corrupted word document won't open

Dear Chloe4712,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

As per your description, in Word 365 app, when the Save AutoRecover information option every [] minute is enabled, Word creates a temporary AutoRecover file that includes the latest document changes. Every time Word starts, it looks for AutoRecover files. If Word finds an AutoRecover file, it displays the files it finds in the Document Retrieval task pane.

Here I found one article you may refer this article and see it might help for you: How to recover a lost Word document.

If you confirm the files are stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online, you could check the methods below.

Check the version history, or SharePoint online version history of that Word file, see if the content could be retrieved.

In the meantime, for some reason, you still cannot recover your Word file, to avoid this situation and avoid data loss in the further, we’d suggest you Save your Office files into OneDrive, then turn on AutoSave. AutoSave is a new feature available in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint for Office 365 subscribers that saves your file automatically, every few seconds, as you work.

With these options enabled, you’re giving yourself the best chance of having a backup of your work, or a version that you can recover, if something goes awry. All it takes is a few clicks, but it could save you lots of time and effort further down the line.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Thank you for your response. Autosave was on when I was in the document last night before my computer crashed. I am not sure what happened last night, but I am unable to open the document at all at this time. When I open with the recovery file converter, it is blank with no text.

Hi Chloe4712,

Thanks for replying.

In your reply, you mentioned “Autosave was on when I was in the document last night”, may I confirm if the AutoSave button as shown below when you were working on the document?

If so, the document must be saved to OneDrive for business or SharePoint library. In Word, click File>Home, under Recent list, you will the document that you mentioned here, check what location it shows, if it is saved to OneDrive or SharePoint, you can try receiving the last version of the file, go to that location in the browser, find the document and try opening it in the browser. In case it doesn’t open, select the file, click ellipses, select Version History and click any of the version, as shown below.

If you see any of the version that you want to restore, click Restore from the above shown options.

Let me know the status.

Regards,

Neha