Lost Document

August 25, 2013 3:57 PM

I recently saved a document in Microsoft Word. I closed it, and the next time I opened it, it was blank. I figured I had just forgotten to save or done something stupid, so I re-wrote the document and saved it again. I emailed it to myself for good measure. Next time I opened it, it was blank again. I'm very frustrated, and it was an important document that I would like to recover, if possible, without having to re-write it a third time. Has anyone experienced this situation? Can anyone help me recover my document? I'm desperate.
posted by Lee Shore to Technology (9 answers total)

Try opening in wordpad and see if the text is there.
posted by PSB at 3:59 PM on August 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

The document could be corrupted. Here is a response on Microsoft's help forums that provides information for determining if the file is corrupt, along with links to troubleshooting steps to try and recover the original document. (For some reasons, the "link" option below isn't working...)

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-word/why-is-a-saved-document-blank-when-i-open-it/d5ac3dc4-69d7-4c2c-b84d-de5094863037
posted by SpacemanStix at 4:05 PM on August 25, 2013

Some basic things to check in just in case:

1. What is the file size? If it's only 1k, then nothing was saved. Try pasting a bunch of random text into a Word file and then saving it. Is the file size over 1k? Can you re-open it and still see the text? This will tell us if your copy of Word is being problematic.

2. CTRL-A in the document. Do you see anything selected? Then CTRL-C, then CTRL-V in notepad. If your text shows up in notepad, then your font might have been miniaturized or made the same color as the background.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 4:20 PM on August 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

What version of Microsoft Word are you using?
posted by oceano at 4:49 PM on August 25, 2013

Assuming you're in Windows, you could have a hidden backup file; open Windows explorer and make hidden files visible. (Folder Options -> Advanced, show hidden files). The backup will have the same filename but slight different, starts with a period or an underscore (_). When that backup was made is a good question, so it may reflect the newer, apparnetly blank version of your document. But it's worth checking. Make a copy of the hidden file first thing, and open it in Windows. (Might need to change the file extension to .doc or .docx-- I forget whether the backup changes that.)

Any chance a system backup ran during the period between your save and the failed load? Check there as well for a working copy.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:02 PM on August 25, 2013

Are you saving it to a network drive? This happens to me periodically when saving to my work network, so now I save everything to my documents first then drag it over.
posted by goo at 2:03 AM on August 26, 2013

Depending on the version of Word, you could also have a corrupted normal.dot file. If you delete it, Word will recreate it.

I also had a problem (that just sort of disappeared after a while) where I needed to save files a couple of times for the changes to "take".
posted by gjc at 2:39 AM on August 26, 2013

How did you create this document in the first place? If you attach a doc to an email, then open the attachment to edit it, all the changes will be saved to a version of the file in the temp folder, not the original doc. I imagine there are other circumstances where "saving" the document might not be doing exactly what you want. Have you tried "Save As..." to verify that the saved doc is going where you expect to find it later?
posted by zanni at 5:45 AM on August 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

This may sound absurd, but check your font color. I found this out when I've done a cut-and-paste from a source where the text is white. When I pasted onto a white background, it was invisible.

I know it's a silly thing, but it really had me stymied for a bit, until I figured it out.
posted by sundrop at 1:58 PM on August 26, 2013