How to retrieve progress of weeks on Excel doc that has suddenly disappeared

Question

How to retrieve progress of weeks on Excel doc that has suddenly disappeared

Fantini, Gian Stefano 0

Hi,

I have been working on an Excel document for weeks, making sure to save from time to time.

Last night my Mac asked me to force quit Excel so I did. I vaguely remember even saving the doc before closing.

Today I opened the file again but it appeared almost empty (it says last modified: 6 Oct 2025).

I also found another file which had the same name of that file preceded by ~$ ( I renamed it to Literature_Matrix_Basic_FINAL2.xlsx), which Excel was unable to open. I attach here the window that pops-up when I try to open it. Nevertheless, the file seems empty, as its size is 165 bytes (4 KB on disk).

I searched containers, Excel and Microsoft in my Mac's user profile, but found nothing, no previous versions of the file or anything.

Moreover the containers folder cited in the manual recovery path (Containers > com.microsoft.Excel > Data > Library > Preferences > AutoRecovery) is not correct in my case, as I cannot find it on my Mac.

I saw advice to a similar query saying to look on OneDrive but I do not have it downloaded.

How can I retrieve the progress I have made in the past weeks of the document?

It is really important to me as it is my dissertation key notes.

thank you so much in advance

2 answers

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Answer 1

Dear Fantini, Gian Stefano

Thank you for posting your question on the Q&A forum. I truly understand how confusing it must be to lose weeks of progress, especially when it involves your dissertation notes.

Have you tried searching in Finder by typing excel? This can sometimes surface hidden or autosaved versions of your file, especially if they were stored in obscure folders.
Since you couldn’t locate the path: Containers > com.microsoft.Excel > Data > Library > Preferences > AutoRecovery You might open Finder, press Command + Shift + G and type: ~/Library/Group Containers/ If this folder exists, look for one named something like UBF8T346G9.Office. Inside, check if there’s an AutoRecovery or TemporaryItems folder, or any Excel-related files.
If that still doesn’t help, you can open Terminal and type: echo $TMPDIR Press Enter. It will return a temporary directory path. Copy that path, then go back to Finder > press Command + Shift + G > paste the path. If Finder doesn’t open the folder directly, try trimming the path back to the last / and retry. Once inside, look for any temporary Excel files or folders that might contain your work.
And if you happen to use Time Machine, it’s definitely worth checking there as well to see if an earlier version of the file was saved.
Also, if you save your files to the cloud, even without downloading the OneDrive app, it’s worth checking your cloud storage to see if any versions were backed up.

If none of these methods work, the file may unfortunately be lost. I completely understand how frustrating this can be, especially when you’ve invested time and effort into your work. To help prevent this in the future, I recommend enabling AutoSave in Excel and also consider saving your files to a cloud location. This feature automatically saves your changes and greatly reduces the risk of losing important data.

I hope this information is helpful.

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Answer 2

Fantini, Gian Stefano 0

Hi Gabriel,

Thank you for your answer. I tried your options but Idid not find any excel file that contained my previous work. I do not use Time Machine though.

Thank you also for your suggestions, but I care to say that AutoSave in Excel was already enabled (I share Excel saving settings here). Also I am sure to have saved the document manually from time to time before. Hence why I really don't understand why the progress was not saved.

Screenshot 2025-11-07 at 14.13.57.png

Could you try to explain how this could have happened? And is there any other way Microsoft could help me to retrieve my work?

Also is there a chance the work is simply hidden? the size of the file is: 57,582 bytes (61 KB on disk) and appears as an empty literature matrix.

Finally, if I try to open Literature_Matrix_Basic_FINAL2.xlsx (see my submission above for reference) with the Numbers app, it leads me to browse the previous versions of the file. However, because I cannot open the file I cannot see them and restore them.

What if my progress is in those previous versions? And how could I bypass the problem of excel not opening the file?

I attach here the pop-up windows I refer to.

Screenshot 2025-11-07 at 14.26.38.png

Screenshot 2025-11-07 at 14.26.46.png

This is really important for me, I am daunted by the thought of having to redo all the work again. I will explore any alternative avenue.

Thanks again for your time.

<<removed PII>>

Gabriel-N 9,710 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-10T03:48:13.5066667+00:00

Hi Fantini, Gian Stefano

Sorry for the late reply and thank you again for this detailed follow-up. I’m incredibly sorry that the initial steps didn’t work. Please allow me to clarify a few things that might be causing confusion.

Firstly, the “AutoSave” setting you shared in the screenshot only works for files saved directly in OneDrive or SharePoint (that’s why in my first reply I suggested enabling it and saving to the cloud). If your file was saved locally on your Mac, AutoSave would be off, even if the toggle appears “on” in the settings.

What you were relying on was AutoRecovery. When Excel was force-quit, the AutoRecovery file was likely corrupted or deleted before Excel could restart and offer it to you. So when you reopened the file, Excel could only find the last stable version written to disk, which, unfortunately, was the one from October 6.

You asked, “Is there any other way Microsoft could help me retrieve my work?” Since it looks like you're using an education account (based on the tag you selected), I’d suggest contact Microsoft Education Support. Log in with your account, type “live chat”, press Enter, and choose Contact Support. On the Contact Support page, please select the right product and category. If your account is not education, please refer to this link: Contact Microsoft Office Support - Microsoft Support I can’t guarantee they’ll be able to recover the file, especially since it was saved locally on your Mac, but it’s worth trying to see if they have any additional options that might help.

You also asked whether the work might be hidden. As I mentioned earlier, since you couldn’t find any AutoRecovery files and the file appears empty, it leads me to believe the file may be corrupted. But you mentioned trying to open the renamed file (Literature_Matrix_Basic_FINAL2.xlsx, which was originally the ~$ file) in Numbers, and it prompted you to browse previous versions. That gives me an idea: have you tried opening the original file (the one last modified on October 6) in Numbers to see if the “Browse All Versions” panel appears there too? If yes, maybe you can restore a previous version from there, even if Excel can’t open it.

If none of these options work, then… I’m afraid we might be out of luck.

One last thing: if you’re comfortable, you could consider uploading the files (the main one and the renamed one) to a cloud drive and sharing the link, or just let me know in a comment and I can reach out via private message. I can take a look to see if there’s anything salvageable. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best to investigate.

I know this is incredibly discouraging. I’ve been there myself, once lost a file with thousands of data points and formulas, and I completely understand how disheartening it is to think about rebuilding everything from scratch. If you happen to have your raw data saved somewhere else (maybe in another app, email, or notes), I’d be happy to help you rebuild the formulas or structure with all my effort.

And just to share from personal experience: after that loss, I started using Excel Online for anything important. It autosaves to the cloud and keeps version history, which has saved me more than once.

I hope one of these suggestions will help you recover your work or at least make the next steps easier. Let me know how you’d like to proceed, I’m here to help.

Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.
Gabriel-N 9,710 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-12T06:39:49.07+00:00

Hi Fantini, Gian Stefano

I just wanted to check in and see how things are going with this issue. Were you able to make any progress, or do you still need some assistance? If there’s anything I can do to help, please feel free to let me know, I’ll do my best to support you.

Looking forward to your update!

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How to retrieve progress of weeks on Excel doc that has suddenly disappeared

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