Comments for Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Comment from Johann on 2011-06-30

2011-06-30T09:18:42Z

Don't be daft myron. Stop opening attachments inside outlook express. Save them to my documents first THEN edit them. If you do the same thing over and over but expect a different result...

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from myron on 2010-10-23

2010-10-23T20:55:54Z

Outlook Express DOES NOT ASK Me if i want to save changes after i have edited an "attachment"..It just closes and, of course, the changes disappear.

I clicked forward and opened the attachment to make a change and saved it as a draft.. I reopened the draft and attachment..and..oops..no changes saved in the attachment!!

How come??

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Chris on 2009-12-01

2009-12-02T07:20:50Z

ROAR!!!! all hail to Francesco the greatest exponent of document recovery ever to visit the internet. Two days of painstaking work I ploughed into a word document not realizing I had originally opened it from an email attachment. When it vanished this evening I was ready to turn my back on the IT game and move into a monastery. I don't understand the recovery method you outlined but when it worked for me just now I literally burst my guts open with relief

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Eric Li on 2009-11-23

2009-11-24T03:40:38Z

In my case for a Windows XP PC, I needed to goto ....\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\ folder to find the lost updated spreadsheet attachment

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Tan C on 2009-10-05

2009-10-05T16:26:31Z

Hi Ronda, the attachements are opening as Read-Only because they are opened from the Preview Pane. If you double-click on the email and then open the docs, you can make changes to them.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Rhonda on 2009-09-30

2009-09-30T13:21:29Z

This feature quit working for a couple of users in our company. they are no longer able to save the attachment with edits. It opens as Read Only. I can't duplicate it on my PC. Any idea how to turn it back on?

Not offhand - could be several things. But they can always save a copy to a location of their own choice which would read/write.

01-Oct-2009

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Cathy mertl on 2009-09-10

2009-09-10T16:16:16Z

I spent half a day editing a brochure under very tight deadlines when I discovered all of my edits disappeared because I had edited the document that was attached to email. In an absolute, utter panic, I searched online for a solution and ended up on this (Ask-Leo) page. You are my saviour, Leo! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I found the doc in my temp directory. Phew!

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Zeljka on 2009-07-19

2009-07-19T11:58:04Z

This is great!
I made changes in the attachement of the e-mail, forgetting that I did not save it to computer, but at least I clicked save several times during work. When I realised that, after I just closed the document, I felt so bad because I've been working on it a few hours.

Downloading the Handy Recovery 4.0 solved all my problems so easy that I still can not believe. Just read the tips at the beginning and you will need a few minutes to get the file you need. And the best thing is filter which helps you to find it even by name.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Jerry Rawson on 2009-05-13

2009-05-13T20:45:05Z

If users are aware of the pitfalls of editing an email attachment without saving it to disk, then don't cry me a river.
You were aware of the pitfalls of editing an attachment inside a email but choose not to practice safe computing habits.
Sort of like repeating hitting your thumb with a hammer.
If it hurts, practice your hammering skills.
Maybe users should purhase I.D.10.T insurance.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Craig on 2009-05-11

2009-05-11T17:03:50Z

Does anyone know Microsofts "Official" stance on this...is this a feature or a bug? I've got users who seem to operate this way on a regular basis and this behavior causes them difficulty. I understand there's a "don't do it that way" work around but was wondering what the official response was.

I don't know that there's an official position. However I can say that everything is operating as expected and by design. It's more a matter of understanding how documents are being handled in email that sometimes confuses people.

- Leo
13-May-2009

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Anna on 2009-04-15

2009-04-16T06:50:21Z

I never though it would ever happened to me. i opened word document from my e-mail to finish the paper I was working on and closed it without saving in on my hard drive. I was devasted, 6 hours of work went waste! I was trying to locate it by all means possible, searched tepm files, word recovery files and couldn't find it. I downloaded couple of free document recovery programs but it didn't help.I followed the instructions posted by Francesco, found the file in DOS list, but it didn't copy. Then i decided to purchase EASEUS Data Recovery and it found and restored my lost data! So happy!

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Vicki Berenson on 2009-02-25

2009-02-25T20:26:39Z

Francesco, you are a lifesaver! This worked - except that I had to change the directory to Temporary Internet Files and then the Outlook folder (OLKxx). I never knew you could recover modified Outlook attachments. Strange that they don't show up in Windows Explorer but appear in the DOS file list. Thank you so much!

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Francesco on 2008-11-11

2008-11-11T14:53:54Z

I had the same problem with a word attachment
this was what I did
FROM DOS
1)cd C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\
2)dir /A /S *.doc
3)copy "filename.doc" c:
4)enjoy!!!

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Paulo Nunes on 2008-10-30

2008-10-30T09:02:53Z

It's easy to go into this trap if you edit the attachement in the reading pane (without opening the message). This way Outlook won't notice the changes in the attachement and you lost them. Worst is if the attachement is another e-mail message. I could not find the corresponding temporary file, or it was blocked by Outlook and deleted when I exited Outlook.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Matt on 2008-10-20

2008-10-21T05:33:09Z

browse to:
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\

Search the 'temporary internet files' folder for the extention of your file.
EG: you have been working on a powerpoint file: search for: *.ppt

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Robert on 2008-08-05

2008-08-05T20:01:15Z

It would be helpful if you gave suggestions on how to search the temporary files.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Donald on 2008-07-02

2008-07-02T08:18:16Z

Just another ******* example of how **** and ill- thought through word and outlook is. I have just lost all my edits of a whole ****** afternoon due to this problem.

**** *** Microsoft.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from David on 2008-04-02

2008-04-02T16:57:27Z

Yes, I understand it. But where the document is temporarily stored? When I open the file agian it has the (1) attached at end. If I open it third time it has (2) attached. It means the document exists somewhere, but where? I made changes, saved, closed, returned to Outlook, pressed Reply, the message close without asking a thing, and I discovered I have not given an option to save the document at any point. Word recent documents does not list it, Search does not discover any document with similar name on whole drive C:. And Outlook Aplication data folder also does not contain any usable file.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Helder on 2007-12-20

2007-12-20T11:00:02Z

Hi Leo,

Thanks for your thorough explanation. I just had a row with our IT guys over this issue. Your email explains in a lot more detail why the changed attachment doesn't get saved, but I was wondering if there is anything that can be done in the meantime. Is there any little programme that can be run to disable the "save" option on excel attachments so that you are forced to use "save as" or can you some how set Outlook up so that it auto saves documents into a designated non-temporary folder. It drives me nuts that everyone passively explains why the problem exists and no one knows of a way to fix it... everyone i know in every company i've worked in has lost large ammounts of data in this way, more than once. It's just so counter-intuitive the way it works now.

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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Comment from Michael on 2004-10-26

2004-10-27T01:28:38Z

Thanks Leo, it is all clear to me now. :)

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A comment on: Why do the changes I've made to a document that was emailed to me disappear?

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