How to Recover Unsaved PowerPoint: 4 Proven Ways

Aug 26, 2025

After spending 3 long hours designing some attractive slides, an unexpected error happened, and PowerPoint crashed before you could save the presentation. You are frustrated because you lost your work, but don’t worry, no need to panic. PowerPoint has a feature to recover unsaved files.

How to recover unsaved PowerPoint in case of a power outage or software crash? Users don’t need any 3^rd party data recovery tool, as we will explain three easy and proven methods to recover lost PowerPoint presentations.

Is it Possible to Recover an Unsaved PowerPoint?

Yes, it is possible to find and recover unsaved PowerPoint presentations without any 3^rd party tool. Readers should note that unsaved presentations refer to the files that you failed to save due to unexpected hardware or software issues. It might be hard to recover a PowerPoint presentation that you haven’t saved intentionally.

Any deleted or moved presentation may be hard to find. You can try these mentioned methods for the lost or deleted presentation, too, but the success rate is highest when the file remains unsaved due to system or software glitches.

Methods to Recover Unsaved PPTs

For paid data recovery tool users, they might want to try other options, but for our readers, we bring cost-effective and proven resources to improve their PowerPoint experience. Any of these mentioned ways to recover unsaved PowerPoint presentations may work for you.

Method 1: Recover Unsaved Presentations

PowerPoint has a built-in feature that provides easy access to files that have not been saved yet. Follow these simple steps, and you are most likely to find your unsaved presentations this way.

Open PowerPoint software, click Files >> Open.
You will see a list of presentations that you have. Scroll down until you see the “Recover Unsaved Presentations” option.
Click this button, and a folder will appear where you can find the unsaved presentations
Select the PowerPoint presentation that you were previously working on and save it

Method 2: Auto Recovery Option

Pressing CTRL+S more often while working on a presentation is good practice. Users like to save their progress, but PowerPoint can do this automatically for you. PowerPoint has an AutoSave feature that can save progress after a set time.

You can command PowerPoint to save your work after a certain time. Here is how to set a timer for AutoSave in PowerPoint.

Open PowerPoint, click the Files tab, and then click the Options button at the bottom left.
A new pop-up will appear with advanced PowerPoint options and settings
Go to the Save option and set the “Save AutoRecover Information Every” option to 1 minute or the duration of your choice, and click OK.

Method 3: Recover from Temp Folder

Windows also has a temp folder to store files that are in progress. In case of sudden system crashes or hardware malfunctions, users can access the unsaved PowerPoint presentations from the temp folder. Here is how to recover an unsaved PowerPoint presentation from the temp folder.

Press Windows + R key combination to open the Run dialog box, or you can type Run in Windows’ search bar
Once the Run dialog is open, type %tmp% in the box and press OK.
A new folder will open, look for the PowerPoint presentation files or files having .pptx or .ppt extensions

Users can also access and open the Temp folder by following the path: C:\Users[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\Temp.

Method 4: Recover via OneDrive

PowerPoint has an AutoSave feature that works with online storage, OneDrive. Once this option is enabled, your work is stored online, and in case of any system issues, users can easily access the unsaved files from OneDrive.

Make sure that you have enabled the AutoSave feature in PowerPoint. You simply need to switch the toggle to on from the upper right corner of PowerPoint, as shown in the image below.

What if I cannot recover a lost or Unsaved Presentation?

I have tried every possible method how to recover an unsaved PowerPoint presentation, but nothing seems to be working. The deadline is within the next few hours, and I am unable to make a new presentation from scratch in the given time.

We understand your frustration, but we have the perfect solution that will resolve all of your problems regarding unsaved or lost presentations.

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What is Twistly?

Without any manual editing, writing, or formatting, Twistly creates professional PowerPoint presentations for users. Users can download the Twistly add-in from the PowerPoint add-in library, and it works inside PowerPoint, so no extra software or tool is required.

Unlike other AI presentation makers, Twistly does not give you design ideas but practically implements them and creates complete slides just like a pro presentation assistant. Twistly does everything just like ChatGPT for PowerPoint:

Twistly writes content for the slides
Create slides and optimize them with content, images, layout, and other elements
Automatically add tables, bullet points, data, and statistics by using AI capabilities
Format all slides to give a professional look to your presentation
Make an entire presentation from scratch within moments

Final Words

You can worry about how to recover unsaved PowerPoint slides or make new ones instantly with Twistly; the choice is yours. Why would you want to spend time and waste resources on boring slides when the Twistly add-in can do everything for you with advanced AI?

Try Twistly for free and make a professional presentation from topics, data, or AI prompts, or even turn a YouTube video into an engaging presentation. In the age of AI, Twistly is the best add-in for PowerPoint.