Ways to restore unsaved excel files!!!

Synopsis: In this blog post, we will discuss the easy methods to restore unsaved excel files or to recover unsaved excel file 2007/2016.

MS Excel spreadsheets have been used as a great source of data storage, management, and analysis by all kind of users such as schools, colleges, corporates, etc. But like any other MS Office application. MS Excel is also prone to corruption and other issues. This corruption in Excel spreadsheets makes it impossible for users to open them. In many cases, the Excel spreadsheet data is also lost.

There are multiple reasons for MS Excel file corruption. Some of the reasons are:

1. Unexpected System damage or sudden power failure
2. Defect in Excel Application
3. Hardware issues
4. Bad Sectors: this can happen after prolonged use or due to improper shutdowns which can result in data falling into bad sectors and becoming inaccessible.
5. The large size of excel files
6. Virus or Hacker attack
7. Different versions of Excel available i.e when the user tries to open different files in different Excel version, then the excel sheets can be damaged.

Methods to restore unsaved excel files in excel 2007/2016

These are the methods that you can use to recover an excel file that was not saved before

1. Try using Excel to Recover and restore unsaved excel files.

In the case Excel stops abruptly due to power failure or other reasons, then your Excel workbook can remain unsaved and can be lost. Excel is equipped to save your work on a regular basis. So, In case of crash or other reasons, a recovered heading will be seen.

• Now, select “show Recovered Files’’.
• After this MS Excel will open a new spreadsheet with the Document Recovery panel.
• Finally, click on any file listed in the panel to see Excel’s most recent saved files.

There is a chance that it won’t be completely recovered but it will be easier to retrieve and restore your unsaved excel files.

2. By using one drive

You can recover your lost or unsaved files if you have saved them on OneDrive

If you save your documents to OneDrive, you’ll have another layer of protection from losing backups.

For this you need to right-click on any file in OneDrive and select Version History to see a list of changes:

Whether this works largely depends on how often you save and why you lost your data. But if you save to OneDrive and your hard drive fails, you’ll still be able to access your information.

3. By using temporary files

MS Office occasionally saves temporary files as backups. Sometimes you can find these files and recover them.

• The easiest way is to go directly through Excel. Open the file that you’d like to recover unsaved changes for, then open the File tab.
• Now click on Info > Manage Workbook
• Click the resulting Recover Unsaved Workbooks button
• Excel will open a File Explorer window that may contain some unsaved files, that will be displayed. If you see any files, double-click to open them. You might get your unsaved excel workbook back.
• You can also try opening the unsaved files by typing this command:

Windows key+R(for opening Run WIndow) and type:

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

• If you go to File > Options > Save, you’ll see the folder location of your AutoRecover files and check the files if these are useful or not.

4.By using Auto Recover

This is a great way to save and create a backup of your excel files every five minutes.

Fo this Head to File > Options > Save, then change the AutoRecover interval to five minutes or ten minutes( whichever time limit suits you).

Also, save your changes often by pressing Ctrl+S to overwrite the previous version of your documents.

5.By using Professional Excel Recovery Tool

The above methods can help you but they do not guarantee full recovery of unsaved excel files. You need the help of a professional Excel Recovery Tool to recover unsaved excel files in 2007/2016. One such tool is the SysInfo Tools Excel Recovery tool that can help in the full recovery of the unsaved excel file that might get lost accidentally.

You can follow the steps given below:

1. Launch the tool and select the files to be recovered.

2. Wait till the recovery process completes

3. You can see the preview of recovered files

4. Select the location where you want to save the files.

5. Finally, click on OK to finish the process

To Sum Up

I have discussed the freeways to restore unsaved Excel files in Excel 2007/2016. You can use these methods to easily recover your lost excel files.