How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File

Closing Excel without saving — or having your computer crash mid-work — is a stomach-dropping experience. The good news is that Excel has several automatic safety nets that can get your work back, and they kick in even before you realise something has gone wrong. This guide walks through every recovery method in order, from the most likely to work down to the last resort.

How AutoRecover Works

Excel automatically saves a temporary backup of your work in the background at regular intervals. By default this happens every 10 minutes, and it applies even to files that have never been manually saved. These AutoRecover files are stored in a hidden system folder and are not the same as your actual file — they are only used for recovery purposes.

AutoRecover is not a substitute for saving regularly. It is a safety net. If your computer crashes 9 minutes after AutoRecover last ran, you will lose those 9 minutes of work. The more frequently AutoRecover runs, the less you lose.

The Document Recovery Pane After a Crash

If Excel crashed or your computer restarted unexpectedly, the next time you open Excel it will usually show a Document Recovery pane on the left-hand side. This lists any files that were open when the crash happened, with timestamps so you can see which version is most recent.

Click the file in the list to open it. Check it looks correct, then immediately save it properly with Ctrl+S or File > Save As. If you see multiple versions listed, open the most recent one first.

If you accidentally close the Document Recovery pane without opening the file, do not panic — you can find the files manually.

Recovering Unsaved Files Through File > Info

If no recovery pane appeared, or if you accidentally clicked “Don’t Save” when closing, try this:

1. Open Excel.
2. Go to File > Info.
3. Look for Manage Workbook (sometimes labelled Manage Versions).
4. Click it and choose Recover Unsaved Workbooks.
5. A file browser opens showing the folder where Excel stores unsaved files. Look for a file matching what you were working on.
6. Open the file, check it, and save it immediately to a proper location.

These files are temporary and will eventually be deleted automatically. Do not rely on them being there indefinitely.

Finding AutoRecover Files Manually

If the menu route does not work, you can go directly to the AutoRecover folder. In Windows, the default path is:

C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

The AppData folder is hidden by default. To see it, open File Explorer, click the View tab and tick Hidden items. Then navigate to the path above. You may see a subfolder called something like XLSTART or individual .xlsb files with names starting with numbers or containing your filename.

Look for files with recent timestamps. AutoRecover files use the .xlsb or sometimes the original extension. Open them in Excel and check the content.

To find the exact AutoRecover path on your machine, go to File > Options > Save — you will see the AutoRecover file location listed there. Copy and paste this path into File Explorer’s address bar.

Recovering from OneDrive Version History

If your file was saved to OneDrive (including OneDrive for Business or SharePoint), you have access to full version history — even if you saved over the file with incorrect data or accidentally deleted content.

To access version history in Excel:

1. Open the file from OneDrive.
2. Go to File > Info.
3. Click Version History.
4. A panel on the right shows all saved versions with timestamps.
5. Click any version to open it in a separate window for comparison.
6. If it is the version you want, click Restore.

Alternatively, right-click the file in the OneDrive folder in File Explorer and choose Version history from the context menu.

OneDrive version history typically keeps versions going back 30 days, and in some Microsoft 365 plans it keeps more. If you saved over something important, check here first before trying anything else.

Recovering a File You Accidentally Saved Over

If the file was on OneDrive or SharePoint, version history (above) is your best option. If the file was on a local drive only:

• Right-click the file or the folder in File Explorer and check for Restore previous versions. This relies on Windows File History or System Restore being set up, which many home PCs do not have configured.
• If neither is available and the file was not on OneDrive, the original content may be unrecoverable without specialist software.

This is one of the most common reasons to keep files in OneDrive rather than on a local desktop. Version history is automatic and requires no setup.

Increasing AutoRecover Frequency

The default 10-minute interval may feel too long if you work on files for extended periods. To change it:

1. Go to File > Options > Save.
2. Change the Save AutoRecover information every X minutes value to something smaller — 2 or 5 minutes is reasonable.
3. Make sure Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving is ticked.
4. Click OK.

On modern hardware the performance impact of more frequent autosaves is negligible. Setting it to 2 minutes significantly reduces the amount of work you can lose.

If Nothing Works: Last Resorts

If AutoRecover files are gone, there was no crash (you just clicked Don’t Save), and the file was not on OneDrive, your options are limited:

• Check the Recycle Bin. If you deleted the file, it may still be there.
• Search for temporary files. Windows sometimes creates .tmp files alongside open documents. Search in the same folder where the file was saved for files starting with a tilde (~) or with a .tmp extension.
• File recovery software. Tools like Recuva (free) or similar can sometimes recover recently deleted files from a drive before the space has been overwritten. The sooner you try this after the loss, the better the chance of success. Stop using the drive for other activity to avoid overwriting the data.

The long-term lesson is to enable AutoSave in Excel (available with Microsoft 365 and OneDrive) which saves continuously to the cloud, making data loss from crashes essentially impossible.