I needed to build a template from scratch. To start, I temporarily renamed my Normal template to force Word to create a clean Normal.dotx, then created a new blank doc to save as a template in which to work.



When I went back to File Explorer and renamed my Normal template back to Normal.dotm, it appears that, somehow, Word killed the template. There's a Normal.dotm there, but it's brand new (has no save history), and it's the default MS Normal style set. The original is nowhere to be found: not in temp files, not in the recycle bin. IT staff ran a recovery app that did not turn up any old, recoverable versions. I searched my entire drive for *.dotm.

I'm wondering if the issue was, I tried to rename the template while Word was open, and that caused Bad Things to happen? I didn't realize I had Word open (minimized on another monitor) until after I renamed. Is this a known issue?

Finally, I don't have much hope to recover it, and I do have a back-up that's a few weeks old, so all is not lost, but if this problem sounds familiar to you and you have an idea about a last-ditch attempt to find it, I'd be grateful -- thank you.

You can't delete the normal.dotm file while Word is open. Period. I have not tried what you did but would not expect good results.

I have 11 dated backups of my normal.dotm file.
Backup Normal.dotm template using a macro



That does not help your current situation, though.

Use your search to look for another file with that name. Look in your trash.

Thanks for the macro, Charles -- I'll use it (I got into this mess because I forgot to manually save a copy recently; I also keep many backups). I've searched the heck out of the computer, and I think the latest version is lost to the ether.

I use the macro about once a month or any time I add anything significant to my Normal.dotm file. My current one is about 950K with no AutoText but a few formatted AutoCorrects and about 30 macro modules.

Yep, I've got nearly 900K of macros (with only a few formatted autocorrects). I'm going to modify your macro so I can also back up my autocorrect and exclusion dictionary files, as I'll be pretty sad if they disappear. (These files have nearly a decade of work in them, and I usually update the autocorrect file a couple times a week.)

Better for Autocorrect:

• Jay Freedman's AutoCorrect2007 The Macro Zone - Jay Freedman, MVP
  (Despite the name, it is current)
• AutoCorrect Backup Manager Utility by Greg Maxey

Both of these produce a Word document that can be edited to add entries en-masse. You can restore using the same utility and the backup document. They pick up both formatted and unformatted entries.


See also in this forum: Word 2007 & Later Key Data File Locations

You may already have tried this, but note that Word (or perhaps the Office installer) sometimes creates one or more backups of Normal.dotm; such backups may be called Normal1, PreNormal or NormalPre. It is worth looking for those files as well. With a bit of luck, you can retrieve lost content.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks, Charles -- I cobbled together a macro that will back up my Normal, AutoCorrect, and Exclude Dictionary, but I will check out Jay's and Greg's tools -- I have hundreds of items that I'd like to be able to add.



Stefan -- I ran another search for *.dotm and found nothing. Ghost in the machine, I guess, and a hard lesson to learn.