Autorecovery Data - where is it kept?

[mtl]

PowerPoint X just quit. Although it is set up in the preferences to
save autorecovery data every minute, when I opened the file it did not
open my document with a (recovered) appendix tag as I was expecting.
Where is the autorecovery data stored and what name is it likely to
have?
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

I don't know if you took any steps along the way that might have deleted the
autorecovery file. Here's what help says:

³With AutoRecover on, if PowerPoint hangs (stops responding) while you have
presentations open and you need to restart your computer, the recovery files
automatically open when you restart PowerPoint. The information in the files
reflects the last time AutoRecover saved the presentations. Because the
recovery file is deleted when you save or close a presentation, AutoRecover
should not be used as a substitute for regularly saving your presentations.²

I don¹t know if an unexpected quit qualifies as a ³hang² so it might be that
the autorecovery file may have been deleted when PowerPoint closed.

I tried opening PowerPoint and then used Finder to show me all the files
including hidden files that were created today. I was planning to order them
by date and time. Since I know what time I made the new PowerPoint file I
figured I would probably be able to tell which is the autorecovery file.
Alas, finder found so many files I could not cope with the result. You might
fare better than I did with this technique and find the location of the
autorecovery file.

-Jim