Recovering from temp directory

[nukenteach]

Anyone know whether I can recover a file that was launched from an e-mail attachment, edited, then saved to a temp directory that goes away when the app closes? I launched a Word document from an e-mail, edited it for 4 hours, and saved it, forgetting it went to the temp directory. Then I closed Word, and now I can't find the file

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Nope, it's gone. You'll have to reopen it, save it to a document folder, and
do the work over. Sorry.

Anyone know whether I can recover a file that was launched from an e-mail

attachment, edited, then saved to a temp directory that goes away when the
app closes? I launched a Word document from an e-mail, edited it for 4
hours, and saved it, forgetting it went to the temp directory. Then I
closed Word, and now I can't find the file.

 

[Beth Melton]

Try searching for the document using Windows Search/Find.

The file is still in a Temp folder (your Temporary Internet files I
think) but if your changes have been saved depends on whether you
reopened the document from the email. If you have then your changes
have been lost. The temp file is replaced with another copy.

IMHO this is a bug in Word. If you reopen the document from the email
you should be prompted to replace the existing file. Other
applications, even WinZip, prompts you there is no reason why the
Office apps can't.

(Can you tell I learned this one the hard way? <g> Never again will I
open a document directly from an email attachment!)
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

Anyone know whether I can recover a file that was launched from an

e-mail attachment, edited, then saved to a temp directory that goes
away when the app closes? I launched a Word document from an e-mail,
edited it for 4 hours, and saved it, forgetting it went to the temp
directory. Then I closed Word, and now I can't find the file.

 

[Beth Melton]

I'm not disagreeing with you, but you ~do~ have a warning. The prompt
that displays when you open a file attachment from an email that asks
if you want to "Open it" or "Save it to disk". Save it to disk means
'save it to your computer'.

Many have turned the 'Always ask before opening this type of file'
option off and the dialog does not display simply because they don't
want to have to take the time to actually think about what they are
doing.

So let's suppose Microsoft created a message when opening a document
from an email along the lines of: "Changes made to this document will
not be permanent. Do wish to save this document to your local drive?".

Here's what would happen:
- Users would complain they have to click another button and would
like to see the message suppressed.
- Even after answering "No" folks would still post in the newsgroups
asking how to recover the file.

So how do they make everyone happy? They incorporate a dialog box with
two choices: Open it and Save it to disk. And they include an option
to turn to the dialog box off.

The bug I was referring to lies in automatically overwriting the file
in the Temp folder without warning. There should be a prompt in this
scenario.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

I tried searching from Word and from Windows and didn't find it.

This is an APPALLING way fo rany software to operate. And if I'm

not mistaken, it's not just Word, it's any Office app. Yes, I can
configure Word (and others) to create backups, etc., but how dare
Microsoft have the default that allows this to happen. It's a famous
problem, and I'm astounded they haven't figured out how to keep this
from happening!

Warning: you are saving to a temporary directory that will

disappear when this application is closed; do you want to save to a
different location. HOW HARD WOULD IT BE TO TELL SOMEONE THIS?

 

[nukenteach]

Of course you're right. And of course it's my fault the file's gone. But save to disk doesn't open it, which means another set of dialog boxes. My suggestion would be that, since there's a dialog box already, put in three options - the third being "save to disk and then open" - which would be even better with a warning when closing Word that says: "Warning - the file saved to temp directory XYZ will be erased; do you still want to close?

No perfect solution...

 

[Beth Melton]

Indeed there is no perfect solution that will make everyone happy.

When you open and modify a document from an email the changes *are*
saved in your Temporary Internet Files folder so they aren't
automatically discarded.

I just tested this to verify and it is saved BUT it did not appear in
my Windows Search results. AND it appears duplicates of the file are
created so I may be wrong in thinking the file is overwritten when it
is saved. (I'll have to test this a little more)

When you searched for the file name did the Search results find a
shortcut to the document in your Recent folder? If it did you should
be able to view the Properties and find the target document.

Otherwise you may want to manually browse your Temporary Internet
Files folders and see if the document can be found. Note this folder
is unlike other folders. It contains several subfolders which may not
display if you navigate to the folder in the Windows Explorer.
(Supposedly all of the files in the subfolder display in the TIP
folder but I have found this is not always the case)

Try the following:
- Open a Word document from an email (DO NOT open the file you are
attempting to find. If you have to, email yourself a document)
- In Word go to File/Save As
- Click the "Up one Level" command to the right of the "Save in" drop
down
- Right-click and folder and select "Explore" (This will start the
Windows Explorer and you will be able to browse the subfolders.)
- Sort the files by Name so any duplicates (if any) will be grouped
together.

Look through all subfolders and best of luck!
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

Of course you're right. And of course it's my fault the file's

gone. But save to disk doesn't open it, which means another set of
dialog boxes. My suggestion would be that, since there's a dialog box
already, put in three options - the third being "save to disk and then
open" - which would be even better with a warning when closing Word
that says: "Warning - the file saved to temp directory XYZ will be
erased; do you still want to close?"

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Another thing that may help. As long as the file is still available, you can
(I believe) open it from the MRU list on the File menu in Word. You could do
that and then save it to a document folder.

 

[nukenteach]

Thanks to you both for continuing the thread. I tried both suggestions and didn't find it. Beth's suggestions did indeed yield far more results than other searches, but everything in the ten zillion temp directories is dated today, and there are no Word files except the one that I launched to start the search. I don't know if it's because I've rebooted since the origninal loss, but the file appears to be in the ether now. I may play with this later to see if there's a key event (e.g., closing Word, rebooting, etc.) that is what causes the file to finally evaporate

If I learn anything new, I'll post it

Thanks again.