Comments on: How to recover unsaved Excel file or restore its previous version

Do you want to protect your workbooks from unexpected computer crashes or power failures? This article explains how to recover unsaved files and restore previous versions of your workbook in Excel 2016 - 2010. You'll also learn different ways of file backup to your PC and to the cloud storage. Continue reading →

Comments page 4. Total comments: 162

  1. Just saved me a ton of time redoing work after I hastily clicked 'don't save' on the wrong workbook. Thanks.

  2. hi I just saved over a very important document which has over 4 years of data!! any possibility of recovering it I don't have any back ups.

  3. Hello Ekaterina you are a life saver! Thank you this afticle saved me :)

  4. I am not understand

  5. Thank you for this wonderful piece !! It was greatly appreciated. 25 tabs and several hours of work were almost lost due to not paying attention to what was being closed out, if it were not for this article I would have been up a creek.

  6. This saved my BUTT at work when I had an Excel file that closed unexpectedly when my computer crashed.

    THANK YOU SO SO MUCH

  7. Oh, awesome! Worked for me, thanks! Love that not only does Excel do this, but there are helpful people like you who took the time to post online. Trying to find help within programs like this can sometimes be tedious. Gotta love Google search!

  8. hi

    I was working on an excel file located in an external drive, I deleted a complete tab and saved it by mistake; tried to go back to "versions" but says there were not previous versions of this file; i assume is because the file was on an external disk instead of in my computer.
    is it possible to recover a previous version of this file?

    thank you and regards
    Ricardo

  9. Thanks heaps .... a friend was working on a spreadsheet. Never saved it at all. Was able to recover all the data. 5 stars :)

  10. Thanks a lot for the article, i got my unsaved file.

  11. im working on excel then in excel i ve select ALL DATA & DELETE ALL DATA & After this i closed & save the file .. then i want to recover my lost data how will i roll back my data...any one knows plz help me

  12. this didn't work for me. I created the file, thought I was exited out another file, hit do not save and realized it was the wrong file. I tried to look for back ups and there are none. And it says that it auto saves every ten mins. I looked in the folder where it says it saves to and can not find the file where I had input all of these formulas.

  13. Thank you very much. It really helped a lot

  14. if i could kiss you i would. omg. you saved me!!!!

  15. Excel is a complete piece of crap. I just lost 4 hours of work. I had been "saving" as I went, but apparently, due to the many flaws in Excel, even that didn't save. Then Excel crashed. All work lost.

    1. Nevermind. I found it.

  16. hi, I was working on an excel file from a flash disk and I saved it there. i lost the flash disk and the data as well. how can I recover the data using the laptop I was using to work on the file though I didn't save it there?

  17. My problem is I have 3 separate version of my excel file-

    driverfile
    driverfile (autosaved)
    driverfile (autosaved) (autosaved)

    How to merge them as they are all separate open files?

    Thanks for any guidance.

  18. I have tried the above procedure to recover an excel file which I closed and didn't saved it. However, I am unable to see any file in the window after clicking open unsaved files

    1. Same here!

  19. my self is vivek and i got a problem few days ago with my laptop as my windows was corrupt and i have taken help of a untrained guy to fix it up and he reinstalled windows 7 but coz of that i have lost my very important data includes few excle file on my desktop as well as few memorable family pics if u can help me out atleast to recover my excle files i would be very greatfull to you.please let me know how to fix this problem.

  20. Please disregard my previous mail.

    This is the correct mail.

    I have files in an excel folder in the D hard disk. I have a copy of same in my pen drive. sometime back I worked in files in D drive, and yesterday, I tried to copy this folder and paste to the folder in the pen drive in order to update same. Unfortunately, now I find both folders having files with data only up to a date far behind.

    Please show me how I can recover the lost information.

  21. Then method for "How to recover unsaved Excel files" does not work for Excel 2010.

  22. on my gmail account I have an existing excel which I have an information that is lost due to my phone crash. how do i recover the lost information please help.

  23. i opened an already open document in excel and lost all the information i had written. please help

  24. i opened an already open document in excel and lost all the information i had written. please help

  25. Thank you so much

  26. thank you.

    no words you saved me hours of work

    be blessed

  27. Thanks. It worked for me.

  28. Hi,
    My excel crashed yesterday. I managed to recover the file (didn't loose any of my last changes, which is a first). Clicked on the RESTORE button and continued working on my file. This time pressing save regularly. I saved the file last night before closing it.
    This morning I wanted to continue on the file only to find out that the file is back to the state as yesterday morning. All my work of yesterday is not there (I guess I wasn't lucky after all).
    Is there a way I can find all my work back? I did a file search on my PC in case excel has stored my latest version somewhere else but nothing.

    Thanks!

  29. There is no "option" button under the file menu on Excel.

  30. Can I find the recovery files?my file was crashed.but I cannot find the recovery file.autosave is on.

  31. Loved you.
    Thanks for share such great support!

  32. Thank u so much.......

    You saved my lot of time and effort __/\__

  33. Hello. Is there a way to edit profanity, such as what appears in the previous comment? Thanks

  34. Fuck Excel

  35. I made a file in excel but my PC had suddenly shut down due to power. After that when I opened the file again, I lost entire format of the file. The days format become in numbers, borders disappeared etc. How can I restore the file with earlier format? Please help.
    Sandeep

  36. I am very grateful I found this it helped me recover very crucial work data.

  37. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You may have just helped me save my job.

  38. I have opened my records in excel to up date but when double click the key board or pad doesn't appear as usual.Help me.
    There is an idencation at the top!only reading.
    Urgent.
    Jackson.Thanks.

  39. Please,help retrieve my info.my tablet went off and l have lost very thing though l saved them.
    Jackson Thank

  40. Do me a favor please retrieve my info for me.it very long record 2016.

    Thanks

  41. Thanks a ton Ekaterina, you saved my life with this article....

  42. Hi,

    I want to check if I can recover an excel file which was stored in Onedrive but was showing an error message and when I clicked on the message I was asked to click on the version I wanted to save. I clicked the latest one. But somehow I lost the data and the copy saved was of a previous version. Is it possible to recover the latest copy of the document?

  43. Thanks! Your article saved me from having to redo a lot of work.

  44. Thank you so much, this (recover overwritten excel file) has saved me hours of rework!

  45. i found it!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

  46. Thanks Ekaterina. Appreciate the tutorials. But I am still in a fix here.
    I accidentally answered "yes" to the prompt that you no longer need access to excel files on my auto recover pane (which popped up as you explained after power outage). I have spent ample time populating this spreadsheet. Can you help guide me please? Its a Microsoft excel 2010 document

  47. AWSOOOOME

    Saved the "save error" file. It gave my 4 hours back.

  48. *******************HELP**************
    My computer crashed and I lost an important excel document. AUTOSAVE did not save my document. I know it was working. Can I find the lost file anywhere.

    using office 2013

    Thanks

  49. After working for hours in Excel - my laptop crashed and I cannot locate the document that I was working on. I've tried the above steps....but, nothing is working. Is there another explanation of where this might be.?

  50. How can I retrieve a a version that has not been saved. The copy has been overwritten by a new version I opened. I have tried file info, manage versions and there is it a latest version other than the one I have opened.

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