How to Recover Unsaved Excel File (2 Best Ways)

Suppose you are working on your important workbook or preparing any urgent report in Excel for hours. But suddenly your unsaved workbook is closed due to system crashing, power loss or any unexpected reason.

What you’ll do then? Of course, you’ll try to get back your unsaved Excel data at any cost. It happens with a several users.

If you are one of such users dealing with this above discussed scenario and looking to recover unsaved Excel files then go through this entire post.

Here I have specified 2 realistic ways to recover unsaved Excel file. So, instead of wasting your time, just start tying the below-given methods until you get back your unsaved Excel data.

How To Recover an Unsaved or Overwritten MS Excel Files?

If you have lost your essential file in Excel and want to recover those unsaved data then try out these two methods to get them back.

Method #1: Use Excel Auto-Save & Auto-Recover Options

You might know that; MS Excel provides an “AutoSave” feature to its user that let them to save the files even though you have not saved the files [temporary basis].

Thus, activating or configuring the AutoSave Option can help you to recover unsaved Excel file.

Follow these steps to know what you have to do:

• Firstly, you need to go to the File Tab then tap on Options.
• From the option window, click on the Save Tab.
• Here, you will get three options that you have to configure conferring to your requirement.
• Now, you need to select a format of your Excel workbook according to your wish.
• This time, you need set a time duration in minutes in order autosave the Excel file.
• Lastly, if you close without saving then it creates a backup version of the file.

Please Note: Ensue to keep a time duration short to get further versions for saving.

Apart from the “Auto-Save” feature, there is another option – “Auto-Recover” that helps the users to recover your previous unsaved version of the file that have been saved once.

These two options are by default activated and also save your unsaved workbooks in your system.

Method #2: How to Recover your New Unsaved File in Excel File 

If you want to recover your new unsaved files then check out the below directed steps:

Below are the steps to recover an unsaved Excel file:

Step 1: At first, open your new Excel workbook.

Step 2: Then, Click on ‘File’ tab > ‘Open’

Step 3: Now, tap on Recent Workbook which is located at the top left corner.

Step 4: Again, tap on ‘Recover Unsaved Workbooks’ option that is located at the bottom.

Step 5: As soon as the dialog box opens, just scroll through a list of the unsaved Workbooks & open the file you want.

Step 6: Now, you can save a file by using ‘Save As’ opt. with the different name to save the file in its desired place.

Please Note – Excel saves the copy of your unsaved files in the following location by default:

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

FAQs:

Can I Recover an Excel File I Didn’t Save?

Of course, Yes you can still recover your unsaved Excel data even though you haven’t saved it.

• Firstly, you need to open your Excel workbook.
• Then, go to Files > Open & then tap on Recent workbook opt. which is at top left corner.
• Again, move down and tap on ‘Recover Unsaved Workbooks’ located at bottom. 
• Now, a dialog box will appear, select the required data and hit Open.
• The document will open in the Excel and prompting you to save your data. 
• At last, tap on Save As option, to save the data to its desired location.

Where Are Unsaved Excel Files Stored?

All your unsaved Excel data gets stored in the folder named C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles. You can easily access your unsaved data from this folder.

Time to Conclusion

One can loss their Excel data for several unexpected reasons. But luckily, there are some potential ways that can help you to recover unsaved workbooks.

So, if you have forgot to save your essential workbook in Excel and want to recover them then try out these 2 effective methods and get back your unsaved files.

Hope you like reading this post!

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