Recovering a 2019 Excel version that did not upload

Question

I updated a file offline on my PC. I turned on my computer and usually the updates upload automatically to file name. However, I closed the file and reopened it. And, all my updates were not there!! Is there a way to recover the updated file from my PC instead of the file now on One Drive? Both files have the same name. Help!

Answer 1

Hello alma luera,

Thank you for posting your question on Microsoft Q&A forum

I understand that you updated an Excel file offline on your PC, but when you reopened it, the update is gone. Looks like your local file was updated and replace with the One Drive version.

Here are some methods you could try to retrieve your file:

Excel often keeps recovery files even after closing try looking in the Excel AutoRecover cache.

• Close Excel completely
• Press Win + R
• Paste %AppData%\Microsoft\Excel\

Look for files with:

• .xlsb, .xlsx
• Random names or your filename
• Modified around the time you worked offline

Open every candidate and if one contains your edits you can Save As > new name > different folder that file

This cache is not synced by OneDrive, so it can survive overwrites. Even if you already reopened Excel once, you could still try checking the Recover Unsaved Workbooks option in Excel:

• Open Excel > File > Open > Recent
• Scroll down > Recover Unsaved Workbooks
• Open anything dated from your offline session

Feel free reply back to this post if you need further assistance, I'll be happy to help.