AutoRecover, Environment, Options Dialog Box
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
Use this page of the Options dialog box to specify whether or not files are automatically backed up. This page also allows you to specify whether or not modified files are restored when the integrated development environment (IDE) shuts down unexpectedly. You can access this dialog box by selecting the Tools menu and choosing Options, and then selecting the Environment folder and choosing the AutoRecover page. If this page does not appear in the list, select Show all setting in the Options dialog box.
Note
The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Customizing Development Settings in Visual Studio.
Save AutoRecover information every <n> minutes Use this option to customize how often a file is automatically saved in the editor. For previously saved files, a copy of the file is saved in \...\My Documents\Visual Studio <version>\Backup Files\<projectname>. If the file is new and has not been manually saved, the file is auto-saved using a randomly generated file name.
Keep AutoRecover information for <n> days Use this option to specify how long Visual Studio keeps files created for autorecovery.