6 Ways to Recover Unsaved or Deleted PowerPoint on Mac (Office 2018/2019/2021)

Many users have similar problems, and I am not the exception.

To recover PowerPoint file that not saved on mac or lost for unknown reason, there are 6 ways, no matter you want to recover unsaved or deleted PowerPoint on mac in Office 2018, 2019 or the latest 2021 version. Also, to cover all the topics about PowerPoint recovery on mac, we include the solutions to recover previous version of PowerPoint on mac in case of needs.

How to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint on Mac (2018/2019/2021)

Method 1: Use PowerPoint AutoSave on Mac if Enabled

What is PowerPoint AutoSave?

Microsoft Office has a fantastic feature called AutoSave, which is built in to automatically save a temporary PowerPoint copy on a periodic basis. The feature is turned on by default and the default save interval is 10 minutes. That is to say, not only limited to Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Office Word and Excel are also featured with an AutoSave, for the purpose to restore office files when accidents happen. 

How to Enable or Disable PowerPoint AutoSave on Mac?

By default, the AutoSave feature is ON in Microsoft Office. However, to make sure if you can recover PowerPoint files that not saved on mac with AutoSave, you can check if the feature is enabled, or enable/disable according to your needs.

1. Launch PowerPoint for Mac, go to Preferences.
2. Go to “Save” in the toolbars, and make sure the box before “Save AutoRecovery info every” is checked.
3. Then you can tweak the settings, such as AutoSave intervals.

Where are PowerPoint AutoSave Files Stored on Mac?

For Office  2018:

/Users/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery

For Office 2019 & 2021:

/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/PowerPoint

Steps to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint on Mac (Office 2018)

1. Go to Mac Desktop, go to Go>Go to Folder.
2. Enter the path: /Users//Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery as following.
3. Find the unsaved PowerPoint file on mac, copy to desktop and rename, then open with Office PowerPoint and save it.

Steps to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint on Mac (Office 2019/2021)

1. On Mac Desktop, press Shift+Command+G.
2. In the pop-up window, enter the path: /Users/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/PowerPoint, then click Go.
3. Find the unsaved PPT file from Mac folder > copy it onto desktop while rename it > open and save it with Office PowerPoint.

Method 2: Recover Unsaved PowerPoint on Mac from Temp Folder If AutoSave Disabled 

If you didn’t configure AutoSave in your Office PowerPoint or couldn't find the unsaved PowerPoint files by following above method, then the last thing you can do is to check your temporary folder. If you are lucky enough, maybe you can find and recover unsaved PowerPoint files on Mac. Here are steps to locate PowerPoint temp files on Mac.

1. Go to Finder>Applications, then open Terminal;
2. Input “open $TMPDIR” as following, then hit “Enter” to continue.
3. Go to "TemporaryItems" folder.
4. Find the unsaved PowerPoint file, copy to desktop and rename, then recover unsaved PowerPoint file on Mac by changing the extension from .tmp to .ppt.

Method 3: Recover Unsaved and Disappeared PowerPoint on Mac

Also, you may run into a situation that you leave the PowerPoint file unsaved and it even disappeared on your mac. If you have enabled AutoSave in PowerPoint, it is still possible to recover the disappeared PowerPoint file on mac.

1. Launch the Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Mac.
2. Go to File>Open Recent, then open the files one by one to check. Also, you can click “Learn more” to read details for each file and fast find out the disappeared PowerPoint file.
3. Then save or save as to finish the unsaved and disappeared PowerPoint file recovery on your mac.

How to Recover Lost or Deleted PowerPoint on Mac?

If you still cannot recover the unsaved PowerPoint files even you have tried all above-mentioned methods, or you just lost/delete the files by accident, there are extra 3 ways to restore them.

#1 The Easiest Way to Recover Lost or Deleted PowerPoint on Mac

If you can’t find the unsaved PowerPoint file, it may get lost. You can choose a third-party PowerPoint recovery software to recover lost PowerPoint file on Mac. As long as the PPT document has not been overwritten yet, there's hope of recovering the lost PowerPoint document.

Cisdem Data Recovery will be a good choice for you as it is effective in PPT recovery no matter which PowerPoint version you are running. It is the best data recovery software for Mac which can recover files such as office document files, pictures, videos, etc from Mac hard drive and other external storage devices.

You can download and install this PowerPoint recovery software on Mac. It’s free to try it. Then follow the below guide to start your lost or deleted PowerPoint recovery job.

How to perform PowerPoint recovery on Mac?

Also, you can check out the following video tutorial (start from 01:26)

#2 Recover Deleted PowerPoint from Mac Trash

If you are new to using Mac, you may be not aware of the fact that all the deleted files are just moved to the Trash, if you want to permanently deleted the files, you will need to manually delete in Trash. So, it is possible to recover lost or deleted PowerPoint files in Mac Trash.

1. Go to Trash Bin.
2. Click on the toolbar as following to fast locate the lost or deleted files.
3. Right click on the file, choose “Put Back” to recover the PowerPoint file on mac.

#3 Recover Lost or Deleted PowerPoint from Mac with Backup

If you have a good habit to back up files regularly on online storage services, you can recover lost or deleted PowerPoint files on Mac via backups.

#1 Time Machine

Time Machine is a mac utility to back up all kinds of files onto an external hard drive. If you have turned the Time Machine ON, you can recover lost or deleted PowerPoint on mac easily.

1. Go to Finder>Application, run Time Machine.
2. Go to Finder>All My Files and find the lost or deleted PowerPoint files.
3. Click “Restore” to recover the lost or deleted PowerPoint file on mac.

#2 Google Drive

1. Login into your Google account and go to Google Drive.
2. Go to Trash and find the lost or deleted PowerPoint files on mac.
3. Right click on the deleted file and choose “Restore” to recover the PowerPoint file.

#3 OneDrive

1. Go to OneDrive website, and login into with your OneDrive account.
2. Go to Recycle bin and find the deleted PowerPoint file.
3. Then right click on the file and choose “Restore” to recover the deleted PowerPoint files on mac.

Also, if you have backed up files in other storage service, you can recover via those backups, the steps are quite similar.

Extended: How to Recover Previous Version of PowerPoint file on Mac?

You may want to recover a previous version of PowerPoint on mac, and there are 3 ways to get to the previous version of a PowerPoint file.

#1 Ask for the previous version

If you have sent the PowerPoint file before and edited later, you can get back to the receiver of your previous PowerPoint file, ask for a copy and rename it.

#2 Browse Version History

Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac has a feature called “Browse Version History”, by which you are allowed to view and restore a specific ealier version of the PPT file. Follow the steps below.

1. Open the latest version of your PowerPoint file.
2. Choose “File” option from the top-left menu bar > go to “Browse Version History”.
3. All the edited versions of this PPT file will be displayed as a list. Browse them to find the exact file version you wish to recover.
4. Copy the previous version of PowerPoint file to your Mac and rename it.

#3 Use Time Machine

As we mentioned before, Time Machine can help to recover lost or deleted files via backup. Also, it is capable of restoring previous version of a PowerPoint file on mac.

1. Go to Finder>Application, and run Time Machine.
2. Go to Finder>All My Files, and find the PowerPoint file.
3. Use the timeline on the edge of the screen to check all versions, you can select and press Space bar to preview the file.
4. Click “Restore” to recover the previous version of PowerPoint file on mac.

Conclusion

Although it is always recommended to periodically save your PowerPoint files to avoid any kind of data loss, however if you haven’t been very diligent in saving your work or have suffered from events such as a system crash that may cause data loss, then you can follow the above mentioned process to recover unsaved PowerPoint files and get all lost PPT files back by using Cisdem Data Recovery. Last but not least, always click the "Save" button after you make any change to your PPT presentation. 

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