How to Enable Autosave for Any App on Windows (Even If it Doesn’t Support It)

Losing your work progress due to an app crash or power cut is an absolute nightmare, and that’s why many apps have included the autosave feature. However, tons of other programs don’t. This tutorial discusses how to enable autosave in any software natively or via an alternative method.

Good to know: did you know you can add a background to your Word document? We show you how to beautify your docs.

How to Enable Autosave in Photoshop

If you’re a graphic designer, you probably spend hours working on a single visual. To prevent losing progress due to Photoshop crashing or freezing, you need to enable autosave in Adobe Photoshop. Luckily, recent Photoshop versions have implemented a native autosaving feature (sort of).

1. Launch Photoshop on your PC.
2. Open a new project or import any image or PSD so that the settings will not be grayed out.

3. Click “Edit” in the top bar, then select “Preferences” at the bottom of the options. Select “File Handling.”

4. Enable the “Automatically save recovery information every” setting and choose your preferred interval. This option will allow Photoshop to recover files when the app closes for any reason. However, this doesn’t literally autosave the progress into a PSD file – but it does allow you to recover the progress.

How to Enable Autosave in Premiere

Adobe Premiere also sports the autosave feature, and that’s understandable, as video editors spend hours on it. On top of that, Premiere is famous for its sudden crashes. To activate autosave in Premiere, follow these steps.

1. Launch Adobe Premiere.
2. Open a project or a file to have access to the settings.
3. Click the “Edit” menu on the top bar, then select “Preferences.”

4. Navigate to the “Auto Save” section and tick the “Automatically Save Projects” box.

5. You can edit the interval and the number of projects to save. Just make sure you have enough space on your PC.

Tip: want to upgrade your PowerPoint skills? Learn all about using Power Query and Power Pivot to generate complex analyses.

How to Enable Autosave in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

The autosave feature in Office apps is only available to Office 365 users. However, users who work offline and don’t have this subscription can rely on the AutoRecover feature to achieve a similar result.

1. Open the Office app in which you would like to enable autosave. We’re using Word for this example.
2. Click “File -> Options.”

3. Navigate to “Save” in the new window that appears.
4. Enable the “Save AutoRecover information every” option and add the interval you want. Also, make sure to leave the “Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving” option active.

Tip: if you don’t want Windows autosaving files and folders to OneDrive, learn how to prevent that.

Enable Autosave in Any App on Windows

We have discussed the built-in autosaving features because the native option is always the best. However, most of these options have drawbacks in the sense that they don’t actually autosave, per se, but back up the progress in a somewhat unviewable file that can only be opened using that particular software.

To activate an autosave function for any program, we are employing a lightweight program called Autosaver.

1. Download the free Autosaver tool, which works on Windows 10/7/8. (You can also try installing it on Windows 11, although it’s not fully supported.)

2. This is a portable program that requires no installation. Just run the software.

3. The app’s icon will appear in the system tray, and you need to click it once to open its window.

4. The app will not confuse you with numerous settings. Instead, you only need to set the interval, which ranges from 1 minute to 5 hours, and select the apps in which you would like to use it. You can tick the “Auto save only in these apps” option if you want.

5. Click “Add” to select the apps and programs you want to set up autosaving for. You will need to find the app’s .EXE file, which should normally be located in “C -> Program Files” or “C -> Program Files (x86).”

6. Once you’ve added the programs, there is an option to check the “Run when Windows starts” box. After that, you’re ready to go.

7. Open an app that has autosaving enabled and do your work. Don’t forget to save the file so that the autosave can be added on top of that.

8. The autosaving feature will work seamlessly as long as the Autosaver is in the foreground. If you minimize the app you’re using to the taskbar, the autosaving feature will stop until you open it again.

Tip: has your taskbar been rendered unresponsive in Windows? Try one (or more) of these fixes to resolve the issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the auto recover location for Word and Excel?

If you enabled the AutoSave feature (for Office 365) or the AutoRecover feature, you can find the recovered or saved files in the following path: “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word”. Make sure to enable the “Show Hidden Files” setting on Windows to see the AppData folder.

What's the AutoRecover folder for Photoshop and Premiere on Windows?

You can access automatically recovered files for Photoshop on Windows in the next path: “C:/Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/AdobePhotoshop/AutoRecover”. It should be the same path for Premiere, but “AdobePremiere” instead of “AdobePhotoshop.”

Can I use Word AutoSaver for free?

You can enjoy free access to Microsoft Word and its AutoSaver feature through Office.com. It also lets you create and edit Excel and PowerPoint files, all synced on OneDrive.

Image credit: Flaticon. All screenshots by Mustafa Ashour.