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New Member
posted Jun 4, 2019 2:09:44 PM

I had to remove and reinstall program after e-filing. How do I recover my completed tax file after reinstalling software? It is not in the "open file" pull down tab.

I encountered a problem that required me to uninstall TurboTax after I completed and e-filed my tax forms.  The pop-up said the file was saved.  After reinstalling the program it does not find my completed tax file.  I looked on the upper left at "File" but there are no files found. How do I recover my completed file?

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3 Replies
Level 1
Jun 4, 2019 2:09:45 PM

Look for the link that says "Find a Tax File".
This opens a window called "Open Tax Return".
If your tax file doesn't appear in the default folder that it opens, select the drive or folder where you think the original was stored, and then enter "name: Turbo" in the Search.
This should return the folder where your original was stored, and allow you to select your saved file.

New Member
May 23, 2020 5:20:17 PM

I had a similar problem. recommended answer did not work. Were you ever able to recover your file and if so what was the solution?

Employee Tax Expert
May 28, 2020 12:40:57 PM

After launching the TurboTax program, you can either:

  • Click Continue under the return you want to open, or
  • Select Open Tax Return from the File menu (Windows) or TurboTax menu (Mac), browse to the location of your .tax or tax data file (not the PDF), select it, and then click Open.

Please note that you'll need to use the same tax-year TurboTax program to open your tax file. For example, use TurboTax 2019 to open your 2019 return, not your 2018 or 2017 return.

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