How to Recover a Deleted or Unsaved PowerPoint File?

Have you ever lost all your hard work due to a simple system crash or shutdown? This often happens with PC users working on a solid document or PowerPoint presentation, and a simple power cut ruins their hard work. Not saving your PowerPoint file and losing it in the event of a crash is a common practice that causes a lot of trouble in every user’s life.

Not to mention, sometimes you delete a crucial presentation while recycling some unwanted files. It is later when you realize that you have mistakenly deleted a PowerPoint file that you didn’t want to, but it’s too late. Well, is it too late? Isn’t there a way you can recover a deleted or unsaved PowerPoint file? Of course, there is!

In this blog, let’s look at ways to restore a deleted or unsaved PowerPoint file on your computer.

Easiest Ways to Recover a Deleted or Unsaved PowerPoint Files

Method 1. Inbuilt Unsaved Files Recovery Feature

Ideally, when you are working on a file and your system crashes in the middle, PowerPoint will automatically open the exact file from the last saved point when you open it.

However, if the files you were working on did not open or the file was not saved, and you closed the PowerPoint no need to worry. There is a way to recover the file.

Here’s how it works -

1. Open the PowerPoint Application on Your PC.
2. If the file doesn’t automatically open, go to Open → Recent and scroll down to find the Recover Unsaved Presentations option.

3. In the unsaved list, you will find the last autosaved point of your presentation. Find the file, double-click on it to open it, and make sure you save it this time!

Remember that the recovered file might have a few missing things, considering the auto-save works at different intervals. You might have to re-work some of the points that were not saved. However, it is surely better than re-doing the entire presentation. Isn’t it?

Method 2. Find the Auto-recovery File in File Explorer

In case you cannot find your file from the recovered unsaved presentation, you can try to look for the created file in File Explorer. Yes, every task you create on your PowerPoint creates a temporary file that can be used as a backup. All you have to do is ensure that auto-recovery is enabled.

To check whether the feature is on, follow these steps -

1. Open the PowerPoint Application on Your PC.
2. Click on Open. In the Left Panel, Find Options in the bottom left corner

3. In the Options Window, click on Save to find the Autosave settings.

4. Make sure that the Auto recovery is on.

Copy the Auto Recover file location and paste it into File Explorer to open.

C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\PowerPoint\



Once you have found the file, double-click to open it and save it. Here again, you might have to re-do some steps considering the last saved point of your file.

Method 3. Use Advanced File Recovery Software

The methods discussed above are integrated with PowerPoint. However, there are three drawbacks to them -

1. They should be enabled to work in the first place; if they are not enabled, you would lose your files.
2. They should not be trusted to recover the entire file as autosave works in time intervals and might not save the entire file.
3. Both methods can only recover files in case they were unsaved. If you have deleted the file by any means, they might not be able to recover.

Luckily, there’s a way to overcome these shortcomings. Try Advanced File Recovery, a dedicated data recovery software that helps recover deleted or unsaved files. This means it will recover your PowerPoint file, no matter whether it was deleted or unsaved. The way this tool works is simple. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Download the tool and install it on your computer.
   
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2. Run the application and register it by clicking the key icon and copy pasting the key received on your registered email address.

3. Choose the drive and path from where you deleted the PowerPoint document. Usually, it is Documents and click the Next button.

4. Since we are looking for a PPT file, select Scan Documents from the available options.

5. Click on START SCAN to initiate the process.

6. Let the process complete. It will find all the deleted files from your documents, making it easier for you to recover even the oldest removed files.

7. Once you have all the deleted files listed, recover them by clicking on RECOVER NOW.

8. Choose your destination for saving the file.


Please note that you recover the files on an external drive, as recovering the files on the same drive might cause overwriting, making your file unrecoverable.

9. Let the process finish, and voila! You can find your recovered PowerPoint file in the folder.

10. You will now see the summary of deleted file recovery.

Conclusion

Out of all the three ways discussed, only Advanced File Recovery offers you proper results with the surety of recovering the lost PowerPoint presentation, even if it was completely deleted. Download that application today to understand how impactful it can be, as it can assist you in recovering all sorts of deleted files and is not limited to documents only.