Lost document on OneDrive - my mum's bloody eulogy

[MortyFide]

I can't believe it. I've been putting it off because it's too hard, the funeral is on Friday, I've just spent 3 hours crying my way through it. Saved it, saved it again to be sure - safely on the desktop (work laptop, I don't have anything else) which was already synced to OneDrive anyway.

Went to attach it to an email to my brother, but it said I was signed out/credentials expired. Couldn't sign back in to sync changes. Restarted to force the credentials, synced...and it's the original, not mine from 8.30pm this evening. I've spent an hour trying to restore it or sync changes.

Can you have a funeral without a eulogy? I can't face it again.

Do you have multiple email addresses? If so, which one did you originally sign into OneDrive with... Just an idea?

I do have two work email addresses, but my account uses just the one - the old one is defunct. Nice idea though.

Oh you poor thing, what a nightmare.

Have you tried a right-click on the document and then checking version history? And have you looked in the OneDrive app on your Internet browser? Assuming that you have an office 365 login that you can use to access your office 365 portal online? That will also give you the option to look at version history (the 2 histories should match, it's just different ways of accessing it).

Thanks Claire, yes I did try both of those actually - the two versions showed the old one I'd opened for editing at 4.55pm, and the "recent" version at 9.01pm which looks exactly the same as the 4 55pm one

I'm so sorry. A few things that might help but not sure:

Assuming you worked in Word, go to Open/Recent/and see if there's a version saved with a different name?

You say you saved to the desk top which is synced with OneDrive - can you go and check the actual desk drive on your computer vs the One Drive version? ie see if the version saved on the computer is a better version?

That's so odd. The only other thing I can think of is to do a search of the laptop via the Windows/Start button to see if it's somehow been saved as a temporary file somewhere. Or if you go via File Explorer, you can go to File/Change folder and search options and then check the option to Always search for names and contents (in the Search tab). You could then search for a word within the doc to be absolutely sure that it's not under a different file name somewhere.

I don't hold out much hope for that though, sorry.

@clairedunphy

That's so odd. The only other thing I can think of is to do a search of the laptop via the Windows/Start button to see if it's somehow been saved as a temporary file somewhere. Or if you go via File Explorer, you can go to File/Change folder and search options and then check the option to Always search for names and contents (in the Search tab). You could then search for a word within the doc to be absolutely sure that it's not under a different file name somewhere.

I don't hold out much hope for that though, sorry.

I was going to suggest the same, I thought I'd lost a document once, re-worked it them some time later found it in a temp drive.

I can't help but I'm very sorry for the loss of your mum 😣x

I realise I haven't answered your actual question though, and my view is that you can have whatever type of funeral feels right. A few heartfelt words are often as meaningful as a eulogy that you've sweated over, so I don't think you should put yourself through trying to recreate it if it causes you unnecessary pain.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your mum

Thank you all for your ideas and kind words! I feel bad because I was snippy with my brother, on the other side of the world and an IT whizz, because he wouldn't help me (with the eulogy or the problem) - turns out he has a major presentation, back to back meetings, and a young fit well-loved cat that has been inexplicably attacked by something and may not survive. Like it's not bad enough that he can't fly to be at his own mothers funeral.

So now I just feel a bit weary. Maybe this is mum saying, don't bloody talk about me just cremate me already! She never did like a fuss.

I'll have another go in the morning.

So sorry for your loss. I can't suggest anything that hasn't been suggested already for finding the document.
But, speaking as a vicar, funerals are hard at the best of times. They are even harder now with few people present. Half the funerals I am taking during lockdown people are choosing not to have a eulogy as they feel the few people there would know it already. (I'm in Wales so we are very much still locked down, so apologies if this isn't the case in England).
There is no right or wrong way to have a funeral service. If I was taking your service and you phoned (or texted or emailed) the above I would offer to say a few short words for you. I'd be happy to ask you a few questions over the phone and write a short eulogy for you. Or if you'd prefer use snippets about your mum to introduce music or poems rather than a formal eulogy if you prefer. I'd like to think all celebrants would do the same.

I can’t help but I just wanted to say I am sorry to hear about your mum. The eulogy must be the tin lid. Hope you are ok 💐

MortyFyde
I hope it goes OK for you today - been thinking of you all week ❤️

Me too, sending thoughts and best wishes.

Aww, thank you all. The document was unretrievable - it turned out I'd opened it as an attachment to an email, to make sure I still had my base template if the migration was still going on when I started working on it.

Sadly, I should've hit "save as" not "save", because by forgetting that I'd opened it as a temporary file, I only saved it as a temp file. Which vanished for ever when I restarted. It was nothing to do with One Drive at all, what an idiot!

The funeral went perfectly, it was a respectful but upbeat send off and I ended up writing an abridged version which was just right for 7 attendees. The celebrant read it but I managed the opening poem, and to my surprise I kept it together.

Emotions only got the better of me when they'd drew the coffin away on the rollers, but it's all okay...part of saying goodbye to mum and letting her go.

Sounds like a beautiful service, perfect eulogy for the occasion and well done for getting through the poem.