How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File on Windows and Mac

You can recover most unsaved Excel files, because Excel saves AutoRecover information every 10 minutes by default and keeps a separate copy of new workbooks you never saved. Those copies don't last: they are cleaned up when Excel closes normally or after a few days. So the first minutes after a crash matter most, and the order you check things in matters too. Until you have a copy back, don't create a new file with the same name or save over the old one.

Where to look depends on what happened. Below is a quick map by situation, then each method with its menus and folder paths, a worked recovery from start to finish, and the settings that make the next crash a non-event.

Where to look first

Whatever you recover, use Save As with a new name the moment it opens. If you save over the original and the recovered copy turns out to be older than you thought, there's no way back. On a shared file, tell the team before you start so no one overwrites the copy on the shared drive in the meantime.

1. After a crash: the Document Recovery pane

When Excel crashes or the power goes out, reopening Excel shows the Document Recovery pane on the left. Each file can appear twice with timestamps: Original (the last time you saved) and AutoSaved (the last AutoRecover snapshot). Open the later one, check it, and save it under a new name.

Closing the pane clears the list, so keep it open until you've checked every entry. If the pane never appears, go to methods 2 and 3.

2. Closed without saving: Recover Unsaved Workbooks

If a new workbook was closed without ever being saved, go to File > Open and click Recover Unsaved Workbooks at the bottom of the recent list. The same command is under File > Info > Manage Workbook > Recover Unsaved Workbooks. The dialog opens the UnsavedFiles folder; open the file with the latest modified date. These are the steps in Microsoft's article on recovering unsaved files.

If the file had been saved before and you clicked Don't Save after editing, reopen it and look at File > Info > Manage Workbook. A version labeled "when I closed without saving" can be opened and brought back with the Restore button at the top. That version only exists if Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving is on under File > Options > Save.

3. Find the files yourself: AutoRecover folder paths

If the menus come up empty, open the folders directly. On Windows, paste the path into the File Explorer address bar. On a Mac, use Go > Go to Folder (Shift+Command+G) in Finder.

• Windows AutoRecover files: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\ (look in subfolders for .xlsb files)
• Windows never-saved workbooks: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles\
• Mac AutoRecover files: /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft

The Mac path comes from Microsoft's guide to recovering files in Office for Mac. Word and PowerPoint use a Preferences/AutoRecovery folder, but Excel doesn't, so swapping the app name into a Word path leads to an empty folder. Microsoft also notes that clicking Don't Save when closing a file on a Mac deletes its AutoRecover file.

AppData is a hidden folder on Windows, so paste the path rather than clicking through, or turn on View > Show > Hidden items. The real AutoRecover location is listed under File > Options > Save > AutoRecover file location, which matters if IT changed it on company PCs.

You'll also see advice to search %temp% for .tmp files. Note that small files whose names start with ~$ are lock files that record who has a workbook open; they contain no data. Treat the temp folder as the last stop after the three locations above.

4. Roll back to an earlier version: version history

Files in OneDrive or SharePoint keep a version every time they're saved. In Excel, click File > Info > Version History, or click the file name at the top of the window and choose Version History, and a list of timestamped versions opens on the right.

A version opens read-only first, so check it, then click Restore. Restoring overwrites later work, so if the current version has anything worth keeping, Save As a copy before you restore. For files on a network share or a local drive, right-click the file in File Explorer and open Properties > Previous Versions. That tab only lists versions when File History or server snapshots are turned on.

When the file won't open: Open and Repair

If the file is there but Excel says it's corrupt, go to File > Open > Browse, select the file, click the arrow next to Open, and choose Open and Repair. Click Repair first to recover as much as possible; if that fails, Extract Data pulls out values and formulas. This command is in Excel for Windows. When it finishes, Excel lists what it repaired, so compare those sheets and ranges against your source data first.

Worked example: recovering a reorder plan

At Ridgeline Manufacturing, the supply planner spends the afternoon updating the reorder plan purchasing will use for next month's orders. At 4:50 p.m. the building loses power. The planner last saved at 11:00 a.m. and has since updated reorder quantities for 25 of 40 suppliers.

Step 1: Reopen Excel and check the pane

When the power comes back, Excel opens with the Document Recovery pane showing "reorder_plan.xlsx [Original] 11:02 AM" and "reorder_plan.xlsx [AutoSaved] 4:44 PM". The planner opens the 4:44 version and saves it as "reorder_plan_recovered.xlsx".

Step 2: Find what's missing

AutoRecover runs every 10 minutes, so anything typed between 4:44 and 4:50 is gone. Comparing the recovered file's supplier totals against the purchasing system's open orders shows two suppliers whose rows were never filled in. Totals that match are skipped; only the two mismatched suppliers get a line-by-line check, which takes ten minutes instead of re-checking all 40. A last pass confirms the formulas are still formulas and the total row includes every supplier.

Step 3: Prevent the next one

The planner moves the file into the team's OneDrive folder, turns on AutoSave, and shortens the AutoRecover interval to 5 minutes under File > Options > Save. On heavy days like month-end, Ctrl+S every hour becomes a habit too.

Settings that prevent the next loss

On Windows, go to File > Options > Save, turn on Save AutoRecover information every and set it to about 5 minutes, and turn on Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving right below it. On a Mac, open Excel > Settings (Preferences in older versions) > Save and enable AutoRecover with the interval you want.

The strongest protection is to keep the file in OneDrive or SharePoint and switch on AutoSave in the upper-left corner. AutoSave writes changes to the cloud every few seconds, so a crash costs almost nothing, and version history builds up along the way. The toggle works in Microsoft 365 Excel for .xlsx, .xlsm and .xlsb files stored in the cloud; it's grayed out for old .xls files, so save those as .xlsx.

Version differences

Recover Unsaved Workbooks and Manage Workbook sit in the same place in Excel for Windows from 2010 through Microsoft 365. Excel for the web saves as you type, so there's no such thing as an unsaved workbook there; for an earlier state, use File > Info > Previous Versions. Files opened from a Teams channel live in SharePoint, so the same version history applies.

Excel for Mac has no Recover Unsaved Workbooks command. If the Document Recovery pane doesn't appear, go straight to the Mac folder path above, sort by date modified, open the latest file, check it, and use File > Save As to put it where it belongs.

👉 How to Compare Two Excel Sheets for Differences

FAQ

Q. Why is the recovered file different from what I had before the crash?

AutoRecover saves on an interval, 10 minutes by default, so anything after the last snapshot isn't in the copy. Compare it with your source data and re-enter the gap. A 5-minute interval halves what you can lose.

Q. Why is the Recover Unsaved Workbooks list empty?

AutoRecover was off, or the workbook was open for less time than the AutoRecover interval before it was closed. Files in that list are also removed automatically after a few days.

Q. If AutoSave is on, do I still need AutoRecover?

Yes. AutoSave only works for files in the cloud. Files on your PC or a company file server still rely on AutoRecover, so keep both on.

Q. Can I get back a file I accidentally saved over?

For OneDrive or SharePoint files, open the version from before the overwrite in version history and restore it. For local files, use Properties > Previous Versions if File History is on.

How inline AI fills the gaps after a recovery

inline AI opens the recovered workbook next to your source data, and when you ask it to "find rows that are blank or don't match the source and fill them in," it fills the missing rows in the same format and marks what it filled. With ARP, purchasing and receivables data stays current every day, so a crash never means rebuilding a month-end file from scratch.