Help articles · Recover it now
How to get an earlier version of a Word file you overwrote (Mac and Windows)
When the document you just saved has overwritten what was there before, here is what you can try right now, in the order most likely to work. At the end is how to make sure you never need this article again.
Published October 28, 2026
1. If the document is still open — Undo
If you saved but have not closed the document, Undo (Ctrl+Z on Windows, ⌘Z on a Mac) still works. Saving does not clear the undo history. Go back until you have the state you want, then use Save As. If you have closed the document, this way is gone.
2. Inside Word — AutoRecover copies and unsaved documents
- If Word quit unexpectedly, a list of recovered documents appears the next time you open it. Choose from that window.
- If it quit normally, open Go › Go to Folder in the Finder, enter `~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery`, and see whether an AutoRecover file is left (the location can differ between versions of Word).
- If the document is on OneDrive or SharePoint, File › Browse Version History works. The menu does not appear for a document that is only on this computer.
- Open File › Info. If an AutoRecover copy is left, it is listed under "Manage Document" with its time. Click it and the document as it was then opens.
- If there is none, click Manage Document › Recover Unsaved Documents. The AutoRecover files of documents closed without saving are kept here.
- Check the contents of the document that opens and use Save As.
AutoRecover saves every 10 minutes by default, and pressing Save discards the copies made in between. That is why this method often does not reach an overwrite that happened "after I saved".
3. Earlier versions the operating system kept
- If Time Machine was turned on, open the folder that holds the file in the Finder, then choose Browse Time Machine Backups from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar.
- Use the timeline on the right to go back to before the overwrite, choose the file and click Restore.
Time Machine saves once an hour. The saves in between are not there.
- Right-click the file in File Explorer and open the Properties › Previous Versions tab.
- If there is a date in the list, choose it and click Restore or Open.
This tab has something in it only if File History or System Restore points were turned on. If it is empty, the operating system does not have that version.
4. If the file was on a cloud drive
- OneDrive: right-click the file in File Explorer or the Finder › Version history. OneDrive on the web has the same menu.
- Google Drive: right-click the file on the web › Manage versions. Versions are kept for 30 days or up to the latest 100 (Google help, checked 2026-10-28).
- Dropbox: on the web, the file › Version history. How long they are kept starts at 30 days and depends on the plan (Dropbox help, checked 2026-10-28).
All three keep versions one file at a time, and only the moments that file was uploaded. They do not tell you what changed, so you have to open each one. There is a fuller comparison in the article "What a cloud drive’s version history cannot do".
5. The file you sent
If you emailed or messaged the document to anyone, that attachment is the version from that moment. Look in your Sent folder first. It ends here more often than you would think.
How not to be here next time
If none of the above brought it back, that version is gone. A file keeps only its latest state, which is why people make one more copy before they press Save. That copy is the "report_final.docx" and "report_FINAL_final.docx" in your folder.
Octorium is a desktop app for Mac and Windows that does that job for you. Hand it the one folder you work in, save the way you always have, and each time the folder goes quiet for a moment (2 minutes by default) it records that moment. The entries are grouped under Today, Yesterday and the days of the week, each with its time, and from any line you can return the whole folder with Go back to this moment or a single file with Go back for this file only. Going back is recorded too, so going back can itself be undone.
- Nothing appears in your folder. The history is kept separately.
- Your files never leave this computer. Recording and going back both happen on this computer, and they work without the internet.
- 30 days free, no card, counted from the moment you press start in the app.
Install it from /en/download; going back is explained in the guide (/en/guide#restore).