Quit Turbotax without saving a new return (no save dialog box appeared)...do I have to start over?

[rickf1]

Turbotax Premier 2019, Mac

I quit turbotax after doing a substantial amount of work expecting to see a save file dialog box, but none appeared.  I reopened the program and the work I had done is gone.  Is there a temp file somewhere I can recover, or do I have to start my return from step 1?  

[DawnC]

There may be a temporary file saved to your computer.  When you reopen the program, use the Find a Tax File option.  If there is a temporary file saved, it will show up in the list with a ~ symbol in front of the file name.  If you already started a new tax return, it is possible that the file has been overwritten.  If you are able to retrieve it, save it with a new file name immediately.  

[rickf1]

You gave me an idea.  I used "Time Machine" to go back to the last time I was working on my file and I found a file named "Unsaved Turbotax Document".  The location was a bit tricky to locate so for future users with my problem select the user icon (the icon of the house) and search for "Unsaved Turbotax Document", quotes not necessary.

If you are curious where the autosave file is, I found it in the Library, Autosave Information folder.  For whatever reason, searching for a ~symbol did not work for me.

Once you have found the saved file, you can do a time machine restore, open it in Turbotax and you're back in business. 

[DawnC]

Excellent!  Glad you found it and are back in business and thanks for the tip; it is good to know!   Be sure to save the file with a name you can easily find later.  😉  

[theprof07]

Ummm....so maybe someone should suggest to the development team that it might be a good idea to give the user a chance to save unsaved changes when quitting?  This is the first program I've run into that doesn't do this.  I quit without saving myself because I assumed that the program would be saving a copy or would say something if not.  This is really user-unfriendly and super-easy to fix for a programmer.