How to recover an Excel file

In earlier versions of Excel, every time a file was saved, a backup copy was automatically created. This backup copy served as protection against accidental changes, as it allowed users to recover the most recent version of the Excel workbook in an emergency. This feature still exists in newer versions of Excel, but it’s hidden. You now have to make a separate setting for each file to specify whether you want to create a backup copy when the file is saved. You can adjust this setting as follows:

1. Click the “File” tab and then “Save as”.
2. In the next window select “Browse” and choose the folder where you want to save the file.
3. In the “Save As” dialog box, click on “Tools” and then “General Options”.
4. In this dialog box, check the “Always create backup” box and click on “OK” to confirm.

Now a backup copy with the extension XLK will be automatically created each time you save the file.

There are two ways of recovering this backup file: You can replace the file extension of the backup file with XLSX and then open it in the usual way. Or you can select the “File” tab in Excel and click “Open”. Click the “Browse” button and go to the folder where the file is located. In the drop-down list box at the bottom right, select “Backup files” instead of “All Excel files”. You’ll now see all backup files in this folder. You can then open, edit, and save them as Excel files again.

You automatically have backups of your most recently saved versions if you save Excel files on OneDrive to share them with coworkers, collaborate on documents, or use files on multiple devices. OneDrive has a simple version control feature that allows you to recover the most recent backups of all files at any time. To do this, simply follow these steps:

1. Right-click the file you want to recover in the OneDrive folder (via the File Explorer).
2. In the context menu, select “Version history”. You will see the most recent backups of the file.
3. Click the three dots next to the version you want to restore. You can then restore the Excel file with its original name or download and save it with a different name to compare the two versions.

If Excel crashes while you’re working or if there’s a power failure, the file you’re currently editing usually is not lost. As a rule, it can still be recovered, even if you didn’t save it before the application quit. That’s because all Microsoft Office applications have an automatic backup feature. If Excel stops responding and crashes, you can recover an Excel file from the automatic backup as soon as you restart Excel after it quits unexpectedly.

On the Home tab, you can then recover the Excel file as follows:

1. Click on “Show Recovered Files” to display a list of all recently opened and unsaved files with the most recent save date.
2. Click a file to restore it.
3. Always remember to save the backup as an Excel file because the auto-recovered file will be deleted when you close Excel after saving your work.

You can also recover an unsaved Excel file at a later point in time:

1. To do this, click “File” on the ribbon, go to the “Info” section, and choose “Manage Workbook”.
2. Choose “Recover Unsaved Workbooks” to display and recover unsaved Excel files. Excel saves unsaved files to the folder C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles. You can also access the files from this folder.

Excel has its own backup feature that automatically saves your documents at regular intervals while you work. However, you need to enable this feature:

1. To do this, go to the “File” tab and click on “Options”.
2. In the next window, go to the “Save” section and check the “Save AutoRecover information every...” box.
3. Specify how often you want Excel to save your data.
4. Select “Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving”. This makes it easier to recover your most recent Excel file if the program unexpectedly exits.