How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File

Start Here: The Document Recovery Pane

When Excel crashes or closes unexpectedly, the next launch usually opens a Document Recovery pane on the left, listing every autosaved version it still holds.

1. Reopen Excel and look at the Document Recovery pane — each version is listed with a timestamp.
2. Click each version to preview it and identify the one with the most complete content.
3. Immediately use File ▸ Save As to store the best version in a safe location before doing anything else.

Do not close the pane before saving — choosing “delete” on a listed version discards it permanently. And do not run disk-cleanup tools first: unsaved drafts are exactly the kind of file they remove.

No Pane Appeared: Recover Unsaved Workbooks

1. In Excel, go to File ▸ Info ▸ Manage Workbook ▸ Recover Unsaved Workbooks.
2. The dialog opens the UnsavedFiles folder directly — pick the draft by its modified timestamp and open it.
3. Save As to a new location right away, before editing anything.

You can also reach the folder without Excel: paste C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles into the File Explorer address bar. Drafts there are kept for only a few days, so act quickly.

Find AutoRecover Copies Manually

While you work, Excel saves an AutoRecover snapshot every 10 minutes by default. Those snapshots are deleted when you close the file normally — so this folder only helps after a crash, a power cut, or a forced shutdown.

• Windows: open C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\ — file names are often cryptic, so sort by Date modified and open candidates from inside Excel (File ▸ Open) instead of double-clicking.
• Mac: in Finder choose Go ▸ Go to Folder and enter ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.
• To confirm or change the actual path Excel uses: File ▸ Options ▸ Save, and look at “AutoRecover file location”.

Other Places Worth Checking

• Temporary files: press Win+R, type %temp%, and look for recent files starting with ~$ or random names with spreadsheet extensions.
• OneDrive / SharePoint: right-click the file ▸ Version history, and check the site Recycle bin if the file was deleted.
• Email: if the file ever arrived or left as an attachment, the original message in Outlook or your webmail still holds a copy.
• The source system: for exports, re-downloading a fresh copy is often faster than rescuing a draft.

If the Recovered File Won’t Open

Copies written during a crash are frequently half-finished — a classic case of package-level corruption. Before giving up on a recovered draft, run it through repair, then verify what survived:

• Excel RepairFix package-level damage in recovered copies, locally in the browser.
• Excel ViewerPreview which sheets and values are still readable.

Never Lose an Excel File Again

• Shorten the AutoRecover interval: File ▸ Options ▸ Save ▸ set “Save AutoRecover information every” to 5 minutes, and tick “Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving”.
• Store active workbooks on OneDrive or SharePoint and turn AutoSave on — every change is versioned.
• Or edit directly in the browser: the online Excel editor keeps automatic version-history snapshots, so an accidental close is one click away from a restore.

• Online XLSX EditorEdit xlsx in the browser with automatic version history.