"Resolving the 'Excel crashes when saving file' issue using five methods"

What should I do if Excel crashes when saving a file?

"Last night, while trying to save an Excel file on Windows 10, it suddenly crashed. All my hard work and saved data in the Excel file vanished. Now, I need a reliable way to recover the lost Excel file and restore all the data. What should I do? Does anyone know how to fix the issue of Excel crashing while saving in Windows 10?"

How to fix Excel crashing during saving and recover crashed files

If Excel 2016, 2013, 2010, or 2007 crashes when you're saving a file on your PC, don't worry – you can find five effective methods to fix this issue in this article. You can try any of the provided methods to recover your crashed Excel file. For info on how to recover an unsaved Excel file on Mac, click here for quick access.

Method 1: Recover a Crashed Excel File by Repairing Office/Excel

Step 1: Restart your Windows computer, right-click the Start button, and choose “Control Panel.”

Step 2: Click on “Programs and Features,” then find and click on “Microsoft Office.”

Step 3: Right-click "Change" and the repair options dialog box will appear.

Step 4 Choose Quick Fix, and then open Excel to see if that resolved the issue.

Step 5: If it doesn't, select “Online Repair,” and wait for the repair process to finish. When it's done, try opening the corrupted Excel file – it should work normally.

Method 2: Recover a Crashed Excel through Open and Repair

Step 1: Click the File tab, and then click Open.

Step 2: In Excel 2016 or Excel 2013, click where it says Load Workbook, and then click Browse.

Step 3: In the Open dialog box, select the corrupted or crashed Excel file that you want to open.

Step 4: Click the arrow next to Open, then click Open and Repair.

Click “Repair” in the pop-up window to recover as much of the Excel data as possible. Alternatively, if the attempt to repair Excel fails, click “Extract Data” to pull values and formulas from Excel.

Method 3: Recover a Crashed Excel from Auto-Recover

If you have AutoRecover enabled in Excel, you can recover a crashed Excel file or spreadsheet from an AutoRecover copy on your computer. This feature also works for recovering unsaved Word documents in Windows 10.

Step 1: Open a new Excel file in Windows 10 or Windows 8/7.

Step 2: Click File > Open > Recent.

Step 3: Then, check the recently used Excel documents to find the unsaved files that got corrupted.

Step 4: Click on "Recover Unsaved Workbooks," and wait for the program to recover your crashed Excel file.

Step 5: A window will open where you can open the corrupted Excel file, and then click “Save As” to save the Excel file as a new document in a secure location on your computer.

Method 4: Recover Lost or Crashed Excel from a Temporary File

You can also find your unsaved lost Excel file from the Temporary folder when Excel crashes.

Step 1. Locate the Temp folder on your computer and search for the crashed or unsaved/lost Excel document there.

For Windows 10/8 users:

"C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles"

• For Windows 7 users:

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

Step 2: Look for and select the unsaved Excel file that crashed, then copy and save it as a new file.

Method 5: Recover a Crashed Excel from an Earlier Version

Step 1: Create a new Excel file and name it with the same name as the corrupted file.

Step 2: Right-click on the Excel file and select Properties.

Step 3: Click on "Previous Versions." Find the most recent version of your Excel file prior to the crash, and click "Restore." This should recover your corrupted Excel document.

Extra Tip: How to Use Free File Recovery Software to Retrieve Lost/Deleted/Formatted Excel Files

The above 5 methods can help you recover unsaved or crashed Excel files, but they are not applicable for retrieving deleted, lost, or formatted Excel documents. If you need to recover accidentally deleted Excel files, you can use a free data recovery software to assist you.

With this powerful data recovery tool, you can easily:

• Efficiently recovers lost or deleted documents, photos, audio, music, emails, or over 200 other file types from any storage device.
• Supports data recovery from SSD solid state drives, HDD, emptied Recycle Bin, USB flash drives, USB sticks, external hard drives, CF/SD cards, digital cameras, and camcorders.
• Caters to complex data recovery scenarios like accidental deletion, formatting, hard drive failure, virus attack, system crash, etc.

The simple steps for Excel file recovery are as follows:

Step 1: Specify a location

Running the Data Recovery Tool, you first need to select a starting location. Choose the X: drive, a specific folder on the desktop, or another location, then click “Scan.”

Step 2: Scan the data

During the scan, you will see more and more data appearing under the "Deleted Files" result. This is one of the things the software finds and displays.

Step 3: Preview and recover

To quickly find Excel files among the scan results, click “Filter” at the top and select “Documents.” Alternatively, you can search for .xls or .xlsx in the search bar. Select the desired files and click “Recover.”