Excel Autosave: Find Location & Recover Unsaved Files

I. Where is Excel's automatic save location?

The Excel auto-save function can help users retrieve files that have not been manually saved after accidentally closing the Excel program. The Excel auto-save location is displayed as “Auto-recovery file location” in Excel. Please follow the steps below to find the Excel auto-recovery file location:

Step 1: Open the Excel file and click the (File) button in the upper left corner.

Step 2: Click (Options) in the left sidebar.

Step 3: Enter the Excel option, and click (Save).

You can view it under the “Save Workbook” column (automatically restore the file location), and you can also set the time interval for automatically saving files. If the file is very important, you can reduce the time interval.

II. How to recover unsaved Excel files?

1. Recover from AutoRecover file location

Copy the AutoRecovery file location into File Explorer to access Excel’s autosaved files. Once you have opened and reviewed the file, you can save it as a new file if needed.

2. Restore from administrative workbook

① In the event of an unexpected Excel closure without saving, reopen Excel, navigate to File at the top left, select Information followed by Manage Workbook, and locate the “When I close without saving” prompt to access the unsaved file. Note that if Excel is functioning and auto-saves are intact, you can find and revert to previous file versions through the workbook management feature.

② Then it will display “RECOVERED UNSAVED FILE   This is a recovered file that is temporarily stored on your computer“.

③ Please click on the “Restore” button to replace the unsaved new version of the Excel file with the previously saved version. In other words, this action will restore the unsaved Excel file to its last saved state.

3. Recover from the file recovery list

When the Excel program is closed unexpectedly, but the content has not been saved, you can try to open the original document, and find the unsaved file version in the “Document Recovery” list on the left.

4. Restore from recent documents

Open the Excel file, click (File) in the upper left corner, and then select (Open)-(Recent), you can view the recently used files, and click (Recover Unsaved Workbooks) at the bottom to view unsaved files.

If all attempts to recover the unsaved file are unsuccessful, it may be due to the AutoRecover feature not saving the document. To improve future recovery success, you should consider adjusting the AutoSave interval. Access this setting by navigating to File > Options > Save and configure the application to save automatically every minute. This adjustment significantly enhances the probability of retrieving unsaved documents.

III. Extension: Use Renee Undeleter to recover accidentally deleted Excel files

If the Excel file is deleted by mistake, you can restore it through the recycle bin first. If it cannot be restored in the recycle bin, you can only use professional data recovery software to scan the storage location of the Excel file, and then recover the accidentally deleted Excel file. Let’s take Renee Undeleter as an example to explain the specific steps.

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is optimized for recovering various data files. This tool is invaluable when you’ve accidentally deleted files, emptied the recycle bin, or formatted your disk/storage. It boasts four key features: file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery, and image creation, addressing a comprehensive range of data loss situations. It is compatible with a multitude of storage devices, including internal hard drives, external hard drives, SD cards, and USB drives. As long as the device can be connected to a computer, the software is capable of scanning and restoring files. Furthermore, it includes a preview function which aids users in pinpointing the precise files they need to retrieve.

2. How to use Renee Undeleter to recover accidentally deleted Excel files?

Step 1: Download, install, and run Renee Undeleter on the computer. Select the (Whole Partition Scan) option on the main interface. If you need to recover files from your external hard drive, connect it to your computer.

Notice : Do not install Renee Undeleter in the disk where data is lost to avoid data overwriting.

Step 2: Select the hard disk partition that needs to recover data and click (Next).

Step 3: After scanning, enter (xls) in the file filter and click (Search), and all Excel files will be displayed. Double-click the file to preview. if it is the file you need, please check the target file and click the (Recover) button.

Step 4: Select another hard disk partition to save the file, and click (Recover). Wait for the recovery to complete, click (Browse recovered files) to view the recovered Excel files.