[2025] How to Recover Unsaved/Deleted Notepad on Windows 11 or 10?

Notepad is the best tool to view, edit and search within a plain text file on a PC. You may use it very often to edit reg files, logs or scripts, to take notes as per your habit, to copy and paste links or contents without formatting. Whatever your purpose is, there is accident that an edited Notepad file is left unsaved or deleted, especially when your PC runs into a blue screen of death (BSOD) and a crash follows.

Here in this guide, we will show you the full steps to recover unsaved Notepad files without losing data, in multiple ways. 

Where Are Notepad Files Saved on Windows 11 or 10?

Unlike Notepad++, or other file processor like Word, Excel, Notepad app doesn't offer any autosave or backup feature that allows auto saving the files in a defaulted location. But the contents in a Notepad file will be saved in the computer memory temporarily, if you don’t click the Save button to save the file in a preferred location on your PC. Therefore, this is where Notepad files will be saved on a Windows 11 or 10:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming

For the reason that temporary files will get wiped each time when computer is shut down, the chance to recover an unsaved Notepad text will get lower and lower after each restart. So don’t reboot your laptop/desktop as much as possible, before figuring out a suitable way to restore the Notepad files not saved.

 

How to Recover Unsaved Notepad on Windows 11 or 10?

Think about how much time you’ve spent on the Notepad file and it is not hard to imagine how annoying it could be if you left the file unsaved. So, these 4 ways to recover an unsaved Notepad TXT file will get you out from the trouble. And, if you are looking for a reliable and quick solution, go straight to the first method as follow.

Method 1. Use Professional Unsaved Notepad Recovery Tool

A piece of Notepad file recovery application is proven to be the most reliable tool to retrieve Notepad files on Windows, because it is applicable to different situations, not matter the Notepad file is unsaved, deleted or corrupted. Also, it is highly compatible with different Windows version, from latest 11 to earlier 7.

Cisdem Data Recovery for Windows is qualified to be the most advanced data recovery expert among a plethora of software competitors. It dedicates to provide full-range solutions to get back deleted or lost files under a handful of data loss situations. More than 1000 types of file, including Notepad, can be quickly and successfully restored by Cisdem.

Steps to recover unsaved/deleted/corrupted Notepad files on Windows 11/10/8/7 by Cisdem:

1. Free download, install and launch this app on your computer.
   Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
2. In Data Recovery section, choose Hardware Disk.
   Select C disk to recover the unsaved Notepad file, or select the disk that you’ve specified to save the file but lost, then click on Search for Lost Data to start the scanning.
3. Locate the unsaved Notepad files from the scanning results.
   Go to Type > Documents > txt, or use the filter and search box to locate.
4. Double click the Notepad to preview, select those unsaved or lost Notepad files and click Recover to get them back to your Window PC.

 

Method 2. Recover Unsaved Notepad Files from Temporary Folder

On Windows, there is temp directory storing temporary files, these temp files are created by different applications and processes when they are in use. As we mentioned in the first part, an unsaved Notepad file will be also saved in such a temporary folder. If you close a Notepad text file without saving it, there is still faint hope that the text could be available in the Windows temporary files folder, providing you didn’t restart or shut down your computer since the accident.

Steps to recover unsaved Notepad files from temp files folder

1. Type %AppData% into the Start menu to open the temp folder on Windows 11/10. Of course, you can also manually navigate to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming by File Explorer.
2. Next input *.txt into the search bar on the top of temp files folder > press Enter. This will search for all files with .txt extension in the folder.
3. Glance over the search results and check if your unsaved Notepad text file is there and open it to continue with editing.

 

Method 3. Recover Unsaved Notepad Files from Previous Versions

This option applies to a specific scenario in which you need to recover parts of the Notepad file. That’s to say, if you forget to save some newly added contents into a Notepad file, one wise choice to recover the unsaved note is restoring it to its previous version.

But this will work out only if File History has been initiated or system restore has been set up. File History is the Windows utility tool helps back up files automatically to an external storage device, so users can easily check and see Notepad history and revert to a previous version.

Once you meet the conditions, proceed to the instructions below to recover a Notepad file that was not saved.

1. Open the folder where your Notepad file is saved > right click on the blank area of this folder.
2. From the drop-down list, Restore previous versions.
3. Check the list of previous versions of this Notepad file, select and click Restore button.

 

Method 4. Via Quick Access on Windows 11 or 10

Sometimes we just mistakenly thought that we left a Notepad file unsaved, but actually saved the file with a new file name. You are recommended to check the recent files in File Explorer immediately after you realized you’ve lost a Notepad file.

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Go to Quick access and scroll down to Recent files.
3. Select a newly created txt file and open it in Notepad to check if it is the unsaved one. Then rename or continue with editing as you need.

 

How to Recover Deleted Notepad TXT Files on Windows?

When it comes to another tough part --- deleted Notepad text file recovery in Window 11/10, 4 potential avenues have been rounded up to help you out.

Method 1. Recover Deleted Notepad Files from Recycle Bin

In case you delete or lose the Notepad notes just recently, they may still remain in the Recycle Bin of Windows 11/10. To restore Notepad files from Recycle Bin, you’d better waste no time since data in Recycle Bin will be automatically erased when its contents are over 5% of the hard drive’s storage space. Let’s see how.

1. To open the Recycle Bin, double-click on its icon on the Window desktop.
2. Specify the Notepad file you lost earlier. If there are too many files, sort them by Name, Size, Item type, Date Deleted, etc.
3. Right-click the wanted Notepad file > click on Restore.

 

Method 2. Recover Deleted Notepad Files via File History

File History is one of the best utility built in Windows 10 and 11 to back up personal files on a PC. If you’ve backed up your files to an external storage device via this tool on Windows PC, the Notepad file recovery will be quite easier. You just need to extract a copy from the backup.

1. Connect the backup drive to your PC.
2. Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > File History.
3. Click on Restore personal files.
4. Go to the folder that backed up the deleted Notepad file, find the file and select a version to recover.
5. Click Restore.

Method 3. Restore Deleted Notepad TXT Files with OneDrive Backup

For users who have a backup of the deleted Notepad files in OneDrive, you just need to re-download the file from cloud to your local drive for recovery.

1. Go to OneDrive and login into.
2. Go to My files or go to Documents to find the deleted Notepad text files.
3. Select the Notepad files and click the "..." icon, then choose  "Download" to recover the Notepad files to your Windows PC.

 

Method 4. Retrieve Deleted Notepad Files Free using Windows File Recovery

In addition to Cisdem Data Recovery that handles recovery even without a backup, another Notepad file recovery tool we can try is Windows File Recovery.

It’s an application created by Microsoft, to help restore the files and documents of its users. Although free to use, it has no graphical interface. We have to use command lines during the recovery operation, which is not friendly to those tech-novice PC owners. Besides, the recovery rate cannot match Cisdem or other paid programs, and you need to remember the name of the Notepad file if using Windows File Recovery. This is how.

1. Download this tool from Microsoft Store.
2. Install and open it as a Command Prompt window with Administrator access.
3. Type the command: winfr C: D: /n \Users\(Username)\Documents\(file name).txt.
   C is the drive where your Notepad file was lost, D is the recovery destination.
4. Enter Y to start the recovery. Finally go to disk D to get back the lost Notepad file in Windows 11/10.

 

Extended: Is Notepad Same As Notepad ++? How to Recover Unsaved Notepad++ Files?

Notepad is the native plain text editor pre-installed in Windows, while Notepad ++ is an open-source program developed by Don Ho to edit text and source code, it is much advanced than Notepad and more preferable for programming text editing. 

Differing from Notepad, Notepad++ has the autosave option by default. Via menu > Settings > Preferences > Backup > Enable session snapshot and periodic backup, Notepad++ users are allowed to recover unsaved notes easily, even after restarting the app. 

Where does Notepad++ store unsaved files?

Unsaved files in Notepad++ will be automatically backed up and saved to its temporary folder on the local disk of Windows 11/10. The Notepad++ autosave location is C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\backup.

How to Recover Notepad++ Unsaved Files?

1. Go to the location of your unsaved Notepad++ files on your Windows PC.
2. Once you’re in the backup folder, locate the Notepad++ unsaved files you need and open them one by one for recovery.

 

To Sum Up

Notepad files with .txt extension are widely used in computer industry. To prevent Notepad text files from being unsaved or deleted somehow, always remember to save and backup them if necessary. If unluckily you have lost a Notepad text file already, don’t fret, try using Cisdem Data Recovery for Windows, the best software to recover Notepad files on all Windows versions (11, 10, 8, 7).