How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File
(5 Free Solutions)
Losing an unsaved Excel file is a real painš¤
Whether you lose an entire Excel spreadsheet or just the latest round of edits, it can take a lot of time to fix the problem.
But donāt worry!
In this guide, Iāve compiled the 5 solutions with the highest probability of recovering unsaved Excel files.
The solutions are written specifically for Windows 11 and Windows 10 – but Mac users can use most of the same solutions too.
Table of Contents
1: How to recover unsaved Excel files with AutoRecover
So, you didnāt save the deleted file at all?
Thereās still a good chance youāll be able to recover your unsaved Excel file.
By default, Excel saves a temporary version of your Excel file (even if itās unsaved) every 10 minutes.
You can access these temporary versions by following these steps.
1.1) In Excel, click on āFilesā in the ribbon and then go to āOpenā.
1.2) Somewhere on the āOpenā screen, you will see an option called āRecover Unsaved Workbooksā or something similar. Click it.
The exact words and placement of this button depend on your version of Excel. In Microsoft Excel 2023/Microsoft 365 it looks like this:
1.3) Your unsaved Excel file may be in the folder that appears. If it is, just double-click to open it.
And do remember to save it this timeš¾
1.4) If the folder doesnāt contain your lost Excel file, close the dialog box and click on āOptionsā (still from the āFileā tab in Excel).
1.5) Click on the āSaveā pane and see the AutoRecover file location.
Your lost Excel files may be there!
1.6) Navigate to that location and look for your unsaved Excel file.
If the file is not there, donāt panic yetā
There are still plenty of solutions to restore your lost data.
Read on!
If youāre running Windows, copy the AutoRecover file path from step 5, then press Windows Key + R to bring up the āRunā command window.
Paste the file path and you are taken to the folder immediately.
2: Recover overwritten Excel files with OneDrive
If youāre not using OneDrive, skip to the next section.
Losing hours of work because you pressed save when you shouldnāt is a bummerš
But if your original file was overwritten, there are a few things you can do to restore a previous version of your Excel file.
2.1) Go to onedrive.live.com and locate the Excel file that was overwritten.
2.2) Right-click it and click āVersion historyā.
2.3) Identify the version of your Excel file you want to recover. Then choose whether to restore a previously saved version (replacing the current version) or download it.
If you use the OneDrive application on your computer, you can just right-click the Excel file on your computer.
Then click āVersion Historyā to look for the version you want to recover.
3: Recover overwritten Excel files using File History
If you donāt use OneDrive (or didnāt keep the file in a OneDrive folder), you might still be able to recover a previous version of an overwritten Excel file.
3.1) Right-click on your file and click on āFile historyā.
3.2) Locate the version you want to restore in the dialog box.
3.3) Click the āOpenā or āRestoreā buttons to choose what you want to do with the backup file.
Did you find it? š
4: Recover deleted Excel files
So, you deleted the file and want it back?
Here are a few things you can try, to recover your deleted Excel file.
Restore from Recycle Bin
4.1) Locate the Recycle Bin on your computer.
Read this guide if you have trouble finding it.
4.2) Find your Excel file (if itās there) and right-click it.
4.3) Click on āRestoreā and your file is automatically put back to where it came from.
Unfortunately, this only works if you didnāt permanently delete your Excel file.
If you did, then thereās no way of getting it back without using 3rd party data recovery tool (and thereās still no guarantee).
But, if the deleted file was placed in a OneDrive folder, thereās a big chance you can get it backš
Restore deleted Excel files from OneDrive Recycle Bin
Even if you permanently deleted your file, OneDrive still saves a version in its own Recycle Bin.
4.4) Go to onedrive.live.com and click on the āRecycle Binā in the left-side menu.
4.5) Find your lost Excel file and right-click it.
4.6) Click āRestoreā and your file is automatically restored to its previous location.
Cool, right?
5: Prevent data loss with AutoRecover and AutoSave
Losing data is almost inevitable.
But you can make the process of recovering the data from an unsaved file a lot less painful if youāre prepared.
We recommend changing just a few settings to help prevent data loss in the future.
AutoRecover
The AutoRecover feature saves a temporary version of what youāre doing in Excel every 10 minutes.
If Excel crashes, you can access this temporary version using the solutions I explained earlier.
AutoRecover is active by default. If it somehow isnāt active on your computer, follow these steps:
5.1) Go to āFileā and āOptionsā.
5.2) In the āSaveā pane, make sure thereās a checkmark in āSave AutoRecover information everyā and āKeep the last AutoRecovered versions if I close without savingā.
5.3) Here you can also change when Excel should save this temporary version of your Excel file.
The default is every 10 minutes, but you can easily change that. Try 5 instead.
It might not seem like a big difference from 10 minutes, but it can save you a lot of work.
AutoSave
Of course, we recommend saving your changes often. Just hit Ctrl + S to overwrite the previous version of your Excel document.
If youāre the type of person who forgets to do this (like me), you can toggle on āAutoSaveā on the top left side of the Excel interface.
AutoSave saves every single change you make in your Excel file ā automatically.
And if you overwrite something, read here how you can recover overwritten versions of your Excel files.
That’s it – Now what?
I truly hope this guide helped you recover your unsaved files and restore your lost data.
Trust me, Iāve been through my fair share of rebuilding Microsoft Excel files the hard way until AutoRecover and AutoSave/OneDrive came along.
But sometimes, other people are the cause of your data loss. If you share your Microsoft Excel files with other people, I strongly suggest you learn a bit about file protection.
Read my guide here and learn to protect your Microsoft Excel file from unintentional (and intentional) changes.
So, you might avoid being in a situation where you need to recover unsaved Excel workbooks in the future.
See you aroundš
Author
Written by Kasper Langmann, co-founder of Spreadsheeto and a certified Microsoft Office Specialist.
This tutorial reflects over 50 hours of dedicated research and writing, based on my 10+ years of professional Microsoft Excel experience.
Last updated on January 18th, 2024.
One last thing before you go: make sure to sign up for my free Microsoft Excel course!