How do I find a lost file (an attachment in Outlook)?

[Eric]

I don't know whether this is a Word question or an Outlook question, but let
me start here....

I've got Windows XP and I'm using Word 2003 and Outlook 2003. When I receive
a Word document as an attachment in Outlook, I ordinarily save it immediately
in My Documents or a temp folder before I start to edit it. But occasionally
I make a mistake, and edit the attachment directly. (I also have a friend who
does the same thing, and sometimes calls me for help.)

Obviously I save my file. But then when I close the Outlook message and look
for my file, it's gone. Sometimes I've been able to recover it and sometimes
not.

I think Word, or maybe Outlook, may be saving it in a hidden folder.

Clearly the proper solution is to remember always to save my file in a known
location before I start to edit it. But when I'm forgetful, or distracted, or
stupid, and fail to do this, how can I find the file to recover it?

Thanks.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

The same thing happens to me on occasion. When it does, I double-click a
*different* attachment so that it opens using Word, hoping that it will put
this attachment in the identical temporary file location. I then choose
File - Properties, and copy the Location: in the General tab to the
clipboard (even though you can't change the location there... you can select
it an copy it to the clipboard... click in the Location field, press Ctrl+A
to select it, then Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard).

I then close the Document Properties box, press Ctrl+O (File Open in Word),
paste the location into the File name field, and press Enter. This takes me
to the temp location, where I usually find my saved file. From there, you
can open it, save it, copy it, etc.

This sounds complicated... but usually takes only a couple of seconds, and
is a lot faster than trying to find the file using Windows Explorer.

 

[Eric]

Thanks. That's what I ended up doing today.

Actually my technique was both more complicated, and less complicated.

More complicated: I had already done a Save As to a known temp folder.
Therefore, when I subsequently did a Save As to find out the location of the
file, Word had "lost" the location. So I opened *another* email with a Word
attachment, and opened the attachment, and did a Save As then. That allowed
me to locate the mysterious folder.

Less complicated: Instead of copying properties in one step and finding the
lost file in another step, I did a Save As to open the folder, but did not do
a save. Then I looked for my lost file in that directory, and (thankfully!) I
found it. Then right-click on the file and Copy. Then I was able to paste the
file into another email, or into a folder in Windows Explorer.

Less complicated? Maybe not, just a different approach.

Before I resorted to this, I did try to Find the lost file from Windows
Explorer, but Explorer could not find it for some reason, and in fact did not
even display the folder. Sometimes the mysteries of Windows are beyond human
understanding (or at least, beyond mine)

Thanks for your help.

 

[Graham Mayor]

See http://www.gmayor.com/outlook_attachments.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

The Save As method works sometimes, but not always. In Word 2007 (my default
when I open an attachment in Outlook, since I'm using Office 2007 as my
primary), when you click Save As for an attachment, it intelligently
defaults to your default documents directory. So, it doesn't give you the
location of the attachment as the default location. I suspect that this was
done to prevent precisely the kind of problem you had.

As I recall, the Save As method for locating a lost/saved attachment works
in Word 2003 and earlier, but not in Word 2007. So, when that trick started
failing me when I moved to Word 2007, I switched to the Document Properties
method, which works regardless of version.

Another trick that works if the email is still open or if you clicked Yes to
saving changes to the email AFTER you saved/closed the file in Word, is to
re-open the attachment in the original email. The saved version should be
there.

I'm glad you found your file! Having been there and done that, I know what a
relief it is not to lose your work.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[HM]

I was in a hurry today and opened an email with an Excel attachment in
Outlook. I edited the excel attachment and saved it with a different file
name accidently into the Outlook log-on\local settings\temp internet\OLK798
folder. I go back to my e-mail open the attachment, but I am not able to
retrieve the file save with different file name. Of course, the excel
attachment is not on my pc folder, as I looked for these folders on my
c:\drive directory.

How can I retrieve an excel attachment from a temp internet\OLK798 folder
without Outlook? I called our IT help at work and they were not able to help
me? Please help....

 

[Graham Mayor]

If the link in my earlier post does not help locate it, chances are that
your network log-in clears the cache and so it is lost. It is bad practice,
for this reason, to open and edit attachments without first saving to the
hard drive.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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