topic Re: Missing return in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Missing return

IES — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:00:23 GMT

so- I was working on an amended 2021 return. I took a break and came back to bring up the return. Turbo Tax said there was an update- I let it run. My tax return then disappeared. It was there before the update. Where did the update move my return? How does an update move my return? Why does your help team tell me that I'm the only person in the entire world this has happened to? The update coding has a flaw. It doesn't affect all users or Turbo Tax would have fixed it by now. How many of us have had this happen?

And when I'm told I must have saved the return somewhere else, I say I saved it by pressing the save button, as always. The program does not provide an option to save the return elsewhere.

Re: Missing return

HeatherPLO — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:52:07 GMT

Please see this Help Article as to where your return might be located. There is a tab for the Downloaded/CD software if that is the version you are using. Otherwise, if this is the Online version, you might be logged in to a different account.

Re: Missing return

IES — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:30:13 GMT

Return is still missing

Re: Missing return

VolvoGirl — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 16:01:45 GMT

Are you on Windows?

If you used the Windows Desktop program you need the file ending in .tax2021 to open in it. The tax files (and PDF files) should be in your Documents then in a Turbo Tax subfolder. If you can't find them do a search for all files ending in .tax or .tax2021 or .tax2020, etc. And check the Recycle Bin. For Windows 10 check the One Drive. Did you make any backups? Like DropBox.

If you don't have the main .tax file you might have one that starts with a Tilde sign ~ like "~your name.tax2021". That file is if your computer crashes or your real file gets lost or deleted or corrupt so you can restore it.

The ~ is a tilde file. Those are temporary files that you normally don't see and normally are deleted. But now Turbo Tax is leaving them in the folder in case something happens like if your file gets corrupted or lost or your computer crashes. Then you can go back. If you can't transfer from the regular file you can transfer from the ~ file.

Find your Tax file in Windows
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-data-file/help/find-your-tax-data-file-tax-file-in-windows/00/25926

See this user, he found his files in the Administrator account
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/re-files-are-all-gone/01/2242561#M804987

And you can save it anywhere you want by going up to FILE - SAVE AS