Manatee

A Word file that starts with ~$ and will not open on a Mac

· 6 min read

A Word file whose name starts with ~$ is not your document. It is an owner file: a marker Word creates while a document is open, to record who is editing it. It holds no text, so it cannot be opened, renamed into a document, or repaired. Look for the real document beside it. If that is missing, or will not open either, work through the steps below in order.

What the ~$ file is

When you open a document, Word writes a second, very short file into the same folder. Its name is the document’s name with ~$ at the front, usually replacing the first two characters. Open Quarterly report.docx and a file called ~$arterly report.docx appears next to it.

The file contains the name of the person who has the document open, and nothing else. Word uses it to warn anyone who opens the same document at the same time that it is already in use. When you close the document normally, Word deletes the owner file.

It gets left behind when Word does not get the chance to clean up:

  • Word crashed or was force quit.
  • The Mac lost power or restarted with the document open.
  • The document was on an external drive or a network share that disconnected.
  • A syncing folder copied the owner file to another computer before Word removed it.

Excel and PowerPoint leave the same kind of file for the same reasons.

Confirm which file you have

  1. Select the file in Finder and press Command-I. An owner file is typically 162 bytes. A real document, even a one-page letter, is many kilobytes.
  2. Read the name. If it is ~$ followed by most of a file name you recognize, it is the owner file for that document.
  3. Look in the same folder for the document without the prefix. Sort the folder by name, since the two do not sit next to each other in the list.

If a file starting with ~$ is large, it is something other than an owner file. Duplicate it with Command-D, remove the ~$ from the copy’s name, and try opening the copy.

If the real document is there

Open the real one, not the ~$ file.

If Word says the document is locked for editing, or offers only a read-only copy, the stale owner file is the cause. Word sees it and assumes someone still has the document open.

  1. Quit Word completely with Command-Q.
  2. If the folder is shared, check that nobody else really does have the document open.
  3. Drag the ~$ file to the Trash.
  4. Open the document again.

If the document is there but Word reports that it is corrupt, shows a page of symbols, or opens it empty, the crash that left the owner file behind may have interrupted a save. That is a repair problem, and a different one from the owner file. Start with how to recover a Word document that won’t open, which covers Word’s own recovery options.

Past that point, Manatee is built for it. Open it, choose Repair, and drop in the damaged document. It reports one of three outcomes: Fixed, Partial (it tells you how much came back) or Not fixable. It writes the repaired version as a new copy next to the original, which is never modified, so trying it cannot make things worse. Everything runs on the Mac with nothing uploaded, and it is free for 24 hours with every feature, then $9 once.

If the real document is missing

This is the harder case, and it is worth being plain about it: the owner file cannot help. No tool can rebuild a document from it, because the document was never in it. What you are looking for is another copy. Check these in order.

  1. Somewhere else on the Mac. In Word, look at File, Open Recent. In Finder, press Command-F, search for part of the file name, and set the search to This Mac. Documents are often saved to a different folder than you remember.
  2. The Trash. Open it from the Dock and sort by date.
  3. Word’s AutoRecovery folder. In Finder choose Go, Go to Folder, and paste ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery. Word saves working copies here every few minutes while you type. Sort by date modified, open anything from the right day in Word, and save it under a new name straight away.
  4. Time Machine. Open the folder that should contain the document, click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar, choose Browse Time Machine Backups, and step back to a time when the file was there.
  5. A syncing or cloud folder. If the folder syncs to a cloud storage service, sign in on that service’s website and look for deleted files and version history. For iCloud Drive, check Recently Deleted on iCloud.com.
  6. Things you sent. Search your sent mail and messages for the last draft you shared with anyone. An older version beats none.

If none of these turns up a copy, the document was most likely never saved to the place you expected, or it was deleted. Manatee is not an undelete tool and does not recover deleted files; it repairs damaged files that still exist. If the document sat on an external drive, stop writing to that drive, since new files can overwrite what a recovery specialist might otherwise find.

Is it safe to delete the ~$ file?

Yes, as long as Word is closed and nobody else has the document open. Deleting it removes nothing from the document. If Word needs an owner file again, it creates a new one.

On a shared folder, check with colleagues first. A fresh ~$ file with today’s date may mean someone is in the document right now, and removing it takes away the warning that prevents two people from saving over each other.

Keep it from happening again

Owner files left lying around are a sign that documents are being closed the hard way, and those are the same events that damage documents. Why files get corrupted covers the mechanics. In practice:

  • Close the document and quit Word before you eject an external drive or leave a network.
  • Avoid editing directly on a USB stick. Copy the document to the Mac, work on it there, and copy it back when you are done.
  • Leave Time Machine running, so an earlier version is always one step away.

Questions

Can I rename the ~$ file to get my document back? No. Removing the prefix gives you a 162-byte file with a user name in it. Word will report that it cannot open it, because there is no document inside.

Why can I see these files on my Mac when colleagues on other computers cannot? On some systems owner files are marked hidden. Finder does not treat them as hidden, so they show up like any other file, especially on shared drives and USB sticks.

The real document shows as zero KB. Can that be repaired? No. A file with no bytes has nothing in it to repair. Go to AutoRecovery, Time Machine or an earlier draft; fixing a DOCX that Word says is corrupt covers what is possible when the file does still have content.

Do the ~$ files take up space? Almost none. They are harmless clutter once the document is closed, and you can delete them whenever Word is not running.