# Recovering a Temporary File



## cmcnally (Jan 24, 2002)

I opened a document from my Gmail account last night and made significant edits, forgetting to Save As a new, non-temporary document. Then I finished, shut down my computer, and went to bed. Now of course, it's gone, even though I can strangely see documents I worked on months ago still in the temporary folder. Do I have any options here? I can see a shortcut to the Document in my Microsoft Office folder, but of course that just points back to the Temporary folder. Could any of the oddly named .tmp files be what I'm looking for? Any other strategies for recovering this work?


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## cmcnally (Jan 24, 2002)

So frustrating! I found the original document in my Firefox cache, but can't find the edited version in the same location, even though I clicked Save. It also kills me that this document seems to have been selectively purged form the Temporary folder, with other older stuff still there. What's the logic behind this?


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

What type of document was it? 
If it was a word document, open up word, make a junk document and go to File, Save As. That will bring up a window showing your default save location (usually My Documents, but it is easier to check this way to be sure). Once you know the location (this can also be found under Tools, Options, File Locations, which also lists where autosaved files are kept and other things you may need to check out) go to there and look for the file.


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## cmcnally (Jan 24, 2002)

Unfortunately, the default save location for files opened from my Gmail account is C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temp. The file isn't there, or in the auto recovery location. And yes, it is a Word document.


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## 1002richards (Jan 29, 2006)

Hi cmcnally,
I've had some success with Brian Kato's (ad free spam free and) free prog "Restoration"

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

I hope this is of some help?
Richard


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

Look at the creation dates and times for the .tmp files?
See what matches?


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## cmcnally (Jan 24, 2002)

I did try that but was unable to open several of them. (The ones I could open were blank.) I got an odd error message that I can't remember. I'll post it once I get home and have a chance to look at it again.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temp is your setting for where Firefox should save files? At the very least, change that to save you future hassles - I download my files to the desktop, and delete them as needed. This is an easy thing to change in Firefox - go to Tools, Options, Main, and you will see "Save Files To" and select a location. Whatever that is set to is where your document from Gmail (or any other download) will go.


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## cmcnally (Jan 24, 2002)

Actually, Firefox is "set" to save downloads to the Desktop, but for some reason, that's never seemed to me how it actually works. When I open a Word document from Gmail, it saves by default to the Temp folder in local settings. I think Word is the culprit, since I've noticed with other stuff as well. Torrent files for example, supposedly download to the desktop, but my Bittorrent program automatically saves them to their own designated folder.


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## Liangatang (Jun 4, 2007)

I noticed a nice trick within Firefox - in the address bar type *about:cache* and you can look through all the old files. I use the "find on this page" tool under edit to quick find the old file.
However, my girlfriend just had the same problem as you - she made some changes but we can't find the edited version. She's running on Vista, MS Word 2007, Firefox. If you find a fix let me know.


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## doozie66 (Jun 22, 2008)

I have exactly the same problem as cmcnally except from Yahoo. I just can't find the edited (7 hours worth - tired!) version. I have gone through all the steps but don't know what a cache is. I keep going to the temp file but it's nowhere to be found, but there are lots of versions of old documents for some reason. I have Word 2003. Any suggestions??


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