How to Recover an Excel File That Was Not Saved

Excel stores your unsaved documents

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Updated onSeptember 23, 2024

updated onSeptember 23, 2024

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Excelis one of the most essential MS Office applications that millions of users utilize for calculating and displaying numerical data. Two of the good things aboutExcelare its AutoSave and AutoRecover features.

They make it easy for users to retrievespreadsheetfiles that weren’t saved. However, thosefeaturesneed to be enabled for users to restore anExcelfile not saved.

How can I recover an unsaved Excel file?

1. Make sure the Save AutoRecover information option is selected

Thereafter, aDocument Recoverysidebar will open when you first launchExcelafter it unexpectedly closed (crashed).

That shows you a list of files that it can recover. Note that the files it displays will have been saved at least once before. Nevertheless, it will enable you to recover content added to a document before the application closed.

2. Select the Recover Unsaved Workbooks option

Launch Microsoft Excel on your device.
Navigate to theFiletab from the menu.
In newer Excel versions, click onOpen.In older versions, you’ll need to click onRecent.

4.SelectRecentto open a list of recent documents. If you are already here, skip to step 5.

5.Click theRecover Unsaved Workbooksbutton.

AnOpenwindow will then appear that includes a list of unsaved Excel documents.
Select an unsaved document from there.
Click theOpenbutton to view the file.

To restore a file that has never been saved, you can use the built-inRecover Unsaved Workbooksoption. All of your recent unsaved documents will be listed, and you will be able to select those that you want to recover.

So, that’s how you can restore anExcelfile that’s not saved and lost document content.

You can also restore unsaved MS Word files much the same as that application has the same AutoSave and AutoRecover features.

To recover unsaved files, you need to knowwhere are Excel autosave files stored, and we have a guide that can help you with that.

What methods do you use to recover unsaved MS Office documents? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below.

How to Recover an Excel File That Was Not Saved#

How can I recover an unsaved Excel file?#

1. Make sure the Save AutoRecover information option is selected#

2. Select the Recover Unsaved Workbooks option#

How to Recover an Excel File That Was Not Saved

How can I recover an unsaved Excel file?

1. Make sure the Save AutoRecover information option is selected

2. Select the Recover Unsaved Workbooks option