How to Recover Excel File after Crash (4 Methods)

Method 1 – Recovering Unsaved Excel File after Crash or Restart

Steps:

• Open Microsoft Excel and go to Open > Recent.

• Click on Recover Unsaved Workbooks under the Workbooks section.

• Excel will display the list of the unsaved files (overwritten and never saved).
• Double-click on the file to be recovered.

• The recovered Excel workbook is named Book1.

• Save the file by clicking on the Save icon in Excel.

• Go to Save As > Browse.

• Choose the file location, give it a file name, and click on Save.

• Unsaved Excel files can be found in the below location, saved as temporary files.

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel

• In the case of never-saved Excel workbooks, when you go to Open > Recent > Recover Unsaved Workbooks, the below dialog will show up.

• By default, unsaved Excel files are backed up in .xlsb format. You can choose the file format when restoring the file.

Read More: How to Recover Corrupted Excel File

Method 2 – Restoring Overwritten Excel Files After Crash

Steps:

• Open the Excel file that was overwritten and go to the File tab from Ribbon.

• Go to Info > Manage Workbook to see the list of the versions of the file.
• Choose the version you want to open and click on it.

• This recovered file is read-only. Make sure you have restored the file and saved it as a separate file.

You can see the version history of an overwritten Excel file with the following steps.

• Open the specific Excel file, and go to the File tab.
• Go to Info > Version History.

• You will see the history of the different versions of a particular Excel file.
• Open any version by double-clicking on it.
• These versions can also be restored.

Read More: How to Recover Overwritten Excel File with No Previous Version

Method 3 – Recovering Overwritten Excel File Saved on OneDrive

Steps:

• Go to onedrive.live.com.
• Go to My Files > Documents.

• Right-click on a specific Excel file and select Version History.

• The Excel file will open in a different tab with version histories (Current and Older). Choose the version required and restore it.

Method 4 – Restoring Previous Version of Excel File with File History

Steps:

• Click on the Start menu first, and search for ‘Restore File’.
• Click on ‘Restore your files with File History.

• The File History window will appear. Locate the backed-up Excel file and use the arrow keys to see what versions are available.

• On my PC, File History is not enabled, so there are no Excel files available.

Read More: How to Recover Previous Version of Excel File

How to Activate AutoSave and AutoRecovery Options in Excel

Steps:

• Open the Excel application, and click on Options.

• Select the Save option.
• From the Save Workbooks section, put a checkmark on ‘Autosave files stored in the cloud by default in Excel’.
• Tick the ‘AutoRecover information every’ option and set the time. By default, excel sets this time as 10 minutes. However, you can change the time if necessary.
• Put a checkmark on ‘Keep the AutoRecovered version if I close without saving’.

Read More: How to Find Backup Files in Excel

How Does AutoSave Work in Excel 365

Steps:

• Go to the upper left corner of the Excel window, and move the AutoSave from Off to On.

• Give the file a name and press OK.

• The Excel file is now linked to OneDrive.

Download Practice Workbook

Related Articles

• How to Undo Changes in Excel after Save and Close
• [Fixed:] Unsaved Excel File Not in Recovery
• How to Recover Corrupted Excel Files from USB
• How to Recover Permanently Deleted Excel Files Online
• How to Auto Backup Excel File
• How to Backup Excel Files to a Flash Drive

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