Finding a missing excel file.

Question

I shut down my MacBook and it deleted one of my files. The file is still there but it won’t let me open it. It says “This workbook is either deleted or not currently accessible.” Is there any way to recover this?

Answer 1

Hi Michael,

Apparently Katherine saw your keywords “This workbook is either deleted or not currently accessible” and slapped in a stock reply she uses whenever she sees those particular keywords. That's typical behavior for an AI bot. I'm not sure that Katherine's reply has much relevance to your situation.

You said, "The file is still there." But that raises some questions. It sounds to me that you are telling us that the file is still listed under recent files and you have concluded, based on the error message, that the file was deleted. If my interpretation of what you said is correct, you may be jumping to conclusions.

The recently used file list is a collection of shortcuts. The shortcut breaks If any part of the path changes (an enclosing folder was renamed, or perhaps there's a new name for the startup drive, or if saved to a cloud or server the symbolic link changed, or there was a corrupt file system, or there was one or more special characters in the file name or enclosing folders). The message you received doesn't necessarily mean your file was deleted, but if it was deleted, that would certainly trigger the notification.

We know this: your workbook was saved somewhere at least once. The question is, "Where was the file saved?" You can find that out easily. Use the Menu Bar and choose File > Open Recent > More. The path to the most recently saved version is displayed under the file name. Knowing the type of device the file was saved to is essential information before anyone can tell you how to recover your file. Was it saved to your Mac? OneDrive? SharePoint? iCloud? A flash drive? A network drive? Each device type has its own recovery steps to take. If you reply with the device type, we can explain how to recover your file on that kind of file system.

Answer 2

Hi Michael,

I hope this message finds you well!

Thank you so much for reaching out to the Microsoft Community. I understand that you are facing the difficulties with accessing your recent excel workbook after shutting down suddenly. The error code "This workbook is either deleted or not currently accessible" displays when you attempt to access files many times. Kindly check a few steps to troubleshoot as below:

Check file name and location:

• You can check that the filename is correct? Ensure that it does not contain any of the specific characters< > ? [ ] : | or "
• Is the file stored locally in OneDrive?
• If the file has existed in OneDrive, could you open it on OneDrive (web version)?

Your Excel File Is in the Trash

• Click Trash icon on your Macbook’s dock. This will open it in “Finder.”
• Find Excel workbook you want to restore. Then, right-click it.
• Select “Put Back.” This will restore your Excel workbook to its original place.

Restore from Temporary or AutoSave

• Go to: /Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.
• Access this by opening Finder, pressing Cmd + Shift + G, and pasting that path.
• Reference link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/recover-files-in-office-for-mac-6c6425b1-6559-4bbf-8f80-4f038402ff02

I hope this information will help you well. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to reach me and I will be glad to assist you further.

Best regards

Katherine V - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist