Word Auto Save not Working

My Word auto save is not working - even when I activate it, nothing - I tried to track down a recovered file, nothing - auto save used to work, now nothing - I am a writer and rely on this function - couldn't find any solutions on the web - no doc recovery pane, nothing - I auto save every five minutes, work for five minutes, no auto save, six minutes, no auto save - the function has gone dark...

All solutions gratefully received

Bruce in CT