How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File

As a tech enthusiast, when I first started working with Microsoft Excel, recovering unsaved Excel files was a riddle. The task seemed unsurmountable because I was unable to figure out how to retrieve those Excel files, which I didn’t save but contained important information. At one point, I even thought it was impossible.

However, with years of experience, I have now discovered how to recover an unsaved Excel file. Surprisingly, it is not as difficult as I thought it was. 

In this tutorial, I’ll explain how to retrieve unsaved Excel file following very simple steps and no additional software. Furthermore, if you wish to learn and advance your Excel proficiency, you can go through free Excel online certification courses.

Read on to get a thorough understanding of how to recover unsaved Excel document without hassle.

Ways to Retrieve Unsaved Excel File

I find Excel very convenient, and it is also a very predictable platform. However, the difficulty that I face every time I work with Excel is that it crashes very frequently. And when it crashes, all the data is gone because I don’t have the tendency to keep on saving the items after every five minutes.

Hence, I keep losing data and Excel files. Thankfully, I learned how to recover unsaved workbook Excel so that I could get back all the data that I lost. 

Let me demonstrate the few ways in which you can get back your unsaved Excel files or data. 

Here are the four major situations in which you may lose your Excel files, and you can retrieve them by following a few simple steps.

Recover a New Unsaved File Which You Have Never Saved

If you don’t know how to recover an unsaved Excel doc, here’s how you can locate unsaved Excel file and retrieve it:

1. Open a new Excel sheet and provide whatever data you want to add.
2. Move to the ‘file’ tab.

Source: MS Excel

3. Select the option of ‘open’.
4. And then, click on the ‘recent’ option in the tab at the top left corner.

Source: MS Excel

5. Move around the activity tab until you reach the bottom, where you will find the option to ‘recover unsaved workbooks’. Click on the button.

6. A dialogue box will appear on the screen. Scroll through it to the list of unsaved workbooks. Click on the workbook you want to open.

7. Click on the ‘save as’ option to save the file, assigning it a different name and location.

Source: MS Excel

If you follow these steps, it will become easier for you to recover a new file that you haven’t saved before. You will not lose any data, and by default, a copy of all the un files is saved by Excel in the following location: 

C:\Users\[YourSystemName]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

You may also directly move to the folder that contains the unsaved copies of the Excel files. Just choose the particular file that you want to save by opening any web browser and copy-pasting the address of the web page rather than using the URL.

Recover Overwritten or Previously Saved Excel Files

As a newbie in tech, I often made a common mistake in Excel: saving changes I didn't need. Online Excel tutorials were of great help, but it took a lot of trial and error to learn other nifty tricks. Luckily, Excel's built-in feature lets you retrieve previous versions of spreadsheets.

Follow the below-mentioned steps to know how to recover an unsaved Excel file in case there are overwritten Excel documents:

1. Move to the ‘file’ tab and click on the ‘Info page’.

2. Select the option of manage workbook on the Info page, where you will see all the previous versions of the document.

Source: MS Excel

3. Go through the list and choose the version that you want to retrieve.

4. Pick the chosen document and save the file file, assigning it a new name for your convenience.

Source: MS Excel

You need to make sure that the AutoRecover option is enabled; otherwise, you won’t be able to extract the previous versions of the Excel files.

Recover the Updated Excel Document Where the Previous Version was Saved

If Excel crashes before you save your work, you can still recover unsaved changes. This method helps recover unsaved changes in Excel documents that occurred due to a system crash or Excel malfunction.

Let me illustrate to you the steps by which you can also extract the updated Excel document in which she did not save the changes:

1. Open an Excel document that you have previously saved.

Source: MS Excel

2. As soon as the document opens, you’ll find a file recovery window with all the unsaved documents. Click on the particular file name to retrieve the data that you added but did not save.

3. When you click on the file, you will see that the modified or additional data remains intact. Save the file by assigning it a suitable name and location of your choice.

Another way to do it is to start the Excel application and select the “ show recovered files” option. Then, click on the option. The “document recovery window” will automatically appear on your screen.

Recover With Cloud

Storing Excel documents in cloud storage is highly recommended for easy access and backup. Platforms like OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive ensure your files are saved, whether you explicitly save them or not, preserving both previous and modified versions.

To know Excel unsaved file location and retrieve the workbook from your Cloud storage, follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Set the previous version of the Excel document and right-click on the present version on OneDrive or DropBox.

2. Move to the option of ‘version history’.

Source: MS Excel

3. On the left window, you will see a list of all the previous versions of the document.

4. Choose the version that you want to restore.

Excel AutoSave and AutoRecover

My favorite part about Excel worksheets is that it provides the features of AutoSave and AutoRecover. These options are enabled by default, and if not, do not forget to enable them. 

When trying to understand how to recover an unsaved Excel file, consider the following features:

• Excel AutoSave recovery in Excel is an itinerary that automatically saves a file even if you create a new page and fail to save it. This has helped me a lot of times when I was on the verge of losing vital data in a situation of power cuts or system crashes.

• AutoRecover in Excel is a program that facilitates the recovery of unsaved documents upon an unintentional shutdown or system malfunction. When you begin with the Excel spreadsheet again, this feature will help you start from where you left off—that is, the current version that you failed to save but shows up in the ‘file recovery’ window.

If AutoSave and AutoRecover are not enabled by default, you can configure it by following these simple steps:

1. Move to the ‘file’ tab and click on ‘Options’ from the file menu.

2. A dialogue box for the Excel options will appear on your screen from where click on ‘save’.

3. Make sure that the choice is “ Keep the previous auto-saved version if I close without saving” and enable "save AutoRecover information every X minutes”.

4. Click on the OK button.

Source:  MS Excel

Summing Up

As soon as you start your line of work, you will probably be regularly required to work on Excel spreadsheets. Learning to recover saved Excel documents is important so that you do not lose important data and always figure out a way to get it back if lost. Hence, this tutorial on how to recover an unsaved Excel file will be very beneficial for you.

If you wish to learn more about Excel spreadsheets and their detailed operations, you can check out upGrad. It offers a variety of dynamic and interactive courses that will help you advance in your career, especially if you want to pursue fields like Data Science and Data Analytics.

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. How do I recover an Excel file that was not saved?

Here’s how to recover an unsaved Excel file. First, enable the AutoSave and AutoRecover options in your Excel file menu. After opening the Excel document, select the recent workbook and select ‘recover unsaved file’. You’re good to go!

2. How do I recover an unsaved Excel file from temp?

Open the Excel file and go to the ‘file’ menu. Click on the ‘info’ tab and select ‘manage workbook’. choose ‘recover unsaved workbooks’.

3. Where are Excel AutoRecover files stored?

You can find unsaved Excel files in the default, the auto-recover storage location for Windows 10 and 11 is:

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

4. How do I AutoRecover an Excel file?

Open the Excel workbook and move to the AutoRecover settings. Click on ‘Options’ on the file tab And select ‘Save’ on the left side of the window. Select ‘save’, and you will see the option of AutoRecover below the save workbooks

5. How do I recover unsaved documents?

Go to the file tab and open any of the recent workbooks. Select the option of ‘recover unsaved workbook’ at the bottom of the list and click on OK. Amongst the list of unsaved files, select the one that you want to save and assign a name and location convenient for you.

6. How do I find unsaved files on Windows 10?

Go to Excel and click on ‘file’. Click on open, select ‘recent’, and choose ‘recover unsaved workbooks’ from the bottom left corner. Select the intended document and open it. Click on ‘save as’ and assign it a name and location to retrieve the document.

7. How do I recover documents on my laptop?

Follow the same process as you would on any other device. Open the ‘file’ tab of your Excel on your laptop and move to the ‘Info’ option. Select Manage document' and move to ‘Recover unsaved workbooks’. Click on the same and recover the intended document on your laptop.