How To Recover Unsaved Excel File Or Restore Its Previous Version on Windows/Mac

Published by Jacob Martin on October 20, 2014

We all want to protect our workbooks from any sort of issue such as computer crashes or power failures. So here you will learn on how to recover unsaved excel files. Take a practical scenario you are working on a very important document in Excel, creating complicated graph but oh! You faced sudden Excel crash; power went out or accidentally closed the file without saving it. Ofcourse it can be really frustrating but you still have the chance to recover your unsaved document.

When we make mistake while working on a workbook you got an undo option wish we could have this option in our daily life so that you can undo the crash or power failure. So go ahead and read this article to know how to retrieve an unsaved Excel file.

Excel AutoRecover and AutoSave

MS Excel comes with good features AutoSave and AutoRecover.  If you have enabled it then you won’t face any issue in recovering the unsaved files, but sometime these features are misunderstood so first know about them.

Excel AutoSave is a tool which automatically saves new document which you create but haven’t saved yet. It doesn’t let your important data get lost at the time of computer crash or power failure.

Excel AutoRecover tool help you in recovering the unsaved files after sudden crash or closure. It help you in restoring till the last saved version that display in the Document Recovery pane when you start Excel next time.

Note. AutoRecover feature works only on Excel workbooks which are saved atleast once. If you haven’t saved the document before computer crash then the recovery pane won’t show it in Excel.

Fortunately the AutoSave and AutoRecover files in MS Excel are turned on by default. If you are not sure then you can check it.

How to configure AutoSave and AutoRecover settings in MS Excel:

1. Move to FILE tab and select Options from FILE menu

2. Now click on left-hand pane of Excel Options dialog.

3. Ensure that both Save AutoRecover information every X minutes and Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving are checked.

4. Hit OK.

The AutoRecover feature is automatically set to save changes to your workbook every 10 minutes by default. You can easily shorten or lengthen the interval of your choice.

How to retrieve unsaved Excel files

Suppose you are working on new document in Excel and program locks up without warning. And you realize that you didn’t save the workbook. No need to panic you can easily recover unsaved file.

1. Move to FILE -> Open.

2. Select Recent Workbooks.

3. Move down and hit on Recover Unsaved Workbooks button at bottom of list.

Note. You can even move to FILE – > Info, open Manage Workbooks drop-down and choose Recover Unsaved Workbooks from the menu.

4. When Open dialog box pops up, simply choose necessary file and hit Open.

The document will be open in Excel and program will say you to save it. Click on Save As button in yellow bar above the worksheet and save file to your desired location.

Retrieve overwritten Excel files

Excel 2010 or its upper version not only allows you to restore the unsaved workbooks, but it even recovers previous versions of your document. It is very helpful, when you made a mistake and cannot undo it or when you want to see how the document looked at minutes a go. Below you have the way to recover the overwritten Excel file.

Click on FILE tab and Select Info on left-hand pane. Now move to Manage Versions button you’ll find all the autosaved versions of your document.

Excel automatically saves the workbook version at a specified intervals, but only if you have made changes to the spreadsheet between these intervals.  The name of the version has a date, time and “(autosave)” note. When you will, click on it. It will open with most recent version of the workbook  so that 6yiou can compare and see all changes.

But if the program closed incorrectly, then the last autosaved file is labeled with words (when I closed without saving).

When you will open the file in Excel, you will find a message above the worksheet. Simply click on Restore button in yellow bar to revert back to the newer unsaved version of workbook.

Note. Excel removes all the previously autosaved versions when you close the document. And if you want to look at the previous version again then it is good to create backup copy of the data.

How to save a backup copy of your workbook

Excel’s Auto Backup is very helpful feature which help you to recover previously saved version of your workbook. But saving a backup copy will help you to protect your work if you mistakenly save changes which you don’t want to keep or remove the original file. In result you need to current saved information in original workbook and the previously saved information in backup copy.

1. Move to FILE – > Save As.

2. Choose Computer and hit on Browse button.

3. When Save As dialog window pops up, hit on small arrow next to Tools button at bottom of the window.

4. Choose General Options. from drop-down list.

5. Check Always create backup box in General Options dialog and simply hit OK.

You can even rename the file and select desired location to save it. Excel will simply create a backup copy of document in that same folder.

Note: Backed up copy is saved with a different .xlk file extension. When you want to open it, Excel will prompt you to verify that you really want to open the workbook. Simply click on Yes and you can restore the previous version of the spreadsheet.

Steps to Recover Unsaved Excel File Or Restore Its Previous Version:

Step 1: Download the recovery software and after that hit on “OK” button to start the process.

Step 2: To recover the corrupt file, hit on “Select file” button. BY using the “Look in” you can search from particular logical drive.

Step 3: Select the corrupt file from the search list with the help of check box. After that hit on “Select all” and hit on “Start” button to begin the scanning process.

Step 4: As soon as the scanning process completes, you can view your corrupt files.

Step 5: At last, hit on the “Start repair” button to begin the repairing process. Select the perfect location to save your repaired excel file and after that hit on “OK” button.

623 Total Views 1 Views Today