It’s probably happened before. You spend a big chunk of time trying to comb through a large table on Excel, only to have the power go out or the application crash. If you didn’t get into the habit of pressing “Ctrl + S” often you might come back to an empty application. But that doesn’t mean the file is lost forever. Read on to learn how to recover unsaved Excel files quickly.
Method 1 – Using AutoRecover
If you’ve saved the file at any point, Excel will likely keep track of it and make periodic updates to the file as you go. In this case, when you open Excel after a crash, you’ll get a menu on the left that notifies you of files that you might be able to recover.
From there, you can select the file version you want to preview and recover, and it’ll be loaded as a new workbook.
However, if you have never saved the file, there’s another way to recover it using the stock AutoRecover feature. Note that this must be enabled through Excel settings (but is typically on by default).
Step 1. Open Excel and click on “File” in the top-left.
Step 2. Select “Open” and go to the “Recent” tab.
Step 3. Select “Recover Unsaved Workbooks” at the bottom.”
Step 4. You’ll get a file browser opened in the directory of the default AutoRecover location. Your file should be located there (it should have an .XLB extension but its name might be completely nonsensical).
Step 5. Click on the file and select “Open” to recover it.
You should be able to save the file normally and continue where you left off with minimal reverts.
Method 2 – Recover Files With OneDrive
If you’ve synced your Microsoft account with OneDrive, Excel will most likely use OneDrive to store online copies of every file you work on. However, this must be preemptively enabled by toggling the “AutoSave” option on the top toolbar.
If you’ve toggled the AutoSave on and accidentally closed the file, made a mistake you want to undo, or overwritten the file with something else, you can use OneDrive’s version history to salvage it.
Step 1. Go to onedrive.live.com and log into your Microsoft Account if needed. Alternatively, open the OneDrive folder on your device.
Step 2. Locate the file you want to restore.
Step 3. Select the file and click on “Version history” on the top or right-click on it and select the same option from the context menu.
Step 4. Click on the three dots icon next to the version you want to restore and choose “Restore” if you want to overwrite the most recent save with that one. Select “Open file” to open Excel with that version of the file so you can continue from it.
Step 5. If you choose to open the file, it will be downloaded to your default download location, and you can open it from there.
Method 3 – Recover a Previously Saved File Without OneDrive
If you don’t use OneDrive, there’s another option you can use: the stock version history for the file. Note that this may not work for files that haven’t been saved at all.
Step 1. Right-click on the workbook in the File Explorer and select “Properties.”
Step 2. In the “Previous versions” tab, you might see a list of saved and unsaved versions that the operating system made. However, the list might be empty even if there are saved changes in OneDrive.
Turning On AutoRecover
If you can’t seem to find the files you were sure should’ve been saved, you’ll need to check your Excel settings.
Step 1. Go to “File” and select “Options.”
Step 2. In the “Save” tab, check the boxes for AutoRecover and AutoSave (the first three available checkboxes on Excel versions that can sync to OneDrive, the first two boxes for versions that don’t).
Step 3. You can modify how frequently Excel saves previous versions, as well as where the temporary files are stored in the same settings tab.
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Last updated on 17 February, 2025
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