How to recover an unsaved Pow­er­Point file: 5 different methods

If you’ve ac­ci­den­tal­ly deleted a Pow­er­Point file or forgot to save your progress, you can recover Pow­er­Point in Microsoft 365, Pow­er­Point 2021, Pow­er­Point 2019 and Pow­er­Point 2016. Each version comes with built-in features that you can use to restore pre­sen­ta­tions.

How to recover an unsaved Pow­er­Point file

If you try to close an unsaved Pow­er­Point file, the program will display a warning message. This message lets you know that changes to the file still need to be saved. Despite this pre­cau­tion, it can happen that open programs are closed without saving and data is lost. Un­fore­seen sit­u­a­tions can also cause the program to close without saving. Luckily, there are various ways to recover a Pow­er­Point.

Recover a Pow­er­Point file with temporary files

In the “temp“ folder, Windows saves temporary files on an ongoing basis. There’s also a pos­si­bil­i­ty that unsaved contents of your Pow­er­Point can be found in this folder.

Step 1: Search for the file

Open File Explorer and enter the term “PPT*.tmp” into the search bar. Now wait and see if the search comes up with anything.

Step 2: Rename the file

If a Pow­er­Point file shows up in File Explorer, you can now rename it with .ppt at the end.

Step 3: Recover an unsaved Pow­er­Point file

Next, open the file to check whether it’s actually the unsaved Pow­er­Point file you want to recover. To recover the file, simply save it to another location on your computer.

Recover a Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tion using the in­te­grat­ed Pow­er­Point feature

Pow­er­Point provides a feature to recover an unsaved Pow­er­Point. To make use of this feature, proceed as follows:

Step 1: Show last-used files

Open the pre­sen­ta­tion program, click on the menu point Open and then select Recent from the left menu bar.

Step 2: Recover a Pow­er­Point file that wasn’t saved

Now, you can click on the button Recover Unsaved Pre­sen­ta­tions.

A folder will now open where you can find all saved drafts. If the file you’re looking for is there, left-click on it and select Open. Save the file. You can now continue to work on your pre­sen­ta­tion.

How to recover an old version of a Pow­er­Point file

While working on a Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tion, unwanted changes can quickly be reversed with the key com­bi­na­tion [Ctrl] + [Z]. Using this shortcut, deleted para­graphs of text can be brought back with just a few clicks. But as soon as you save a file and close it, data that you have deleted will be lost. Follow the steps below to recover an old version of a Pow­er­Point file.

Restoring previous versions of a Pow­er­Point file

Use the right side of your mouse to click on a file and select Previous Versions from the menu bar. A new window will open with the cor­re­spond­ing tab. In this window, previous versions of your Pow­er­Point file can be found, but only if a recovery point is marked. Select a previous version to restore an old version of your Pow­er­Point.

Re­cov­er­ing old versions from cloud storage

If you au­to­mat­i­cal­ly save your files to Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive or another cloud storage service, you have another option for re­cov­er­ing an unsaved Pow­er­Point. Search for previous versions, manage your old files, and recover the file you’re looking for.

How to recover a deleted Pow­er­Point file

It’s generally a good idea to delete files that you no longer use or that are outdated. This allows you to maintain a clear overview of your file system. But what if you ac­ci­den­tal­ly delete an important Pow­er­Point file? No need to worry. When you delete a file, it’s not com­plete­ly deleted from your computer.

Step 1: Open the recycle bin

To recover a deleted file from your recycle bin, double-click on the waste bin icon.

Step 2: Search for the unsaved Pow­er­Point file

Enter the name of your Pow­er­Point file into the search field of the recycle bin program.

Step 3: Recover Pow­er­Point file

Now, use the right side of your mouse to click on the file and select the option Undo Delete from the menu. Your pre­sen­ta­tion will now au­to­mat­i­cal­ly reappear in the folder where you deleted it.

How to recover a damaged Pow­er­Point file

You’ve saved a Pow­er­Point file, but can’t to open it? We’ll show you different ways to recover a damaged Pow­er­Point.

Move a Pre­sen­ta­tion to recover a Pow­er­Point file

In most cases, it’s not possible to tell whether the location or the file itself is damaged. If the file can be restored with the following in­struc­tions, the location is affected. In this case, it is best to restore and back up all files from this folder.

Step 1: Save the file in a temporary location

Open the folder where the damaged file is located. Open the context menu with a right-click on the file. Select Copy option to save the file to the clipboard.

Step 2: Copy the file into another folder

Next, open any folder or create a new one. Paste the file by right-clicking on a free area and selecting Paste from the context menu. You can also copy the file to the folder by using the key com­bi­na­tion [Ctrl] + [V].

Step 3: Open the file

Try to open the file by double-clicking it. If you can do this without en­coun­ter­ing any problems, it may be the original location itself that is damaged.

Paste slides into a new pre­sen­ta­tion

In many cases, however, it’s not the location that’s damaged, but the Pow­er­Point file itself. In this case, the program offers a handy function to insert the slides into a new and undamaged file.

Step 1: Open a new pre­sen­ta­tion

Open up a blank Pow­er­Point document.

Step 2: Recover unsaved Pow­er­Point

In the menu, select Start and select New Slide from the drop-down menu. Using the left side of the mouse, choose the option Reuse Slides.

A field with the same title will appear on the right. Click on the Browse button and select the file you want to restore in Explorer. A thumbnail preview of all slides will appear. Click on the slides with the left mouse button to insert them into the new pre­sen­ta­tion. To restore the entire unsaved Pow­er­Point file, right-click to open the context menu and click the Insert all slides option.

Step 3: Save file

As soon as you’ve trans­ferred all slides, make sure that you save the file in a new location.

The safe mode

If a Pow­er­Point file cannot be opened in normal mode, try starting it in safe mode. To do this, hold down the control key [Ctrl] and then double-click on the Pow­er­Point file to select it. Click Yes in the con­fir­ma­tion window to open the pre­sen­ta­tion in safe mode.

Now, you can look for any issues with the file before saving it under a new name.

How to avoid losing Pow­er­Point files

Despite the many options to recover a Pow­er­Point file, a suc­cess­ful recovery isn’t guar­an­teed. That’s why it’s important to use the shortcut [Ctrl] + [S] through­out your work. With this shortcut, you can regularly save your file, ensuring your work isn’t lost.

Pow­er­Point comes with a function that au­to­mat­i­cal­ly saves open pre­sen­ta­tions. We’ll show you how to activate the function and avoid losing your files.

Option 1: Ac­ti­va­tion in the menu bar

Activate the feature in the Pow­er­Point menu bar by moving the switch to AutoSave On.

Option 2: Ac­ti­va­tion via Options

If you activate the feature in the Options area, ad­di­tion­al custom settings are available. Select the File button in the menu. Then click on Options followed by Save. Activate the function Save Au­toRe­cov­er in­for­ma­tion every… and enter the desired time interval. If you enable the Keep the last Au­toRe­cov­ered version if I close without saving option, you avoid losing data if you ac­ci­den­tal­ly close the Pow­er­Point file without saving it. If necessary, you can also adjust the location of the file to make it easier to find the backed-up file.