AutoRecover is a feature in Microsoft Word 2019 or Office 365 that automatically saves the document you’re working on at certain intervals. This allows you to recover the document if your PC malfunctions in the middle of your work. AutoRecover can be enabled or disabled by using the following steps.
- Open Word and select “File” > “Options“.
- Choose “Save” on the left pane.
- Uncheck the box for “Save AutoRecover information every x minutes” if you wish to disable the AutoRecover feature. Check the box to enable it. You can also set the length of time in between when Word saves AutoRecover data.
Joe says
I save nothing on iCloud nor OneCloud, The new Office 365 has Autosave and a Save to one of these locations displayed all of the time at the top left corner of Office programs and I want these to whatever they are called totally and completely removed from the display! I trust nothing saved anywhere except on my harddrive or external harddrive. And want these commands removed?
Steven Capsuto says
I’ve been trying to disable this feature for my entire adult life… and I’m in my 50s. There’s a checkbox to disable it, I uncheck it, and Word ignores the setting and makes recovery backups and tries to restore them anyway. The checkbox seems to just be decorative.
DA says
Word seems like its changed and the autosave button that was always on is now off and will not switch on no matter what I do. I have looked up how to turn it on but nothing works. On the toolbar its greyed out so can’t even click on it and switch it on. Any method I find online does not work. Incredibly frustrating.
John says
How do I prevent Word from using auto recover when word starts?
Every time I start Word tries to auto recover a specific document which freezes word.
So I have no way to access anything in Word, including the File menu.
Is there a way to locate the file Word is trying to open so I can delete that file?
Word 2019
Windows 10 Pro
Cheri says
It worked on my 2013 MS word.
Thank you so much.
Aarav says
I have word 365 and I am not getting any of these options and also it some times stops working and a message box comes up showing ms word has stopped working
user says
not quite helpful……but got some extra information
Colleen says
I have disabled auto save in word but it still won’t save a document.
A box comes up saying MIcrosoft Word has stopped working
Susan says
I change my setting to save every 1 minute. but it always seems to revert back to 10 minutes! I just accidentally closed Word without saving and when I went back to the auto recover versions, my most recent changes weren’t saved. I checked the time interval and it had, AGAIN, gone back to 10 minutes. Why does it do this??? It didn’t happen before I used 365.
Ping says
I have the same problem as Jennilyn said. No matter I turn it on or off it won’t save it aut0maticaly.
Nick says
I am trying to disable AutoSave on 2019 Word. My version has no Option under File to disable Autosave. I cannot figure how to disable AutoSave.
Jennilyn says
The box is checked but it still says that AutoSave is off in the top left corner. Also, how does one recover said saved documents? There was a glitch and my word document lost a few pages of work and I want to try and find them.
RB Bolin says
What would be useful would be a list of pros and cons. For example, it appears that autosave may slow down Microsoft Word especially on a network drive.