corrupt excel file

Question

Hi

If you save files on onedrive why can you not go back to a previously saved version of said file. Does it mean that onedrive is not backed up?

I have lost a most important excel file which was password encrypted. The file was fine in April 2025. It corrupted in august 2025. Apparently an excel file with a password can corrupt itself while an error in saving the file occurs. The file then changes name and adds the name of the PC on which the error happened. This is a known glitch in onedrive according to my IT guy who was unsuccessful in retrieving it. Many forums speak about it and it is a well known failure. I have tried what people said. Copy it out of onedrive and try open it. Rename it, zip and unzip it without success. I got in touch with support to see if they could give me access to the April 2025 version. They told me to come on here and detail the issue. I am disappointed but for curiosity I said I would do it. Can anyone help me please to reach someone in microsoft who can rewind the version to April 2025 and I can work to update it.

many thanks
Karen

Answer 1

Hi Karen Gaffney, I’m really sorry you’re dealing with this—losing a critical password‑protected Excel file after months of work is gutting and being bounced between tools and support only makes it more exhausting.

To recover your corrupted Excel file try restoring an older version through OneDrive advanced options or PowerShell roll back your entire OneDrive if needed use Excel Open and Repair or Extract Data remove the password by opening as read only and if nothing works escalate to Microsoft Support or use a trusted recovery tool.

Have you checked whether the corrupted Excel file still appears in OneDrive version history or if the April version is completely missing from the backend?

Best regards

Lucky Charm

Answer 2

Hey everyone, I tried one last time to restore it. Dont know what worked but I am in.

thanks so much but I cant say what worked. Have two more files with same problems so will try all the workarounds for that.

thanks all

Karen

Answer 3

Hey everyone, I tried one last time to restore it. Dont know what worked but I am in.

thanks so much but I cant say what worked. Have two more files with same problems so will try all the workarounds for that.

thanks all

Karen

Answer 4

ok, so before I close this query.

I got the files back, however they are not the files from April 2025 but from Jan 2024. It is like the version history is not the real version history. Got back a lot of stuff but not this years info which was most required.

many thanks all for you help