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How to recover Notepad documents in Windows 10

The AppData folder stores temporary files

4 min. read

Updated onJuly 25, 2024

updated onJuly 25, 2024

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Key notes

Recovering Notepad documents isn’t as complicated as people think, and in most cases, you just need to know where to search for your documents.

If you’re not familiar with document recovery, today we’ll show you how to easily recover Notepad documents on your PC.

Have you lost a previously saved Notepad (.txt) document? There are various circumstances in which a text file might get accidentally deleted, perhaps by yourself or third-party programs.

Nevertheless, there’s still a chance you can recover deleted .txt files. As such, here are a few tips for Notepad document recovery inWindows 10.

How do I recover an unsaved Notepad file?

1. Check the Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin is the first place to check for deleted documents. If you haven’t configured Windows to automatically bypass the bin, you can probably recover deleted documents from there.

2. Don’t save anything new

The text document is effectively deleted if isn’t in the Recycle Bin. However, that doesn’t mean the file is entirely erased.

Deleting a document removes it from the file system database and sets the file to be overwritten.

There’s still a good chance of recovering the document so long as you haven’t saved lots of other files that might overwrite the original data.

Don’t save more files after the document’s deletion and you’ll have a better chance of restoring the document.

3. Restore lost text documents with the free edition of EaseUS Data Recovery

So long as you haven’t saved lots of files since the text document’s deletion, you can probably restore it withfile recovery software.

One of them is the free edition of EaseUS Data Recovery.

4. Back up files with File History in Windows 10

Backing up files isn’t going to help you recover text documents that are already deleted. However, keeping backups from now on will ensure you can restore documents if their originals are ever deleted.

This is how you can enable and back up files with File History in Windows 10.

If theFile History is not working, we have an article with fixes for it.

5. Check the AppData folder

If you need to recover a Notepad document, you can do that from the AppData folder. This folder holds temporary files, and it’s possible that your file is stored in it.

1. Press theWindows Key + Ron your keyboard.

TheRun dialogwill now open.
Type%appdata%in the box, then pressEnteror clickOK.
The AppData folder will open.
Now in the search bar in the top right corner, enter the name of the Notepad file you want to recover.
Check the list of results, and you should be able to see your file.
Select the file and copy it to your PC.

If you regularly back up your Notepad documents, you’ll never need any file recovery software.

However, EaseUS is one of the numerous utilities you can restore deleted files with. Check thisWindows Report guidefor further details on some other great recovery software.

We hope that our solutions helped you recover your Notepad files. If you have any questions, write them in the comments section.

How to recover Notepad documents in Windows 10#

How do I recover an unsaved Notepad file?#

1. Check the Recycle Bin#

2. Don’t save anything new#

3. Restore lost text documents with the free edition of EaseUS Data Recovery#

4. Back up files with File History in Windows 10#

5. Check the AppData folder#