I recently finished a two-page assignment that I need to submit soon. While trying to delete some unnecessary text at the top of my document, I accidentally hit backspace, which deleted all the important content I had written. When I pressed ctrl + z to undo, it only returned a half-page of blank lines. Selecting the blank area shows some grey lines, possibly indicating the structure of my document, but they're much shorter than what I wrote. I've checked the version history, but all saved versions are blank for the relevant text. Refreshing the page, copying, and loading older versions hasn't helped either. I have learning disabilities, so writing is already a struggle for me, and I was really proud of what I created. Now, I need help to recover this text!
3 Answers
Definitely try selecting those grey lines and changing the font. Fingers crossed you can get it back! But if all else fails, sometimes you'll be surprised at what you can remember and you might find rewriting it isn’t as tough as you think.
This didn't just corrupt out of nowhere. You mentioned deleting text, which likely caused the issue. Why not try closing the file and reopening it? You might have saved it after making the mistake. Remember, if it's on auto-save, it could have automatically saved the emptiness.
First off, can you clarify if this is a Word document or a Google Doc? Refreshing a Word file doesn't work like that. If you haven't already, try hitting undo a couple more times; sometimes that helps. Also, highlight the grey lines and copy them into a new document. You could also try exporting the file to a different format like PDF or to a new .docx and see if anything changes. And have you tried messing with the font settings? Sometimes altering those can reveal hidden text.
I only deleted a sentence and then the rest of the text went invisible; I didn't select anything else. I tried closing and reopening, loading old saves, and even checked the app on my phone, but no luck with retrieving the text.