my excel file has disappeared and there is a file in its place with a ~$ in front of the filename. Is the file recoverable?

Hi @Marian Veld,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.  

Thank you for reaching out and explaining the situation. I understand how concerning it can be when an important Excel file seems to disappear and you only see a file with ~$ at the beginning of its name.

The ~$… file is not your workbook - it’s a tiny temporary “owner/lock” file that Office creates while a document is open. It usually gets deleted when the file closes cleanly. If you only see ~$YourFile.xlsx and the original workbook isn’t visible, the ~$ file itself won’t contain your data, but there are several places you can check to recover the real workbook.

Office creates a hidden owner/lock file prefixed with ~$ to prevent simultaneous edits and track who has the file open. It’s very small and does not store your spreadsheet content. It is normally deleted when the document is closed properly; crashes or sync issues can leave it behind.

It’s safe to delete a stale ~$ file after confirming the original workbook isn’t open anywhere, but deleting it will not restore your data.

Here are suggestions you can try to recover the actual workbook:

1. Check Excel’s AutoRecover

• Open Excel → File → Info → Manage Workbook → Recover Unsaved Workbooks.
• If a recent autosaved copy appears, open it and Save As immediately.
• If Excel crashed, the Document Recovery pane may appear when you relaunch Excel and open the newest version and save it.

2. Search AutoRecover Folders

• Common locations:
  • %AppData%\Microsoft\Excel (AutoRecover)
    • %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles (Unsaved Workbooks)
    • You can confirm the exact AutoRecover path via File → Options → Save.

3. If the file was never saved or still missing

• Open Excel → File → Open → Recover Unsaved Workbooks (this opens the UnsavedFiles directory).
• Check the Temp folder: Press Win+R, type %temp%, sort by Date Modified, and look for recent Excel temp files. Sometimes renaming a .tmp file to .xlsx works (make a copy first).

4. If the file was stored in OneDrive or SharePoint

• Use Version History to restore a previous copy:
  • In OneDrive on the web → right-click the file → Version history → Restore.

5. If the file was deleted

• Check the Recycle Bin.
• Right-click the file and select Restore to return it to its original location.

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.      

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.   

I look forward to your thoughts on this.  

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

I still cannot locate the file and I am the IT administrator.

Hi @Marian Veld,

Thank you for your response.

Here are a few steps you can try:

1. Rule out a stale Excel process holding the file open

A lingering Excel.exe can keep the ~$… lock file and make the original workbook appear missing.

• Close Excel completely.
• Open Task Manager (search “Task Manager” in Windows).
• Under Processes, right‑click any Microsoft Excel entries and choose End task.
• Return to the folder and refresh - the original file may reappear.

2. Try Windows Previous Versions / File History (if enabled)

If File History or System Protection was set up, you can roll the folder back.

• Right‑click the folder where the workbook was stored → Properties → Previous Versions.
• Select an earlier snapshot and Restore (or open and copy out the needed file).

3. If the file was opened from Outlook (attachment)

Outlook saves opened attachments to a hidden Secure Temp cache. If you edited the attachment without using Save As to a permanent location, your latest copy may still be in that cache.

• Open File Explorer and paste this path into the address bar, then press Enter

%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Outlook

• Open each random‑named subfolder (e.g., ABCD1234) and look for your workbook (tip: sort by Date modified).

If you don’t see INetCache\Content.Outlook:

• In File Explorer, go to View → Show → check Hidden items
• Click the three dots next to View → Options → View, and uncheck “Hide protected operating system files.”
• Try the path again.

Note: When you find the file, copy it to a safe folder (e.g., Documents or OneDrive) before continuing to work on it.

4. Contact your IT admin

If the problem persists, I recommend contacting your IT administrator for further assistance. If needed, they can submit a support ticket through the Microsoft 365 admin center for further investigation.  

I hope this information helps. If it addressed your question, we would appreciate it if you could mark the response as accepted. Doing so helps other community members more easily identify the correct solution when searching for similar issues. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Wishing you a great day ahead.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

I have not been able to locate the file using any of these methods.

The file with a ~$ prefix is a temporary file created by Excel when the original file is open. This temporary file indicates that the original file is currently being edited or was not closed properly. If your original Excel file has disappeared, it may still be recoverable if the temporary file is intact.

To recover your file, you can try the following steps:

1. Check if the original file is still open in Excel. If it is, save and close it properly.
2. Rename the temporary file: Change the name of the file with the ~$ prefix to remove the ~$ and see if it opens as your original file.
3. Look for autosave versions: Excel often saves backup copies of files. Check the folder where your original file was located for any autosave files or previous versions.

If these steps do not work, you may need to use recovery tools or check with Microsoft Support for further assistance.