Microsoft Excel is a popular spreadsheet software that’s being used in businesses, schools, and homes. It has several outstanding features that allows you to easily plan a budget, show graphs, and record expenditures just to name a few. Sometimes, while working on a spreadsheet, you will experience the software crashing. When this occurs, don’t panic as there is a possibility that you can still recover your work even if you haven’t saved it. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will show you how to recover unsaved Excel document.
Recover an unsaved Excel file
There is an autosave feature that is enabled by default in Microsoft Excel that saves your document. You can change the length of time that passes by before the autosave feature kicks in by following the steps listed below.
- Open Microsoft Excel.
- Go to the File tab.
- Click on Options.
- Click on Save.
- Make sure both “Save AutoRecover information every X minutes” and “Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving” are checked. You can also keep the autorecover duration to the smallest number to make sure every file is saved
- Click on OK.
Method 1: Recover unsaved Excel document from the File Tab
This is the quickest way to recover any document that you haven’t saved.
Time needed: 2 minutes.
Recover unsaved Excel spreadsheet
- Click on the File tab on Microsoft Excel.
This should be the first tab on the upper left side of the application.
- Click on the Recent tab.
This is found on the right pane.
- Click on More workbooks.
This is found on the lower right side of the window.
- Click on Recover Unsaved workbooks.
This is located below the right pane.
- Click on the document you would like to recover then click the open button.
This will open the unsaved document.
Method 2: Recover from Info
Another method to recover an unsaved Excel file is from Info.
- Open Microsoft Excel.
- Open a new file or any existing file.
- Click on the File tab.
- Click on Info.
- Click on Manage Workbook.
- Click on Recover Unsaved Workbooks.
- You will see the list of your unsaved files. Select the file and click Open.
Method 3: Recover a deleted Excel Document from Recycle Bin
If you saved your document but accidentally deleted it then there is still a way to recover it.
- Open the Recycle Bin found on the desktop.
- Search for your file by document name, file type, or date deleted. If you find the deleted file make sure to take note of its original location as this is where it will be restored.
- Restore the deleted document and find it in its original location.
After performing the various methods listed above you will successfully recover unsaved Excel document.
Having Issues with your computer? Feel free to contact us using this form. We’ll try to help.