Need to restore Powerpoint from about an hour ago that was on Auto Save but does not shop in "Previous versions"

R Johnson 5 Reputation points
2026-10-19T00:53:01.92+00:00

Not quite an hour ago, I finished editing the slides and note pages of a PowerPoint presentation I had been working on all day. The file was/is set to AutoSave. The previous versions available are from earlier in the day, but not the one I did between 4 and 7pm at my Mom's house.

Please tell me there is a way to access the version I need.

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | Other | Windows
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  1. Rukshan edirisinghe 2,365 Reputation points
    2026-10-19T03:19:49.06+00:00

    Hi @R Johnson

    Please don't give up on it yet. The detail that you made those edits at your Mom's house is the key clue. If that work isn't in Version History, the most likely reason is that it never finished uploading to OneDrive, not that it's gone. Before anything else, avoid editing the file on any device, so nothing overwrites those changes.

    1. Go back to the device you used at your Mom's (if it was a laptop or a different PC). Connect it to the internet, open it, and give OneDrive a few minutes to sync. Check the OneDrive cloud icon in the taskbar for pending uploads or errors.
    2. Look for a second copy in the same OneDrive folder. When two devices clash, OneDrive often keeps both, with the device or computer name added to one filename.
    3. On that same device, open PowerPoint > File > Home and click Recover Unsaved Presentations at the bottom. It opens the AutoRecover folder, where a copy of recent work may still be sitting.
    4. Check Version History again from the web: open onedrive.com, right-click the file, and choose Version history. The web list can be more complete than what the app shows.

    Once you find the right version, save it as a copy under a new name first, so you keep both.

    Did you use a different computer at your Mom's, or the same one you're on now?

    If this got your slides back, please consider accepting it as the answer. If none of these show the 4 to 7pm edits, let me know and I'll be happy to keep helping.

    Reference:

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