Document Recovery

When Excel unexpectedly closes, it usually triggers the document recovery feature to try to restore any unsaved changes. However, if the document recovery process did not retrieve your work and you couldn't find the document in its original location, there are a few possibilities to explore:

1. AutoRecover location: Excel typically saves temporary backup files in a designated AutoRecover folder. The default location varies depending on your operating system and Excel version. To find the AutoRecover folder:
   • Open Excel.
   • Go to the "File" tab.
   • Select "Options."
   • In the Excel Options window, click on "Save" from the left-hand menu.
   • Look for the "AutoRecover file location" field. Note down the path mentioned there.
   • Close Excel.
   • Open File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac), and navigate to the AutoRecover folder using the path you noted earlier.
   • Look for any Excel files with a .xlsx or .xls extension. These might be your unsaved work.
2. Temporary folder: Sometimes, Excel creates temporary files in a temporary folder while you're working on a document. These temporary files might still exist and contain some or all of your work. To check for temporary files:
   • Open File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).
   • In the search bar, type %temp% (for Windows) or /private/var/folders (for Mac) and press Enter.
   • Look for temporary Excel files with .xlsx or .xls extensions. Sort the files by modified date to find the most recent ones.
   • Open any potential files to check if they contain your lost work.
3. Previous versions: If you have enabled the file history or backup feature on your computer, there might be previous versions of the file saved. Right-click on the folder containing your Excel file, select "Properties," and navigate to the "Previous Versions" tab to see if any previous versions are available.
4. Online storage services: If you use cloud storage services like OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive, check if your file was synced to the cloud. Log in to your account and search for the file to see if it exists in your cloud storage.

If none of these options yield the desired result, it's possible that the work you did on the event plan is irretrievable. To avoid such situations in the future, consider enabling the AutoSave feature in Excel, which periodically saves your work as you go. Additionally, it's always a good practice to manually save your changes at regular intervals to minimize the risk of losing data.

Hello Catherine F,

I’m Gunasekar and I will be happy to help you with your question, I am a Microsoft consumer like you.

Adding additional points to ASKNiko, some suggestions might be relevant/same. But I would like to inform you again, only these are the available options to recover the file. If you could not find it anywhere else as per the recovery guidelines discussed, sorry to say that the file might be lost.

Excel provides us with such good features as AutoSave and Auto Recover. If they are enabled, it won't be a problem for you to recover unsaved files and restore previous versions.

a. From Microsoft Excel.

1. From the list of recent documents within Excel.

Go to FILE -> Open. Choose Recent Workbooks. Scroll down and click on the Recover Unsaved Workbooks button at the bottom of the list. When the Open dialog box pops up, just select the necessary file and click Open. The document will open in Excel and the program will prompt you to save it. Click on the Save As button in the yellow bar above your worksheet and save the file to the desired location.

b. Onedrive Online.

1. Go to www.onedrive.com/ and sign in with your Microsoft account.
2. Check or download the files to the desktop and option it.

c. Check in the Recycle Bin (Trash). (Both desktop and in OneDrive bin)

e. Restore OneDrive to earlier versions.

https://support.microsoft.com/help/fa231298-759d-41cf-bcd0-25ac53eb8a15

Best regards,

Gunasekar N