How To Recover Excel File
It is said that there are only two types of people in the world: those who have never lost Excel data and those who read this article to learn how to recover Excel file.
We will show you how to recover Excel file in different scenarios.
Recover Excel file from AutoRecover
One of the easiest ways to recover Excel file is to use the AutoRecover feature, which automatically saves a backup copy of your workbook at regular intervals. To use this feature, follow these steps:
- Click on File > Open.
- On the Open screen, look for Recover Unsaved Workbooks.
- A directory will open. It contains unsaved files. You should find your file there.
- Save the file to recover the file.
Recover an Overwritten Excel File
In case you overwritten your Excel file there is a hope as well.
If you use OneDrive:
- Go to onedrive.live.com and sign in.
- Locate the Excel file and right-click on it.
- Click on Version History and look for the version of your file that you want to recover.
If you don’t use OneDrive:
To recover your Excel file from previous versions go to the directory on your hard drive. Right-click on the file.
Click on Restore Previous Versions from the context menu and remember to save it.
Repair a Corrupted Excel File
To recover a corrupted Excel file, you can try to repair it using Excel’s built-in Open and Repair feature. Here’s how to use it:
- Select the corrupted Excel file.
- Click on the arrow next to the Open button and click on Open and Repair.
- Choose Repair to try to recover your data or choose Extract Data to extract only the values and formulas from the file.
In some cases, Excel may create temporary files (e.g., ~$filename.xlsx). If you cannot find your file, search for these temporary files in the same directory as your original file. If you find one, make a copy and try opening it in Excel.
