Recover Deleted/Unsaved Numbers Files on Mac

Recovering Digital Files Overview

"My computer just shut down automatically, and when I restarted it, I lost a document with crucial data that I was editing, which is not easily recoverable. Can you tell me if there's any way to retrieve this file and how to go about it?"

-TGGMD from the Apple community

A Numbers file can be lost or deleted under many circumstances – virus attacks, accidental deletion, power cuts, or formatting the hard drive can all lead to data loss. Fortunately, there's still a chance to recover a deleted Numbers file from the Trash or by using a data recovery tool on your Mac. If you never saved the file in the first place, you can retrieve your precious data from the Auto Save folder. Try out these solutions to restore your Numbers spreadsheet on your Mac.

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3 Ways to Recover Deleted/Unsaved Numbers Files on Mac

If you've lost a file, the chances of recovering data directly from your computer are slim, since you've probably already looked there. But that doesn't mean you're out of luck. Here are three methods to try to recover a deleted or unsaved Numbers file on your Mac.

Method 1: Recover unsaved and deleted number files on Mac with a recovery tool

If you lost your Numbers files due to disk formatting or a virus attack, you might need the assistance of a data recovery tool. We recommend using the professional Mac Data Recovery Wizard to get your files back. It can scan your hard drive, external hard drive, SD card, or USB flash drive for all the data that's been lost on your Mac OS X/macOS without a trace. The tool will even scan and list all the files that you've emptied from the Trash, allowing you to recover deleted files from the emptied Trash.

Download the software right away to try deleted Numbers file recovery on Mac.

Note: You can create a backup by clicking "Disk Backup" on the left first. You can then restore data from the backup image when the disk is damaged or when unsaved documents on the disk are accidentally deleted or lost.

Step 1: Select a disk

Launch the Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Hover over the device from which you lost an unsaved file in the list that appears, then click Find Lost Files.

Step 2: Choose the unsaved document

Once the scan is finished, click on “Type” and then expand “Unsaved Documents.” Click on the exact file type of the unsaved file you lost – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote, Pages, or Numbers.

Step 3. Preview and recover unsaved files

Double-click the unsaved file to preview it, choose the correct version, and then click “Recover” to save the file to another secure location on your Mac.

Recovering an Unsaved Word Document: "Accidentally Clicked Don't Save in Word? How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document"

Method 2: Recover the Deleted Number File from the Mac Trash

For those unfamiliar with the functionality of the Trash on a Mac, this article will explain how to recover deleted files from it. This will only work if you have not emptied the Trash since deleting the file(s).

Step 1: Go to the Trash on your Mac.

Step 2: Add the filter in the toolbar to list all the deleted Numbers files.

Step 3. Find the file you need, and click "Put Back" to restore the selection to your Mac.

Method 3: Recover a Numbers Spreadsheet with Auto-Save

"Auto Save" is a built-in feature on the Mac that works with document apps. When it's turned on, your system saves documents automatically at least once an hour, and also when you open, duplicate, lock, rename, revert, or manually save a document. Here's how to recover an unsaved Numbers spreadsheet.

Step 1. Check if “Auto Save” is enabled. Go to “System Preferences” → “General,” and see if the “Ask to keep changes when closing documents” option is checked. If it's unchecked, then Auto Save was active, and your unsaved Numbers document might have been saved through it. If Auto Save wasn't enabled, try Method 1 in Part 1 to see if you can recover the data.

Step 2: Go to the following location: [Your hard drive] > Users > [Your Home folder] > Pictures > Containers > com.apple.iWork.Numbers.

Step 3: Right-click (or Control-click) on the com.apple.iWork.Numbers file and choose Show Package Contents.

Step 4. Go to File > Libraries > Auto-Save Information. You might find your unsaved Numbers document here.

Bottom line

That's it for how to recover deleted or unsaved Numbers files on Mac. To avoid such data loss scenarios, you can back up your entire Mac, or enable iCloud automatic backups for your iWork files like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. You can also always rely on data recovery tools like Data Recovery Wizard to restore lost data from HDD, SSD, fusion drives, or Time Machine backup disks.