile phones.