How to Recover Unsaved Excel File

Amy Dennis

Apr 10, 2023 • Filed to: Recover Files • Proven solutions

Nothing is more frustrating than recognizing that you have forgotten to save a file that you have been working on. The unpredictable power surges or software failures are often the culprits of making you think you lost your job. Fortunately, Microsoft Excel has a self-saving feature that allows you to recover unsaved excel file that has been affected in this way.

Whether you have saved a file previously or forget to keep a new folder in the rush of your day, you can recover it and prevent yourself from doing it again. Moreover, the advanced tool is designed to retrieve all your damaged or inaccessible spreadsheet document data. The best part of this tool is, it is straightforward to use and does not require any prior technical skills.

Part 1 The Circumstances of Unsaved Excel File

Due to a sudden power failure, MS Office internal error, Excel does not respond unexpectedly or other unknown reasons, it is quite easy for Microsoft Office users to lose their Excel file without saving. When such a disaster occurs, it is best to stop using Excel and the Office tools immediately. While you work with Excel, every 10 minutes, by default, you save a version of the document you are working on the hard disk, in succession all the time you are working with the text.

Besides, this is very useful since you could be working on a paper for many hours and at some point, during those hours it is possible to eliminate a crucial worksheet, but you realize two hours later. Therefore, it is vital to remember that as soon as you save the Excel document, all those previous versions are deleted to avoid filling the hard drive with thousands of old versions. However, there are certain circumstances in which Excel does not remove all the old versions when Excel is closed.

If you do not want to waste time calculating and doing repeated work with your Excel file, you will need to find an effective excel recovery method to recover you are necessary lost/unsaved Excel files. So, here you will be showed how to recuperate the free Excel file not saved/lost in Windows 10/8/7.

Part 2 How to Recover Excel File Not Saved

By default, the function is not enabled in Excel, so it is necessary to activate it. To allow, create a copy of the excel file so that the AutoSave does not overwrite the original.

Enable the Auto-save option: navigate to the "Tools" "Add-ins" and select "Autosave."

Ms. Excel automatically saves the temporary files in the default location of "C: \ Documents and Settings \ \ Local Settings \ Temp" or "C: \ Users \ \ AppData \ Local \ Temp in Windows 7 / Windows Vista.

If you are using the 2010 office game, then you must have an additional built-in product option also known as recovering unsaved databases

Step 1: Click on the File tab that is present in the upper left corner.

Step 2: Select Recent

Step 3: In the seen lower-left corner you will see the option Recover Unsaved Spreadsheets

Open the Saved Files folder. Then, locate your file and open it by double-clicking. Next, save the file.

You can also see this file in:

Windows 8 / Windows Vista/ Windows 7

C: \ Users \ username \ The AppData \ The Local \ Microsoft \ office \ unsaved files Windows XP

C: \ Documents and Settings \ \ Local Settings \ Application Data \ Microsoft \ Office \ UnsavedFiles

Part 3 Using Recoverit Data Recovery

Wondershare is already a well-known publisher, which has in the past Wondershare Data Recovery, a useful excel recovery software, but which had some flaws, especially in its organization, and the constant translation errors. Fortunately, all of this has been solved with the new excel recovery software developed by Wondershare, Recoverit.

Step 1: Download and Install

The initial step that you have to take includes downloading and also installing the relevant software.

Step 2: Run the Software

Upon completing the installation step, just launch the software package. Here you shall be taken to the simple attractive interface.

Step 3: Select a location

Here you need to select the storage device which you need to recuperate data. As said before, you may make data recovery on almost any storage device of your choice, including USB flash recovery at your convenience. Decide, and then click on "Start."

Step 4: Scan the location

Recoverit will start an all-around scan. Usually, it will take a few minutes to finish the scanning. Sometimes, a few hours are required if many large-sized files are present.

Step 5: Preview and Recover

Preview the recovered file and ensure that you select the documents that you need to recover, and tap the Recover button to save the file.

Video tutorial: Excel Document Recovery

Recent Videos from Recoverit

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Part 4 Avoid Failing to Recover Unsaved Excel Files

Losing data is inevitable. Nonetheless, you can make the process less painful if you have made some preparations that enable you to recover excel file not saved 2007.

Configure the AutoRecover Settings

Moreover, It is recommended to change AutoRecover settings so that Excel saves a copy every five minutes. With AutoRecover, you can quickly recover excel files not saved.

To know more about the Auto-save and Auto-recovery option of Excel, in general of Office, you have to access the Excel Options. To recover unsaved excel file 2007, from the Office button, clicking on it, down to the right you have the Excel Options button, click on that button, and you will open a window with the name Excel Options in which you determine a lot of actions of Excel. This program.

Specifically on the right click on Save and there you have the option Save AutoRecover information in the minutes that you indicate or other options such as deciding the location of the Excel files or disabling AutoRecover. If you make any change, click on the OK button at the end.

Take Backups of Excel Files

The office offers a backup feature to help you always create backups to avoid data loss. Such is very useful since you could be working on a document for many hours and at some point, during those hours it is possible to eliminate a critical worksheet, but you realize two hours later. With the "versions" function, you can quickly return to the previous version two hours ago and find recovered excel files.

Click on File which is available in the upper left corner.

Press the Options button, and then on the left menu bar, Save. And you can see that, at this time, Excel is saving the Auto-save information every 10 minutes.

Conclusion

Surely you have gone through the bitter experience of losing all the work you had done for having forgotten to save the excel book or because maybe there was a power cut and the work that had not been saved was lost. So, in this way, using the steps mentioned above, you can quickly repair and recover excel file not saved with MS Excel repair tool.

The auto-recovery functionality performs an automatic backup of the file periodically. This happens behind the scenes, that is to say, you will never realize the precise moment in which the automatic saving takes place.

Nonetheless, one can align the frequency with which this happens. Furthermore, we have been able to decide that Recoverit is the expected evolution of the previous Wondershare Data Recovery, not only in visual terms but in operation. However, the fact that they want to put all the options in the main interface may raise some doubts to the users, who will only use the General Recovery method, which works effectively on most occasions to recover unsaved excel file.