Recovery of MS Word Content From Temp Files – Optimum Solutions

Microsoft Word is the very common application now-a-days to store information. But, under certain situations, Word document displays error messages due to some internal problems. In this case, users are unable to access Word file then they want to remove this issue. However, Microsoft Office has an auto recovery option that allows retrieving of Word file data, which is lost during the power failure, system crash or due to simple human error. There are many approaches to fix this issue, recovery of MS Word content from temp files is one of them. But sometimes, these auto-recovery option does not work. Thus, a third-party tool is recommended to overcome this problem.

There are some common error messages mentioned below which can prevent a user to open the MS Word document:

  • Word cannot open the document. It may be corrupt.
  • Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges
  • Module name cannot be found
  • Subscript out of range
  • The file cannot be opened
  • Run-time error

Reasons to Recover Microsoft Word Document


If a user is facing the error messages then there is a strong possibility that it is being caused by the DOCX file corruption. To overcome such corruption issues, users search solutions for the recovery of MS Word content from temp files in an efficient way. But, before going further to find those solutions, first we need to know the possible reasons that can cause .docx files to get corrupted and lead to these above mentioned common error messages, are as follows:

  • Macro Viruses & malicious software
  • Formation of Bad Sectors on Local Hard Disk
  • Improper System Shutdown
  • Microsoft Word Crashes

Process to Search Temporary File For Recovery of Word Document


For the recovery of MS Word content from temp files, one has to search these files first. The temporary file has .tmp file extension. To find these temporary files, use one of the following processes, as appropriate for the version of Windows that you are using.


For Windows Vista and Windows 7
  1. First of all, click on Start button and type .tmp in the Start Search box, then press Enter key.
  2. After that, go to the Show only toolbar and click on Other option.
  3. Now, scroll through the files and find the Word files that match the last few dates & times that you edited the document. If you have got the document that you are searching for, then search a troubleshooting method to recover more information from the file.
For Windows XP
  1. First of all, click on Start button, then go to the Search option and click on For Files or Folders option.
  2. Now, type .tmp in the Search for files or folders named box.
  3. In this step, point to the arrow in the box, then click on My Computer.
  4. Now, click on Search option if the Search Options are not visible, otherwise, go to the next step.
  5. In this, select the Date checkbox then click on in the last n days option and replace n with the number of days since you last opened the document.
  6. After that, click on Search Now option.
  7. Now, click on Details option from the View menu. On the View menu, go to the Arrange Icons and click on by Date option.
  8. Finally, scroll through the files and find the Word files that match the last few dates & times that you edited the document. If you have got the document that you are searching for, then search a troubleshooting method to get more information from the file.

Recovery of MS Word Content from Temp Files via Automated Solution


When the manual method fails to find the .tmp file to retrieve the data or to restore the Word file. Then, a reliable third-party solution i.e Word Recovery Software is suggested to use. The tool is very beneficial to remove common errors which are generated during the file corruption and fix the issues. By using this tool, formatting of Word file such as hyperlinks, italic or bold text, enclosed images, clipart, graphic, chart etc are maintained. Also, This utility provides a quick and easy step by step method to repair the corrupt Word documents which is understandable by novice users as well as technically strong users. It also provides the facility to save the DOCX file in healthy format.

In this article, both manual and automatic solution is discussed. When temporary file has not found by manually then it is advised to take help from third-party solution. It is a quick and error-free procedure for the recovery of MS Word content from temp files.