Portable Document Format, commonly known as PDF, is one of the most popular document formats across the globe. It does not matter whether you are a student who wants to make an assignment, a recent graduate looking to prepare a resume, or a professional looking forward to preparing a financial report for a company; PDF lends you a helping hand.
Many people do not save their PDF files at regular intervals when creating them. This is something that often leads to losing your PDFs. Suppose you have generated a detailed PDF annual report for an organization, and you didn’t save it before your system crashed. You would definitely be concerned about losing the data inside the report because you don’t have any backup.
In such a condition, a hard drive recovery with the third-party tool and some in-built features will help you recover unsaved PDF files.
Part 1. Is It Possible to Recover Unsaved PDF Files?
People who forget to save their PDF documents when editing or during a software crash often search for whether or not it is possible to recover PDF files. Are you looking for an answer to the same query? Well, the answer is a huge YES.
If you have lost a PDF file because you didn’t save it, you have the option to restore it at any time you want. But it is always recommended to perform an immediate PDF recovery to avoid overwriting issues. Read more to get familiar with how you can recover PDFs not saved.
Part 2. How to Recover PDFs Not Saved with Data Recovery Software?
Are you on the hunt for a credible utility to restore PDF files that were not saved on your computer? Look no further than trying Wondershare Recoverit data recovery, an unmatchable data recovery tool in today’s market. Let’s look at the steps you should follow to recover unsaved PDF documents. Download and install this software on your system and go ahead.
Step 1: Open Wondershare Recoverit. Choose the option “Hard Drives and Locations.”
Step 2: It is time to choose the hard disk where PDFs are stored on your computer.
Step 3: Selecting the desired drive will initiate a PDF scan process. It will take some time to complete. Interestingly, if you have found the PDF document you wish to restore before the scanning process is completed, you can stop it anywhere in the middle. To monitor the progress of this process, look at the bottom bar of the software’s windows.
Note: You can also search your PDF document by its name, size, and file type. For this, use the search bar in the top-right corner.
Step 4: Now preview the PDF files scanned by Recoverit by double clicking on the file. This way, you will be able to determine if this tool has found the correct file.
Step 5: If you find that the PDF you have just previewed is good to proceed with, hit the “Recover” button without much ado. It will ask you to enter or choose a specific directory where you want to save the restored document.
Part 3. How to Restore Unsaved PDFs without Using Any Third-Party Tool?
Are you still searching to restore unsaved PDF documents from the disk? If yes, below is a list of the three methods you can try to get your lost PDFs back instantly.
Method 1: Recover from Previous Backup
If you are in the habit of creating multiple backups of your data and updating them on a regular basis, you should not be worried about losing your unsaved PDF files.
In case your PDF documents are lost all of a sudden, and you forgot to save them, all you need to do is to recover your previous backup to restore unsaved PDF documents.
Method 2: Restore from AutoSave
This is another efficient way to restore PDF files if you had not saved them before the software crashed. Adobe Acrobat Reader and other PDF editors come with an AutoSave feature. This unique feature creates a copy of your document in the temporary files after every few minutes. But this functionality only works if it is enabled in your PDF reader.
Let’s look at where to find out if the AutoSave feature is enabled in Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader.
- Open the PDF program on your computer.
- Go to the “Edit” tab and choose “Preferences” from the list.
- Now, select the “Documents” option from the left menu and see if the “Automatically save document changes to temporary file every __ minutes” box is checked.
- With this feature enabled in your PDF reader, you will be able to access the unsaved PDF document if you forgot to save it in a rush before it crashed. Simply open PDF on your computer, and you will see a pop-up asking you to recover the unsaved version of your document. Hit the “Yes” button.
If this method has not worked well for you, try searching for your unsaved PDF documents in one of the locations listed below.
- “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Adobe\Reader\11.0”
- “C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\1X.0\AutoSave\”
- “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\DC”
Method 3: Use Data Recovery Service
If you are still unable to recover PDFs not saved, try professional data recovery services. Nowadays, a number of companies take experienced data recovery technicians on board to provide dedicated services.
You can also search online to find such service providers. A better approach is to contact multiple data recovery setups and get quotes from them. This way, you will be able to draw a worthy comparison between the quality of services they provide and the amount they charge in return. Doing this will enable you to find a trusted data recovery service provider at a fair cost.
Part 4. How to Protect Your PDF Files from Losing Again in the Future?
Now you are familiar with the way to recover PDF files that were not saved. It is time to keep them away from losing in the future again. For this, you will have to follow a few tips we have presented below.
- First of all, create multiple backups of not only your PDF files but the whole data in different locations. Creating different backups will help you perform instant PDF recovery as and when needed.
- In case you lose your PDF document without saving it, never store more data files on the hard disk before restoring the lost document. The reason behind this fact is that when you store more data on the disk, it overwrites the existing one, and the recovery becomes next to impossible for you.
- If your unsaved PDF files are lost, don’t delay recovering them. Otherwise, the restoration may become challenging.
- Always use the most secure, efficient, and reliable data recovery method to restore PDF files. It will keep your important data protected.
Ending Note
Though PDF documents play a key role for both corporate and educational sectors, losing them becomes frustrating for every single user. One of the leading reasons behind losing these documents is not saving them at regular intervals. This is what the above discussion is about.
You can now recover unsaved PDFs with and without using a third-party tool, as discussed above. However, the use of a credible 3rd party data recovery utility, like Wondershare Recoverit, makes PDF recovery convenient and simple at the same time.
Try the free trial of Wondershare Recoverit if you are concerned about whether or not it is worthy enough to use. Later, you will definitely buy its premium plan that comes with a 100% safe recovery feature and a money-back guarantee.
