How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File from a Temporary File in Windows 10/11

Swiftly access methods to recover unsaved Excel solutions from temporary files in Windows 10:

Please provide the English content you would like translated, and I'll promptly translate it into Chinese for you.

Question: Where does Excel save temporary files?

"Hello, I'm wondering how to recover unsaved lost Excel files? My C drive had an issue and I lost two Excel files. Only one appeared during the recovery, but the other one, which I spent hours working on, is gone. I know Microsoft Office has an auto-save option that could help me restore my work. However, where are my temporary Excel files saved? Where does Excel autosave on Windows 10?" - Scenario from a user on answers.microsoft.com

Microsoft Office has an "AutoRecover" feature in its 2016, 2013, and 2010 versions that automatically saves your Excel workbook. If you lose unsaved Excel work due to a power outage, system crash, or accidental closure, you can recover the file from an auto-saved temporary file created by Office. The names of "AutoSave" and "AutoRecover" may vary between different versions of Office, but they function the same way.

Where are temporary Excel files stored in Windows 10/11?

Microsoft Office's AutoSave feature saves your Excel file to a temporary folder on your Windows computer every X minutes (you can customize the interval). All you need to do is enable the AutoRecover feature in the Office Excel app.

AutoSave location in Excel for 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 an unsaved Excel file using data recovery software

How can you safely recover unsaved Excel documents? What if you've lost some saved Excel files due to accidental deletion, formatting of the storage device, system corruption, or a virus attack?

To recover deleted or unsaved Excel files, you can use the innovative and powerful file recovery tool – tools Data Recovery Wizard Pro. This all-in-one data recovery software is renowned for its high recovery rate and the simplest way to recover deleted files. It supports various document file formats, including DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, PDF, CWK, HTML/HTM, INDD, EPS, and more.

Now, download and use the Data Recovery software tool to retrieve unsaved Excel file through three simple steps.

Step 1: Launch the tools Data Recovery Wizard on your computer. Select the disk where you lost unsaved files and click "Scan".

Step 2: On the left side, you can see the "Path" and "Type" tabs, click on "Type" and then select "Unsaved Files". You can double-click on the folder to open it, or click on "Open". This unsaved file recovery tool will help you easily recover unsaved Word, Excel, PPT files, and more.

Select the unsaved files

Step 3: Select the files you want to recover and click the "Preview" button. After that, hit "Restore" to retrieve your unsaved files. Make sure not to restore the files to their original location as this might overwrite the existing files.

How to Recover an Unsaved Excel File from a Temporary Folder

In Office 2010 and later, you can easily recover Excel temporary files using the AutoRecover feature. Here's how to restore unsaved Excel files using two methods in Windows 10.

You can also recover an unsaved Word document from a temporary file by using either of these methods.

Method 1: Use "Recover Unsaved Workbooks"

Step 1: Open Excel, and click “File” > “Open” > “Recent” > “Recover Unsaved Workbooks” at the bottom left.

Step 2: Select the unsaved file and click on the "Open" button. Next, in the newly opened window, choose "Save As" to recover the file.

Method 2: Using “Manage Workbooks”

Step 1: Open Excel, click on “File” > “Info” > “Manage Workbooks.” Select “Recover Unsaved Workbooks” from the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Select the unsaved file and click on the "Open" button. Then, in the newly opened window, choose "Save As" to recover the file.

Conclusion

Excel files, whether unsaved or saved, can sometimes go missing. If you've lost an unsaved Excel document, you might be able to recover it from an Excel temporary file. However, if you need to restore an unsaved or permanently deleted Excel file, you'll need to use a data recovery tool.

The Data Recovery Wizard tool can effectively recover deleted files from Windows 10 on an HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, SD card, or any other storage media.

Additional Tip: How to Enable AutoSave in Excel to Create Temporary Files Enabling the AutoSave feature in Excel ensures that your work is recoverable in case of unexpected program closures or system failures. Here's how to activate it: 1. Open the Excel application. 2. Click on the "File" menu. 3. Select "Options." 4. In the "Excel Options" window that appears, click on the "Save" tab. 5. Locate the "Save Workbooks" section. 6. In the "AutoRecover" area, check the box for "Enable AutoRecover information save." 7. Use the dropdown menu to set the interval for auto-saving, for example, every 10 minutes. 8. Below "AutoRecover file location," you can view or change the default location where the auto-saved files are stored. 9. Click "OK" to apply the settings. Now, Excel will automatically save your work at the specified time intervals and create temporary files in the background. If an unexpected event occurs, you can recover your data by going to "File" > "Open" > "Recent Documents" and selecting "Recover Unsaved Workbooks."

You can enable the AutoRecover feature in Excel by following these steps:

Step 1: Open Excel, and click "File" > "More" > "Options."

Step 2: In the left panel, click on “Save.” Check the boxes for “Automatically save information every * minutes” and “Keep my latest automatically saved version if I close without saving.”

Step 3: Click “OK” to save your changes.