We all might have been in a situation where our work got lost due to the system automatically restarting, or we closed the application believing we had saved the work. The only thing is that we hadn’t. Don’t worry; there is still hope. This guide will show you how to recover unsaved Excel files.
Apart from the above reasons, Microsoft Excel can also crash while in between your work. Thankfully, this guide lets you check out various ways to recover your Excel documents. The steps are mostly the same regardless of the Excel version and the system you use. So, let’s begin.
1. Recover Corrupted Excel File by Loading the Last Saved File
This can be the easiest way to recover the Excel file. Even if you have lost the unsaved file, you can still recover and resume from the last saved version. Here’s how:
Step 1: Open an Excel file and click File at the top left corner.
Step 2: Choose Info and click Version History.
Step 3: Select the previously saved version and click Restore. You can see the last modified date next to the versions.
After restoring the file, save it to prevent losing it again.
Also Read: How to use Data Validation in Microsoft Excel
2. Use Excel Document Recovery
You can recover corrupted Excel files even if you haven’t saved any documents. Here’s how you can do it:
Step 1: Open Excel and click Open. Choose Recent from here and click ‘Recover Unsaved Workbooks.’
Step 2: Select the Excel file you want to recover and click Open.
Apart from that, you can also follow these steps to recover an Excel file that was not saved:
Step 1: Open Excel and click File.
Step 2: Choose Info and click the down arrow next to Manage Workbook to choose ‘Recover Unsaved Workbook.’
Step 3: A small window will appear from where you can select the unsaved file and click Open.
3. Recover Unsaved Excel Files Using Cloud Storage
If you have saved the documents inside Onedrive, you can recover them. Usually, if you have saved the Excel file in Onedrive, Excel will update it to save the progress. We can use this to perform Excel document recovery. These are the steps you need to follow:
Step 1: On your Windows PC, search and open Onedrive. You can use the help of the Start menu or search for this.
Step 2: Click and open the Excel file you want to recover from here.
You can also log in to Onedrive and access your saved Excel files. You can use the link below to log into Onedrive
4. Recover Using File Manager and Finder
You can also recover unsaved Excel files in your system with the help of File Manager. This trick only works if you have saved the file in your system. Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Open File Manager and navigate to where you previously saved the Excel file.
Step 2: Double-click the file to open it.
While this might not include the latest data version, it will still have the data you saved or the last autosaved data. If you right-click the file, you can jump between previous versions using the Version history. With this, you can recover overwritten Excel files.
For Finder users, try checking the Recents tab, as it will have the latest updated files and folders.
Measures to Prevent Losing Excel File Data
Now that you have recovered the Excel files, there are multiple ways you can use to prevent losing your Excel file.
1. Enable Autosave
You can also enable Autosave to ensure Excel saves your progress regularly. For this, toggle on the Autosave button at the top left.
2. Enable AutoRecover Information in Excel
You can configure the recovery settings to recover the unsaved Excel file. Here’s how you can enable it:
Step 1: Open Excel and click Options. If you use any Excel sheet, open File > More and choose Options.
Step 2: Choose Save and check ‘Save AutoRecover information every minute.’ Choosing the interval at which you want Excel to save the data is best. We suggest choosing any time between 5 and 10 minutes.
Tip: You can also enable ‘Keep the AutoRecovered version if I close without saving.’ This will ensure you save your unsaved Excel data.
3. Keep a Backup
You can create a backup of your Excel file, which you can use even if your main file gets corrupted. To keep an Excel file as a backup:
Step 1: Open the Excel file you want to create a backup and click File.
Step 2: Choose ‘Save a Copy’ or Save As.
Step 3: Select where to save the file and hit Tools.
Step 4: Choose General options.
Step 5: Check the box for ‘Always create backup.’
With this, your Excel file will be backed up even with the copy that you have saved.
Don’t Lose Your Progress
Now that you know how to recover unsaved Excel files, you won’t lose any work progress. Let us know in the comments if you have any suggestions or queries.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
