How to Recover Unsaved Excel Files from Excel Temporary Files in Windows 10/11

To recover unsaved Excel files in Windows 10, you can quickly access the solutions by following these steps: First, check if Excel has created temporary files for your unsaved work, which can be found in the C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Temp folder. If you find a file with a .

Q: Where does Excel save temp files?

Unfortunately, when your C drive fails, it can be challenging to recover lost Excel files, especially if they weren't saved. However, Microsoft Office's AutoSave feature can indeed help you recover your work. By default, AutoSave saves temporary files in the following locations:Excel AutoSave location Windows 10?  - A user scenario from answers.microsoft.com

Microsoft Office, including 2016/2013/2010, offers the AutoRecover tool that automatically saves your working Excel document. If you experience a power failure, system crash, or misoperation, you can recover the unsaved document from Excel temporary files created by Office, which is also known as AutoSave and AutoRecover in different Office versions.

Where Are Temporary Excel Files Stored in Windows 10/11

Microsoft Office's AutoSave feature saves Excel files as you work into a temporary folder on a Windows PC every X minutes, which can be set to a desired interval. To enable this feature, simply turn on AutoRecover in the Office Excel app.

Excel AutoSave location on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP: 

Windows 10: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles 

Windows 8/7/Vista: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles 

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

How to Recover Unsaved Excel from Temporary Files

In Office 2010 and the higher version, recovering Excel temp files is quite easy by using the AutoRecover feature. Take the following two ways to recover unsaved Excel files in Windows 10. 

You can also restore an unsaved Word document from temporary files in these two methods. 

Method 1. Using Recover Unsaved Workbooks 

Step 1.To recover an unsaved Excel workbook, open Excel, click on "File" in the top left corner, select "Open" from the dropdown menu, and then choose "Recent" from the next dropdown menu. Finally, click on "Recover Unsaved Workbooks" located at the bottom left corner of the window.

Step 2.To recover an unsaved file, select it and click the "Open" button, then choose "Save As" from the pop-up window.

Method 2. Using Manage Workbooks  

Step 1.To recover unsaved Excel workbooks, open Excel and click "File" > "Info" > "Manage Workbook" from the top menu, then select "Recover Unsaved Workbooks" from the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Select the unsaved file and click the "Open" button. Then, on the pop-up window, choose "Save As" to recover it.

How to Recover Lost/Deleted Excel Files with Data Recovery Software 

If you've lost an unsaved Excel document, you can try recovering it from Excel's temporary files. However, if you've lost a saved Excel file due to accidental deletion, storage device formatting, system corruption, or a virus attack, the above solutions won't work. In such cases, you may need to explore other data recovery options, such as using a third-party data recovery software, checking the Recycle Bin, or seeking professional help from a data recovery service.

To recover deleted or lost Excel files, you can use the innovative Deep Data Recovery software, which is famous for recovering deleted files at a high recovery rate in the easiest way. This versatile data recovery tool supports various document file formats, including DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, PDF, CWK, HTML/HTM, INDD, EPS, and more.

To recover deleted Excel files, download and use Qiling data recovery software, which can retrieve lost files in just three simple steps.

Step 1. Select file types and click "Next" to start

To recover lost files, launch Deep Data Recovery, select the desired file types, and click "Next" to initiate the recovery process.

Step 2. Select location and click "Scan"

Select the drive or folder where the Excel files are located and click the "Scan" button to start the recovery process.

Step 3. Locate your excel files

To quickly find the Excel files from the scan results, click the "Documents" option in the left panel, select "Excel" and click "Preview" to verify if the Excel files are the desired ones.

Step 4. Recover Excel files

Select the desired Excel files, click the "Recover" button, and choose a folder to save the recovered Excel files to another location.

Conclusion

Losing Excel files, whether unsaved or saved, is a frustrating experience. If you've lost an unsaved document, you can try recovering it from Excel's temporary files. However, if you've lost a saved file or want to restore a permanently deleted one, you'll need to use a data recovery tool like Qiling to retrieve it.

Deep Data Recovery can recover permanently deleted files from various storage media, including HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, SD card, and more, with a high success rate.

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

Extra Tip: How to Enable AutoSave Feature in Excel to Create Temp Files

To turn on the AutoRecover feature in Excel, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open Excel go to "File" > "More" > "Options".

Step 2. To save your work, select the "Save" option on the left panel, then tick the boxes for saving AutoRecover information every specified minutes and keeping the last autosaved version if you close without saving.

Step 3. Click "OK" to save the changes.

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