Is it possible to recover an old save of a document?

[CaptWineTeeth]

So...I have young kids, and they frequently go onto the computer to search for Pokemon things or whatever. I'm not sure they are to blame for this mishap, but it's likely.

In any case, I had a Writer document that was fairly important to me which was several pages long. I update it all the time, as it's a database of people I've called/contacted for my side business. I'm vigilant when it comes to saving because I don't want there to be any issues with a kid pressing the power button on the system or something.

I recently revisited it after being away for a week and found that about 70% of the document was missing, as though everything after a certain point was erased and then saved that way. I think it's likely that someone with small hands was mucking around on the computer, altered the document, and then later on I came back to it and saved it before turning the system off unaware that there was a problem. I can't say for sure how long ago this happened, but the system was definitely restarted since then as I had my wife do a boot time virus check after some weirdness while I was out of town.

So, as per the title, is it at all possible that an older version of the document exists somewhere? I've downloaded Recuva but don't fully understand how to use it. I don't see a search field of any kind, unless I'm missing something. After browsing similar topics I've looked into Autorecovery, but the properties for the document indicates that there's no previous versions available. I looked in C:.....AppData/Roaming/OpenOffice/4/Backup and it was empty.

Any help of advice would be VERY MUCH appreciated. Getting back this information will be invaluable to me. (I'm also setting the computer up so that it goes to sleep with PW protection after a short time to prevent this in the future )

[Bill]

Maybe:

How to Restore Previous Versions of Files in Windows 10

[John_Ha]

See [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete AOO temporary files for detailed instructions on how to

a) use Previous Versions (W7 and later) to recover previous versions of the file (is there something similar on MacOS and Linux?);

b) recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery;

c) find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted;

d) find any temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file but which have not yet been deleted;

e) un-delete the temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. d) and e) will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it.

If you cannot follow the instructions ask someone with more PC skills to help you. Act quickly - the longer you wait the more likely any temporary files are to be deleted.

In future make sure you take backups of all important files. Also see how to set up Create A Backup copy ..., in the Tutorial.

[RoryOF]

For any serious work we strongly recommend users should make frequent timed/dated backups. Install and use the timed/dated backup extension. This can be downloaded from
viewtopic.php?p=406045#p405921

Note that it must be invoked separately using its button; it does not replace the standard save mechanism.