PowerPoint Recovery on Mac: Recover Lost/Unsaved PPT Files
Generally speaking, you want to recover your PowerPoint files on your Mac in two situations: your files are lost or deleted accidentally or they are closed unexpectedly without being saved. You may know that recovering lost/deleted PowerPoint files is different from restoring unsaved PPT files, which is more complex and with a lower chance of success. Figure out the situation you are in and choose the corresponding solution to apply.
| Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
|---|---|
| Part 1. Recover Lost/Deleted PowerPoint | Download Qiling PowerPoint file recovery software > choose the location > scan...Full steps |
| Part 2. Recover Unsaved PowerPoint | Method 1. Recover from the AutoRecover folder...Full steps Method 2. Recover from the Temp folder...Full steps Method 3. Recover from the previous version...Full steps |
Part 1. How to Recover Lost/Deleted PowerPoint on Mac
If your PowerPoint files are lost due to deletion, formatting, or other misoperations, you get a rather high chance to get them back with the help of the effective data recovery software for Mac — Deep Data Recovery.
There are lots of data recovery tools, but to achieve the best PPT/PPTX recovery result, you need to choose a reliable one. Considering the product quality, usability, and versatility, we recommend you try Deep Data Recovery. It is the most powerful Mac data recovery software which works perfectly well to recover files such as Microsoft Office Word/Excel/PowerPoint files, pictures, videos, etc. from your local computer hard drives and removable storage devices.
To guarantee a maximum PowerPoint recovery result on Mac, try not to overwrite the lost files by saving new data to the drive where the PPT files had lost. Now, download the software and follow the guide to start performing PowerPoint recovery on your Mac.
Steps to recover accidentally deleted PowerPoint on Mac:
Step 1. Launch Deep Data Recovery. Choose file types and click "Next" to start.
Step 2. Select the location where your important data & files were deleted and click the "Scan" button.
Step 3. The software will run both quick scan and deep scan and work hard to find as many deleted files as possible on the selected volume.
Step 4. The scan results will be displayed in the left pane. Just select the file(s) and click the "Recover" button to get them back.
Part 2. How to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint on Mac
"My computer crashed and I lost my school assignment which took me two weeks. This is the story. Last night, when I was working with the Mac it suddenly crashed and was forced to quit. After I performed a force restart, I couldn't find my PPT. Anywhere. My mac was supposed to save it automatically but it didn't. I'm so pissed off! How can I recover my PowerPoint files on a Mac crashed without saving them?"
Like recovering unsaved Word documents on Mac, there are three potential ways to recover unsaved Microsoft Office PowerPoint files. If you are in a similar situation like the one above, you can recover your unsaved PowerPoint files with the help of AutoRecover (Method 1). The other chance to get your PPT files back is to find the item in the Temp folder on your Mac (Method 2). Follow the two solutions to have a try.
Method 1: Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files from AutoRecover Folder
AutoRecover, a built-in feature in Microsoft Office, is able to restore your PPT files after a system crash. It will save a copy of your PowerPoint in the background every 10 minutes (by default). Thus, it's possible to find the backup of your desired PowerPoint in the AutoRecover folder. Usually, Microsoft Office will restore your work the next time you open it following a system crash. If you need it, just save it to your Mac. If that doesn't work on your Mac, follow the steps below to manually find the AutoRecovered files on your Mac:
Step 1. Click "Go" > "Go to Folder".
Step 2. Go to the autosave folder location by navigating to: /Users/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.
Step 3. If you find the file you need, open it with Microsoft Office and save it on your computer.
- Notice:
- If you unsaved your PowerPoint file by clicking "Don't Save", the AutoRecovered files will be deleted because Office thinks that they are not needed. If that's how you make your PPT files unsaved, this method will not work for you.
Method 2. Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files using Qiling File Recovery Software
Qiling file recovery software also offers a great feature for you to recover unsaved PowerPoint from its history versions. Download and apply it to recover your unsaved PowerPoint files now:
Step 1. Launch Deep Data Recovery. Choose file types and click "Next" to start.
Step 2. Hover the mouse over the device where you lost unsaved file, and click "Scan".
Step 3. After the scan, click "Type", and expand "Unsaved Documents". Click the exact file type - Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Keynote, Pages, Numbers you lost without saving.
Step 4. Double-click to preview your unsaved file, select the right version and click "Recover" to save the file to another secure location on Mac.
Method 3. Recover Unsaved PowerPoint Files from Temp Folder
Step 1. Go to "Applications" > "Utilities" and double-click "Terminal".
Step 2. In Terminal, enter open $TMPDIR and you will be directed to the TMP folder which is used to keep files temporarily.
Step 3. In the TMP folder, find and open the folder named "TemporaryItems". In it, right-click the desired unsaved PowerPoint file and open it with Microsoft PowerPoint.
Step 4. Save the Word file by clicking on "File" > "Save As" and save it to another location.
Method 4. Recover Unsaved and Overwritten PowerPoint Files from Older Versions
At last, if you set up a regular Time Machine backup on your Mac, you may be fortunate to restore the previous version of the lost PowerPoint files that were deleted, corrupted, overwritten, and unsaved.
Step 1. Go to Finder and open the folder where the disappeared PowerPoint file was located.
Step 2. Select Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu to find the Time Machine backups you created.
Step 3. Filter a time before the PowerPoint file was lost, corrupted, or overwritten. Click on the file and then click Restore.
Honestly speaking, if the three methods above can't help you recover your unsaved PowerPoint files, you may not be able to get them back anymore. To prevent such terrible things from happening, you should grow a good habit of saving your files frequently or, at least, decrease the Auto-Save interval. However, if your PPT file has been saved before but was missing after a system crash, using the data recovery for Mac to recover it is well worth trying.
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