How to Recover Lost Data From an Unsaved Spreadsheet

This problem is addressed in Excel through an Auto Recover feature that takes snapshots of your spreadsheets as you work. These snapshots help Excel reopen a workbook after a crash occurs. The Auto Recover feature has to be enabled for it to work.

Enable Auto Recover Feature

Step 1 Click "Office" button (Top Left) and then "Excel Options" (Bottom Right).

Step 2 Click "Save" on the ‘Excel Options’ dialog box.

Step 3 Check mark the "Save AutoRecover information every __ minutes" to enable the option. Type a value for example "10" in the minutes text box – to set the frequency for Excel to save your data.

Step 4 Click "OK" to save settings.

Recover Document

Step 1 Launch Excel after a crash or unexpected shut down. The Document Recovery pane is displayed with up to three versions of the Excel document recovered.

Step 2 Click the "Down" arrow next to the file that you want to recover to open menu options.

Step 3 Click "Open" to view the document. To save - click "Save As" and type a filename in the "Save As" text box, and click "Save".

Important The “Save” button is still your best friend. To make sure you don’t lose your current work, click Save (or press CTRL+S) often.