How To Recover Unsaved Excel File in 3 Easy Ways

Did you lost your Excel data due to sudden computer shutdown, power off, or Excel file freezing, crashing at the very moment? If yes, then no need to worry as we are here with this blog that will help you to get recover from such problematic situation.

This situation is very much annoying as after working so hard for several hours on a workbook, you lost it all just by accidently closing it without saving, or due to any other hazardous spreadsheet problem. Writing all over again is neither a solution nor is easy.

But now you don’t have to be disappointed as here you will get the various ways to recover unsaved excel file 2019/2016/2013/2010.

How To Recover Unsaved Excel File?

You can use below three methods to recover unsaved excel files in no time.

  • Use Excel AutoRecover or Excel AutoSave Feature
  • Restore Overwritten Excel Files
  • Recover Unsaved Excel File

Method 1# Use Excel AutoRecover or Excel AutoSave Feature

Excel AutoRecover or Excel AutoSave Feature is the best and the most recommended feature to recover unsaved Excel workbooks.

If talking about Excel AutoSave, it is a tool that automatically saves the data on a workbook that is currently been working upon but hasn’t been saved yet. It provides the user to recover the lost data during sudden power failure or crashing situation.

And about AutoRecover, it is the tool that gives its users a privilege to restore the unsaved files that lost accidentally or due to any other unexpected reasons. This provides the option to restore the latest saved version of the workbook from the displayed Document Recovery Pane, just after the next excel file startup.

But this feature works only when the user has saved the workbook once while working on it. Otherwise it won’t display Document Recovery Pane on Excel. Moreover, Excel comes with default enabled of this two features on Excel files.

Steps to manage the AutoSave (AutoRecover) settings in Excel:

  • Firstly, visit the File tab.
  • Next, choose Options from the File tab.
  • After that,tapon the Save.
  • Now, make sure both “Save AutoRecover information every X minutes and Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving”options boxes are to be checked.
  • Finally, tap OK.

Doing this will make your workbook to save changes automatically in every 10 minutes. Also, you can modify the time range as per your preference and need. By configuring Excel to AutoRecover or AutoSave, the document will automatically restore the unsaved workbook when something goes wrong.

Method 2# Restore Overwritten Files

Excel 2013 & 2010 provides the feature to recover the previous versions of file. This feature can be helpful at the time when users have done any mistake while working on their workbookand cannot undo it or when your data gets overwritten.

Below are the steps to recover the overwritten files:

  • Firstly, select the File tab.
  • Then go for Info appearing at the left side.
  • Next, look for the saved excel version next to Manage Versions section.

As it was said earlier that Excel saves the workbook at short intervals of time and if any changes done between these times ranges then you will find the document there with time & date along with ‘autosave’ note.

But in case the worksheet has closed incorrectly then the file name will appear with time & date along with ‘when I closed without saving’.

And when you open this document, you will receive the message at the top of your worksheet. You just have to tap on the Restore in the yellow bar to get back the latest unsaved version of the worksheet.

Method 3# Recover Unsaved Excel Worksheet

If unfortunately the program gets stopped while you are working on the worksheet and you haven’t saved it yet. Then in this case follow the below instruction to recover the unsaved Excel sheet.

  • Visit the File tab.
  • Then, go for the Info option at the left side.
  • Select the Recover Unsaved Workbooks option from Manage Workbooks drop-down menu.
  • After that, on the Open dialogue box click on necessary file>Open.
  • When the file will open, look at the top of your worksheet for the received message. Tap on Save As box to save the files at your desired location.

Final Verdict

So closing worksheet without saving or program closed being unresponsive can happen to anyone. Therefore we have come up with this blog providing some potential tricks to recover unsaved Excel files when such scenarios took place.

I hope the blog serves you well with detailed solution to handle the situation thereby letting you have your unsaved worksheet once again in your hands.

Author: 9TP

Admin is a professional blogger and digital marketer at 99techpost. She writes about Digital Marketing, Digital Transformation, Technology, WordPress, SEO, Web Design and Development . You can also follow us on facebook & twitter. Feel free to contact us if you have any queries.

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