How to Recover a Deleted Worksheet in Excel

In this article, you'll learn how to undo the deletion of a worksheet in Excel and use the Data Recovery Wizard tool to restore a permanently removed Excel document. At the bottom of this page, you'll find additional guidance on how to effectively recover an unsaved Excel file.

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You're editing an Excel spreadsheet and accidentally delete a tab containing crucial data. Disaster! You usually have two options: close the Excel file without saving to restore the deleted sheet, or click “Save” and lose your chance to undo the deletion. Each choice forces you to give up something, making it a difficult decision.

Now that you're here, you can find a way out of this fix.

Recover Deleted Table (Data) from Excel 2007/2010/2013/2016

You can learn how to restore deleted worksheets and data in Excel without losing any changes through the following visual guide:

Method 1: Restore the Deleted Excel Sheet before Saving

Once you delete a worksheet in Excel, you can't use the "Undo" option to get it back. The easiest way is to simply close the workbook without saving your changes, and then reopen it. The deleted sheet will reappear. But what if you've made a lot of important changes to the workbook and don't want to lose them? Here's a solution.

1. Click the "File" menu and select "Save As" to give your current Excel document a new file name.

2. Reopen your original Excel file.

3. Copy any sheets from the original file that you want to keep into the new, renamed document.

This will restore the deleted worksheet data to a new Excel document, preserving all of your changes to the Excel file.

Method 2: Recover a Deleted Worksheet in Excel after Saving

If you saved the Excel file after deleting the worksheet, the original file will be overwritten and you won't be able to open it to recover the worksheet. In this case, you may be able to restore the original Excel document using a "Previous Version."

1. Press Windows+E to open File Explorer, then open the folder where you saved the Excel document previously.

Click on your Excel file, click the “Home” tab on the toolbar, then click the “History” button in the “Open” group. This will tell File History to show all of the files in that folder's latest backup.

3. Click the "Previous Versions" tab, find and select the version you wish to restore. Then, click the green "Restore" button to undo the deletion of your Excel worksheet.

With either of these methods, you can recover a deleted worksheet in Excel. If you accidentally deleted your entire Excel file instead of just one sheet, don't worry – keep reading to get your file back.

How to Recover Deleted Excel Files on Windows 10/11

There can be various reasons behind the loss of your Excel documents, such as accidental deletion, formatting of the hard drive, damaged/Corrupted device, OS crash, and so on. But don't lose hope when you encounter such situations. You can use the Data Recovery Wizard tool to help retrieve your lost Excel file, even if it has been permanently deleted.

Step 1: Choose a location and click "Scan"

Select the drive where your lost Excel file was saved, or choose Desktop or any specific folder, and then click on the “Scan” button.

Choose the location of your Excel file

Step 2: Locate your Excel file

To quickly find your Excel file from the scan results, click “Documents” in the left pane. Select “Excel,” and then click “Preview” to make sure the Excel file is correct.

Step 3: Recover Excel Files

Finally, select the needed Excel file and click on the “Recover” button. Then choose a folder to save the Excel file to another location.

Related reading: How to Recover Unsaved and Deleted Word Documents in Windows 10

Additional Guide: How to Recover Unsaved Excel Files

When we talk about Excel data recovery, there is another important aspect to it, i.e., recovering unsaved Excel files. It happens with almost everyone. You work day and night on an important Excel document, but suddenly there is a power outage, your computer shuts down, and you don't get time to click on the Save button. Naturally, the Excel file that you were working on disappears.

In this case, you might be extremely worried about losing an Excel document with loads of data. Don't panic. Fortunately, you can recover unsaved Excel with the built-in AutoRecover feature in Excel by following the steps below.

1. Open Excel, click "File," and then click "Info." Click the "Manage Workbooks" button, then select "Recover Unsaved Workbooks" from the menu.

2. A window will appear, showing all unsaved Excel files. Select the file you want to recover, then click "Open" to load the workbook.

3. Click the “Save As” button in the yellow bar to restore your worksheet.

If Auto-Recover is disabled, this solution won't work. You can enable it by following these steps:

Open Excel, and click “File” > “Options.” In the left pane of the Options window, click “Save.” Change the time in “Save AutoRecover information every xx minutes,” then click “OK.”

Even with this feature enabled, your computer typically retains unsaved temporary files for only up to four days after the most recent version. So, to be safe, you should save documents regularly and back up important files to an external hard drive.

Related Reading: How to Recover Lost or Unsaved Excel Files on Mac