Important film script in Word 2016 for Mac files disappeared

[Zazen]

I really would appreciate some help here. I worked a full day yesterday in Word for Mac 2016, running High Sierra, the Autosave in Word was set to 10 min, all looked normal, but when I rebooted later last night, all my work had disappeared. Searched for file, but nothing. Only the message attached, stating the name was not readable. Please see attached picture.
I searched Autorecovery folder, but it was empty. Tried writing "csrutil disable" in Terminal, then running a recovery search, but nothing came up.
It is a film manuscript and the deadline is tomorrow, Friday evening, so this is urgent!
There must be someone who can help here.

Thanks!

 

[honestone]

Can you "navigate" to where the file is located? I use EasyFind for my searches, and if I put part and/or all of that file name in the Search bar, I would expect EasyFind to find it. You can then select "Reveal in Finder", and it will then show where it is located. From there, you could try this:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/rename-a-file-baea7aab-760b-4ee0-af58-06e940d505a4

Not sure if you can do the same thing with Spotlight. If you want EasyFind, you can get it from here:

https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html

I have been using EasyFind for many years, and it has been a gem!

 

[Zazen]

hi, I downloaded EasyFind and you certainly are right, It's a gem, much better than Spotlight. And it did find a lot of files with some of the key words I used yesterday, but unfortunately none of them brought the missing file.
Can you think of how the file name error seen in my message above, could have happened? Just a typo, or is it on a deeper level? ANd what do you suggest are the next steps?

 

[honestone]

Is that what happens when you put the exact name of the file (maybe including the ".docx" part) into EasyFind?

Also, how did the files get such a name? Can you open any other docx file with a similar name (especially with a "strange" character as the first character of the name)? If you can, then either something else in the file name, or possibly something else within the file itself, is causing issues.

Myself I "abandoned" Word 2016 (and Excel 2016) a couple of weeks ago for the free, excellent suite LibreOffice. So far, it opens any Word 2016 or Excel 2016 file I have without any issues at all. Not sure if it would help in your case (OpenOffice is a similar product, and it allows one to install selected modules. However, it does not support as many file types as LibreOffice does. But it is still good software). Just in case, you can get LibreOffice and/or OpenOffice from:

LibreOffice: http://www.izisetup.com/LibreOffice...94363708&mt=e&bmt=e&adid=34151036844&s=&t=&d=

OpenOffice: http://www.downloadix.com/Apache-Op...23232793&mt=e&bmt=e&adid=34157643723&s=&t=&d=

 

[honestone]

Should have also asked if you are making backups to an external device? And if you are doing such backups frequently (for example, once or twice a day), it could be on a backup.

 

[Zazen]

I do have LibreOffice and it has pros and cons, like everything. Regarding Easyfind, I would like to specify created after Date and before date and kind of file. Is that possible?

 

[honestone]

Via the Sort Menu, you can choose "By Creation" or "By Modification". Can't see anyway for searching for a specific file type.

Again, how did those names come about?

 

[Zazen]

Regarding backup, recently I decided to let everything go to Icloud. But what is the fastest access to it: Icloud,com? or a more direct way?
Regarding name, Originally I called the file Law and Order subtitles*, and I guess something must have happened after that!

 

[honestone]

I don't use the "cloud" for backups. In fact, I don't use it at all. Local backups is much safer, and easier to get to.

 

[Zazen]

What do you use instead, Time machine? I find that impossible to find things in. Otherwise, do you use a specific backup app?

 

[honestone]

I use SuperDuper!, although only once a week (sufficient for my needs). It creates a bootable backup/clone of my system. One can "schedule" additional backups/"updates", but as I said, once a week is enough for me.

Carbon Copy Cloner is a similar, excellent product, and some folks around here use it (as with SuperDuper!).

 

[Zazen]

I just thought that perhaps the *asterisk after the file name screwed things up, perhaps that is not a digestible item for the file saving program?

 

[honestone]

I just don't know, as I keep my file names easily recognizable.

 

[Zazen]

Yep, I do have CC and SuperDuper, but don't get around to using them much. However once a month a transfer most important stuff to an external HD. I need to establish a weekly practice. Nonetheless, will I really have to start almost from scratch with the script, it's daunting. I keep having an intuitive flash that somehow it's because I added page breaks that did not get saved in the autosave. Are you good at Word ?

 

[honestone]

Unfortunately no. I am just a "casual" user of such software (same with Excel (or now "Calc Spreadsheet" in LibreOffice)). Maybe someone else with way more experience can help. Just surprised you can't "get to" that exact file with EasyFind.

 

[Zazen]

OK, it's getting late here in Copenhagen. I lived in the states for many years, also making documentary films, including one along the NW Pacific Coast with the famous explorer Thor Heyerdahl who was captain of the Kontiki expedition.
If you are interested I can send you a list of my films. Just send an email address. And thank you so much for your help, it really confirms my sense that all is connected and that by helping eachother , we change the world.
When I interviewed the astronaut Edgar Mitchell hé told me how it had changed his life completely to see our Earth from space - where everything is connected into one living organism. If only we could make that the foundation of our societies and educational systems, we would have another world.

 

[Zazen]

I sense that the reason I can't get to the file with Easyfind is that I don't know what the exact name I gave was, since there were many versions and names.

 

[honestone]

I thought that EasyFind showed some kind of "date" with the results.