An Ultimate Guide You Need to Learn About How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File

Unexpected events in business analytics might prove fatal. Days and months of work reports and dashboards might get lost within a matter of seconds. What if there was a way to recover your data? 

Excel is one of the most fundamental business intelligence tools out there. Even Excel users lose data once in a while due to unexpected circumstances. Yet, there is a way to undo or recover the lost data. This tutorial will help you with a step-by-step explanation of how to recover unsaved data in an excel file.

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Excel AutoSave Option

The latest version of Microsoft Excel comes with an option for AutoSave. Excel automatically saves the latest version of your workbook. In case the AutoSave option is disabled, Microsoft Excel will still pop up a warning asking to save the file as shown below.

Unsaved_Excel_File_1.

Apart from this, Excel also shows the user an option of choosing the earlier version of the excel file. Here, the file remains in the state in which you left it the last time. Such an option is available on the left-hand side of the spreadsheet when you open an Excel file as shown below.

Unsaved_Excel_File_2

Now, this was an ideal situation. But what if an unexpected circumstance occurs where excel gets forcefully closed or shut down? Or, if some unexpected changes happen to the file, then how would you revoke the original file or recover the unsaved excel files?

There is an option for the same, which you will learn it in the next stage.

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How to Recover Unsaved Files in Excel With a Built-in Option?

This procedure is really simple. There's a dedicated folder on Microsoft office name in your local file system. This folder is purposed to store the recent version of all your unsaved excel files. The folder can be accessed with a few simple steps.

Navigate to File

Unsaved_Excel_File_3

Select Open, on the bottom section, choose the “Recover Unsaved Workbooks” option.

Unsaved_Excel_File_4

This will navigate you to the Recovery folder in your local file system and you can recover the unsaved excel file of your choice.

Another method is also similar.

Navigate to File

Unsaved_Excel_File_5

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Select Info, Choose the “Manage Workbook” option

This will navigate you to the same file location where you get the Excel recovery files.

Unsaved_Excel_File_6

With this, you have come to an end of this tutorial on how to recover unsaved Excel files. 

Looking forward to a career as a Business Analyst? Check out the Business Analytics Certification Training with Excel and get certified today.

Next Steps

"DateDif in Excel" can be your next stop. Most of the time, the business data relies on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports. This creates a crucial need of keeping track of dates and the differences between them. DateDif in Excel is an inbuilt function that helps you keep track of all business transactions and dates

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Curious about learning business analytics and searching for the right mentor? Simplilearn's business analytics has got you covered. This Business Analytics certification course offered by Simplilearn will teach you the basic concepts of data analysis and statistics to enhance your data-driven decision-making. This program introduces you to business intelligence tools like Power BI and takes you into the statistical concepts that will help you extract insights from provided data to deliver your reports using professional-level dashboards.

If you have any doubts, please let us know in the comments below, and our Excel experts will resolve them at the earliest.

About the Author

Ravikiran A SRavikiran A S

Ravikiran A S works with Simplilearn as a Research Analyst. He an enthusiastic geek always in the hunt to learn the latest technologies. He is proficient with Java Programming Language, Big Data, and powerful Big Data Frameworks like Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark.

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