How to Recover Microsoft Project File: Strategies for Unsaved, Deleted and Corrupted File

Can You Recover Microsoft Project Files?

Microsoft Project, developed by Microsoft, is a powerful project management software widely used by teams to plan tasks, allocate resources, and track progress, ensuring projects stay on schedule and within budget. Microsoft Project Files, with the ".mpp" file extension, serve as the native format for this software, storing comprehensive project data.

However, you may also lose essential project files with this software in some cases, such as accidental deletion, closing Microsoft Project without saving files, inaccessible files caused by corruption. After losing Microsoft Project files, can you recover them? Do you know how to recover Microsoft Project files? In this guide, we'll walk you through detailed recovery process to retrieve your lost Microsoft Project files.

How to Recover Microsoft Project File

With the potential risks of data loss looming large, whether due to accidental deletion, software glitches, or system crashes, the ability to recover crucial files becomes indispensable. Understanding the proper recovery methods can mean the difference between salvaging hours of work and facing significant setbacks. Here are several methods to recover Microsoft Project files for handling three different Microsoft Project file loss scenarios: unsaved, deleted and corrupted.

Recover Unsaved MS Project Files

If you forgot to save your project file or your system crashed before you could save it, don’t panic. Microsoft Project has features like AutoSave that may have stored a backup.

✅Check AutoSave Files

Microsoft Project comes with the powerful autosave feature, which is suitable for everyone who has lost their Microsoft Projects. It saves your project file automatically after a period of time to serve as a backup in case the file is lost.​

Step 1. Launch Microsoft Project and choose "File" tab, scroll down to choose "Options".​

Step 2. Select "Save" to see the path to the AutoSave recover file location.​

Step 3. Navigate to the autosave folder in File Explorer. Locate the file with ".mpp" extension to check if it's the file you want to recover and save it to the desired location.​

★Tips:

You can only use this method to recover unsaved files if you have enabled the AutoSave feature before the file loss occurs.

✅Recover from Temp Folder

Windows also offers a temporary file feature to store running programs or temporary files as a safeguard against such situations. If you close Microsoft Project without saving the file, you can use this feature to quickly recover the unsaved file.​

Step 1. Press "Win +R" to open the run window and type "%temp%" to quickly open Temp folder.​

Step 2. Use the search function to find files with extensions such as ".mpp",".mpt", or ".msp".​

Step 3. Move it to a secure place to prevent any overwriting, then you can try to open it in Microsoft Project.

✅Recover Previous Version from Cloud Drive

When you're missing Microsoft Project data, another smart move is to restore files from a backup. Many Cloud backup tools, like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, offer built-in version history, which is especially useful if you have a practice of frequently backing up your data.

Before using this method, you must confirm two things: First, ensure that the unsaved Microsoft Project file has been synced to OneDrive (take OneDrive as an example). Second, you have enabled OneDrive's automatic saving of file history versions feature. Then you can recover the unsaved Microsoft Project from OneDrive:​

Step 1. Open OneDrive application and sign in it.​

Step 2. Locate to the folder where stored the unsaved Microsoft Project files, select the files and right-click to choose "Version history".​

Step 3. Review the available versions, select the desired one, click "More options", and choose "Restore".

Recover Deleted Microsoft Project Files

If you accidentally deleted your Microsoft Project file, you may still be able to restore it from a few places on your Windows, cloud service and third-party tools.

✅Check in Recycle bin

When you accidentally delete a Microsoft Project file, the Windows Recycle Bin should be your initial destination. This is where most deleted files on your computer are temporarily stored, safeguarded from permanent deletion until you choose to empty the Recycle Bin.​

Step 1. Double click the Recycle Bin to open it.​

Step 2. Select the deleted Microsoft Project files, right-click on them, and choose "Restore" to return them to their original location.

✅Recover Files with File History

If you had enabled the File History feature in Windows before the file was deleted, then you might be able to restore the file to an earlier version.​

Step 1. Type "Restore your files with File History" in the start menu and open it.​

Step 2. Select the folder where stored the deleted Microsoft Project files and version you would like to recover​.

Step 3. Click the green "Restore" button to return files to their previous versions.

✅Restore from Cloud Drive Recycle Bin

If you have backed up the deleted files using cloud backup tools, you can try to recover the deleted Microsoft Project files from the Recycle Bin of the cloud backup tools (take OneDrive as an example below).​

Step 1. Open OneDrive application and sign in it.​

Step 2. Choose the files you want to restore from the Recycle Bin.​

Step 3. If you can find it, you can select it and click the "Restore" button to return them to their original location.

✅Professional Data Recovery Tool­—MyRecover

If none of the above methods work, you can also try MyRecover, a third-party data recovery software, especially for recovering permanent deletion. It doesn't require any backups and allows you to recover data just by clicking an icon. It supports not only recovering Microsoft Project files but also retrieving Photoshop files, AutoCAD files, and Virtual Hard Disk files, covering over 1,000 formats. Here are some stunning points of MyRecover.​

😄Wide Compatibility with Windows: It supports work on Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 & Servers.​

😄Read-Only Feature: During the recovery process, it only reads data on the drive without writing any information, thus preventing data from being overwritten.​

😄Covers Multiple Data Loss Scenarios: It can handle various situations, including permanent deletion, unreadable drives, file overwriting, system crashes, and more.​

😄Deep Scan Feature: If the target files are not found after the initial scan of the drive, it also supports a deep scan, which comprehensively examines the entire drive to find more clues for file recovery.​

4 steps to recover Microsoft Project files

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your computer.​

Step 2. Launch it and select a drive to scan for lost files, then click on "Scan".​

Step 3. Choose the files from the recoverable lists and click "Recover".​

Step 4. Select a secure location (different from the drive where files were lost) to save the recovered files.

Recover Corrupted Microsoft Project files

A corrupted Microsoft Project file may occur if your system crashes or if the file gets damaged during storage. Thankfully, there are ways to fix or salvage the corrupted file. There are two available ways for you to eliminate the problem of Microsoft Project file won't open.

✅Save as an XML File

Microsoft Project allows you to save the corrupted file as an XML document, which may bypass some of the corruption.​

Step 1. Open a new and blank Microsoft Project file. Then Choose the corrupted file, select "File > Save as > XML Format" when saving this file.​

Step 3. Close Microsoft Project and reopen it. Click on "File > Open".​

Step 4. On the bottom of the dialog box, click the drop-down menu, and select "XML format > Open".​

Step 5. Then, save the file as Project ".mpp" file.

✅Insert as a Sub-project File in a Blank File

You can attempt to insert the corrupted file into a new Microsoft Project file as a sub-project. This often helps to recover parts of the project that are still intact.

Step 1. Open a new Project file and select the first row, then click on "Project > Subproject".

Step 2. When the file dialog appears on the screen, select the corrupted Microsoft Project file you wish to insert into the new Microsoft Project file. Choose "Insert Read-Only".

Step 3. Expand the schedule to check the import of all tasks.

Step 4. Remove the initial row and save the edited files with a new name.

Final Thoughts

Losing or damaging a Microsoft Project file doesn’t have to be the end of your work. By following the steps outlined above—whether you're recovering an unsaved, deleted, or corrupted file—you have several methods to restore your data. You can try MyRecover to relieve all kinds of data loss stress in the future.

In addition, the Professional and Technician Versions of MyRecover offer the function of previewing files before recovery, ensuring that you can confirm whether they are the files you need.