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Accidentally saved over a word document on Mac can be frustrating. Here are a few methods should point you in the right direction to get it back.
Last Updated on December 8, 2020 by Ian McEwan
To restore your PC to an earlier point in time. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.). Enter Control Panel in the search box, and tap or click Control Panel. Enter Recovery in the Control Panel search box, and then tap or click Recovery. On your Mac, open the document, then choose File Save. To save the document using a different filename, location, or format, press and hold the Option key, then choose File Save As. Revert a document to the last opened version On your Mac, open the document, choose File Revert To, then choose Last Opened, Last Saved, or Previous Save. For Macs with an Intel processor, hold down the power button, then choose the Restart option from the pop-up menu. Otherwise, open the Apple icon in the top-left corner of the screen and choose. Word for Mac OS and Mac OS X From the Tools menu, select Customize. Click Toolbars, and in the list on the left side of the window, highlight the toolbar you wish to restore. Click Restore or Reset.
You may have written an essay, a report, an assignment or an article, and spent days or even weeks researching and revising. However, all bets are off, you wrote over some important components in your word documents on Mac negligently then saved and closed the file without realizing how silly you are. This will cause the file to be overwritten.
Thus, if you wish to retrieve this accidentally saved over a word document Mac, there’re various methods available to help:
All Possible Ways to Retrieve Accidentally Saved Over Word Document on Mac
Method 1. Restore Accidentally Saved Over Word Document on Mac with Time Machine Backup
Apply to: Word for Office 365 for Mac, Word 2019 for Mac, Word 2016 for Mac
Time Machine, the built-in backup and restore feature of Mac, seems like the first choice for those Mac users who want a simple method to retrieve the saved-over word document, only if they have a Time Machine backup of the earlier version.
Mac users can use Time Machine on Mac to create data backups and retrieve files, such as documents, apps, music, pictures, email, and system files.
Time Machine keeps backups to your selected external storage device hourly, daily, even weekly, so you may access the save over file within a specified period of time by following these steps:
Step 1. Connect your Time Machine Drive to Mac and Click the “Time Machine” icon from the menu bar and click “Enter Time Machine”. If it’ not shown, click on “Spotlight” icon and search for the “Time Machine.”
Step 2. Select a folder where your document is located.
Step 3. Scroll through the timeline on the bottom right corner or Click Up/Down Arrow button to locate your word document before it was saved over.
Step 4. Once located, simply select the document. Click on the “Restore” button below the window. Then the Saved over Word Document will be restored to the mac hard drive from the external memory device (Time Machine drive).
Disadvantages of Time Machine Backup
For those who know nothing about Time Machine, here is an easy to learn tutorial.
Method 2. Recover Word Document from the Historical Version
Apply to: Word for Office 365 for Mac, Word 2019 for Mac, Word 2016 for Mac
If you are out of luck and have no Time Machine backup, Version history in office seems like a good idea to recover accidentally saved over word document. But this method only works for files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint before.
To view historical versions:
Step 1. Open the word file you just saved over.
Step 2. Click the name of the file on the title bar of the application and click “Browse Version History”(Word for Office 365 for Mac); Or click File > Browse Version History(Word 2019 or 2016 for Mac).
If the file isn’t open, you can go to the OneDrive file list and select the Version History in your browser. Also, you can go to the Word App and click File> Info >Version History.
Step 3. Select the document’s latest version which you wish to retrieve and Click on Restore.
This method might be tricky to retrieve the word document especially if the original file wasn’t created by you.
Method 3. Recover Accidentally Saved Over Word Document on Mac Using Data Recovery Tool
Apply to all version of Word for Mac
Some data recovery programs such as Aiseesoft Data Recovery may also help you in retrieving accidentally saved over/ unsaved / deleted/lost word files.
This program is one of the best and reliable tools for recovering accidentally saved over word documents on Mac. It is easy to use, and its recovery process is fast. To retrieve lost files with Aiseesoft Data Recovery, you need to follow the easy-to-understand steps below:
Step 1. Run Aiseesoft Data Recovery on Mac.
Download Aiseesoft application and install it on your Mac. Then launch it after installation.
Step 2. Disable System Integrity Protection
For the software to work on your Mac system, just follow the onscreen instruction to disable System Integrity Protection. This will ensure the program operates without errors on your Mac PC.
You can save the image below on your phone, in case you forget the process to disable system integrity protection while restarting your Mac. Then get back to this post from your browsing history.
Step 3. Scan Your Mac
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On the program’s dashboard, select the files types and hard drive disk to scan. Then, your accidentally saved over word document will be scanned.
Additionally, this data recovery program can let you recover file from external hard drives or removable disks connected to Mac.
Step 4 Recover the Word Document
After the scanning is completed, all files will display on the screen. Select the word document you want to retrieve and click on “Recover.” If you can’t locate the document, you can trace it through the “Path List” or by “Deep Scan” option.
Why You Should Buy Aiseesoft Data Recovery
Method 4. Use Track Changes in Word for Mac to Restore the Accidentally Saved Over Word Document![]()
Apply to: Word for Office 365 for Mac, Word 2019 for Mac, Word 2016 for Mac, Word for Mac 2011
Track changes is another built-in feature of Word, which is meant to help multiple users to work in synergy together on a word document. However, you can also keep track of the change to the word file you just accidentally saved over and have it back, if you have turned on the tracked changes in the very beginning.
For User of Word for Mac 2011:
Step 1. Show tracked changes in your file.
Open the word file and go to Review> Tracking> select Final Showing Markup, then the tracked changed will appear in the right margin.
Step 2. Review tracked change in details and reject those changes you accidentally saved over before.
On the Tools Menu, go to Track Changes> Highlight Changes> check Highlight changes on screen.
Then click Reject when you select those changes you don’t want to keep, after reviewing in details.
For User of Word for Office 365 for Mac, Word 2019 for Mac, Word 2016 for Mac:
Step 1. Show All Revisions Inline.
On the Review tab, switch to All Markup view, select Balloons and Show All Revisions Inline from the Markup Options.
Step 2. Simply click Reject on the Review tab to remove those tracked changes, from which you saved over before by mistake.
One last thing…
The above methods will help you retrieve the accidentally saved over word documents on Mac. But don’t expect to fix this without configuring Time Machine, OneDrive backup or Track Changes beforehand. Keeping track of all the changes you make before saving over can help you out next time. If you don’t, using Data Recovery software such as Aiseesoft, Stellar, Wondershare, EaseUs Data Recovery seems to be a good workaround.
How To Reset Word 2016 On MacbookSymptoms
You may see this error when you start Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 or 2008:
Microsoft Word has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Cause
This can happen if:
Resolution
IMPORTANT: The location of certain files are different if you have Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed. To check if it is installed, open Word, and then click About Word from the Word menu. If the version number is 14.2.0 or above, you have Service Pack 2 and you should follow the Service Pack 2 steps when provided in this article.
Method 1 - Reset Word for Mac preferencesWarning This step will remove custom preferences, such as keyboard shortcuts, or changes to the toolbars or dictionaries. Corrupt Word preferences may cause this error. Follow these steps to reset them:
Method 2 - Create a new user accountHow To Reset Word 2016 On Macbook Pro
A corrupt user account could cause this error. To test and see if this is the problem; follow the steps in this article to create a new user account:
Testing your user account to troubleshoot Office for Mac applications
If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method. Method 3 - Clean start the operating system
We recommend you clean start the operating system to determine if other programs are interfering with Word for Mac. To do this, see this article on how to clean start your computer:
Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with Office for Mac
If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method. Method 4 - Run Repair Disk Permissions
You can use the Repair Disk Permissions option to troubleshoot problems in Mac OS X 10.2 or later versions. To use this option, follow these steps:
Note: The Disk Utility program only repairs software that is installed by Apple. This utility also repairs folders, such as the Application folder. However, this utility doesn't repair software that is in your home folder. For more information about this option, see Apple's article About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature.
If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method. Method 5 - Remove and then reinstall Office for MacHow To Reset Word 2016 On Macbook Air
Corrupt Word for Mac application files could cause this error. We recommend you remove and then reinstall Office to fix this type of corruption. To do this, choose the article based on your version of Office for Mac:
How to uninstall Office for Mac 2011
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