autorecover does not work

[Nate Goldshlag]

I set autorecover to 5 minutes. I take a document, make changes to it
but do not save. Then, after about 10 minutes, I force quit Word 2004.
When I re-launch Word it does not auto-recover. If I open the document
it is the old document, with none of the new changes. Another great
job of programming, and lack of testing.

Nate

 

[Elliott Roper]

I set autorecover to 5 minutes. I take a document, make changes to it
but do not save. Then, after about 10 minutes, I force quit Word 2004.
When I re-launch Word it does not auto-recover. If I open the document
it is the old document, with none of the new changes. Another great
job of programming, and lack of testing.

Did you try the various tricks for finding autorecover files as
described in the help?

It is possible that force quit is handled specially if it can be
handled specially. i.e if Word is relatively sane at time of death.
If so, I agree that it is arguably a design error.

 

[Nate Goldshlag]

Did you try the various tricks for finding autorecover files as
described in the help?

It is possible that force quit is handled specially if it can be
handled specially. i.e if Word is relatively sane at time of death.
If so, I agree that it is arguably a design error.

Actually now it works. Dunno what was wrong before. I changed it to 5
minute intervals.

Nate

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Actually now it works. Dunno what was wrong before. I changed it to 5
minute intervals.

So do you want to take back your previous closing comment?

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Nate Goldshlag]

So do you want to take back your previous closing comment?

No I do not Beth. I had it set to 10 minutes and waited 15 and it did
not autorecover. I changed it to 5 minutes and it worked. Why it
failed the first time is unknown. Whether it will continue to work is
anybody's guess.

Nate

 

[Elliott Roper]

No I do not Beth. I had it set to 10 minutes and waited 15 and it did
not autorecover. I changed it to 5 minutes and it worked. Why it
failed the first time is unknown. Whether it will continue to work is
anybody's guess.

Right on Nate!
Don't let 'em get away with such Phase of Moon dependencies.
That and the flakiness of Unicode support and the printing malarkey is
keeping my credit card frozen in the turkey. It seems to me that, in
spite of the long wait, 2004 was rushed out.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

No I do not Beth. I had it set to 10 minutes and waited 15 and it did
not autorecover. I changed it to 5 minutes and it worked. Why it
failed the first time is unknown. Whether it will continue to work is
anybody's guess.

Actually, others have reported AutoRecover not spitting out their documents
after a crash. Nate, if still possible at this late date, can you confirm
whether it is the Auto or the Recover part that failed? That is, was the
AutoRecover file never created? or was it created but not automatically
presented to you when you restarted? Does the file, with your unsaved
changes, exist in the location set for AR files under Prefs>File Locations?

Thanks,
DM

 

[Nate Goldshlag]

Actually, others have reported AutoRecover not spitting out their documents
after a crash. Nate, if still possible at this late date, can you confirm
whether it is the Auto or the Recover part that failed? That is, was the
AutoRecover file never created? or was it created but not automatically
presented to you when you restarted? Does the file, with your unsaved
changes, exist in the location set for AR files under Prefs>File Locations?

Thanks,
DM

I had nothing set so I don't know where it would go. Plus I have no
time to debug Microsoft's crappy software for them. I wasted $200 on
this "upgrade".

Nate

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I had nothing set so I don't know where it would go. Plus I have no
time to debug Microsoft's crappy software for them. I wasted $200 on
this "upgrade".

I've been trying since yesterday to make AutoRecover fail, and I can't
do it.

Word04 puts an AutoRecover file in the MUD folder (by default, else the
one I designate in Preferences/File Locations), and opens it after a
forced quit. Every time. I've tried intervals from 1 minute to 30
minutes.

I'd love to find a bug here, but I can't reproduce it.

Is there anything different about your setup - e.g., MUD folder not in
on the startup disk?

If you're willing to do one small bit of troubleshooting, you can find
where Word thinks it should be putting AR files by entering this in the
VBE's immediate window (Opt-F11 to enter the VBE, CMD-G to open the
Immediate window):

? Options.DefaultFilePath(Path:=wdAutoRecoverPath)

For me it's

panther:users:je:documents:microsoft user data:autorecover