WordPerfect: Where is my Timed Backup File?

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Symptoms:

Cannot find an expected backup timed file in WordPerfect

Cause:

WordPerfect's Timed Backup protects you from unexpected failures (like a computer crash, a power outage and so on), but not from you choosing to not save a file. If you close a file and choose "No" when prompted to save the document, the backup file is deleted because you said "No," do not keep the file.

Note: Once the file has been saved successfully, the backup is removed as it is no longer needed (the current version of the file has been saved somewhere else).

Resolution:

You can manually look for WordPerfect Backup files as follows:

  1. Open WordPerfect. You may be prompted to open your backup file. Answer YES if prompted!
    1. Once Open, please use File > Save As to save it to a new location. 
    2. Next time you open WordPerfect, and the file has been saved elsewhere, you can safely remove the backup.
  2. If there were no prompts about backup files on startup, continue with these steps:
  3. Click Tools, Settings, Files icon
  4. Select the entire content of the backup folder field and copy it to the clipboard (Pressing Ctrl+C will do this, or you can right click and choose Copy from the context menu)
  5. Press WinKey+R on your keyboard to open the Windows Run prompt
  6. Erase anything in the Open field, then click into the open field.
  7. Press Ctrl+V to paste the backup path into the Open field.
  8. Click OK
  9. The backup folder will now open.
    1. If this folder is empty, there are no backup files.
    2. If there are files in this folder, it is best to move them to another location.
    3. Files with a .bk! file extension can be renamed to .wpd so that WordPerfect will recognize them.

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