recover Excel from Excel temp files

Excel temporary files location in Windows 11/10/8/7:

1. Windows 10: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles.

2. Windows 8/7/Vista: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles. 

3. Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles. Full guide...

Quick access to the solutions to recovering unsaved Excel from Excel temp files in Windows 10: 

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Recover unsaved Excel files with software Free download a file recovery tool to restore deleted or unsaved Excel files easily. EaseUS data recovery software...Full steps
Excel AutoSave location Windows 10  Microsoft Office has an AutoSave feature that saves Excel files automatically. Excel temporary files location...Full steps
How to recover unsaved Excel files Recover Excel temp files: Open Excel, click "File" > "Open" > "Recent" > "Recover Unsaved Workbook"...Full steps

Q: Where does Excel save temp files?

"Hi, I want to know how I can recover my lost Excel files that are not saved? I experienced C drive failures and lost two Excel files. Only one showed up for recovery, and another Excel file disappeared after hours of hard work. I know that Microsoft Office has an AutoSave option that can help me rescue my work. But where are my temporary Excel files saved? What's the Excel AutoSave location Windows 10?  - A user scenario from answers.microsoft.com

Microsoft Office offers the AutoRecover tool in 2016/2013/2010 to save your working Excel document automatically. When you lose the unsaved Excel files suddenly due to a power failure, system crash, or misoperation, you can recover the unsaved document from Excel temporary files created by Office. The AutoSave and AutoRecover may have different names in different Office versions, but they all have the same function.

Where Are Temporary Excel Files Stored in Windows 10/11

Microsoft Office's AutoSave feature will save the Excel files as you work into a temporary folder on Windows PC every X minutes (you can set the interval time as you like). The only thing that you need to do is to turn on the AutoRecover feature in the Office Excel app.

Excel AutoSave location on 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 Unsaved Excel Files with Data Recovery Software 

How do we recover the unsaved Excel documents safe and sound? What if you have lost some saved Excel files due to accidental deletion, storage device formatting, system corruption, or a virus attack?

To recover deleted or unsaved Excel files, you can resort to an innovative and powerful file recovery tool - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro.  This versatile data recovery software is famous for recovering deleted files at a very high recovery rate in the easiest way. The supported document file formats are: DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, PDF, CWK, HTML/HTM, INDD, EPS, etc.

EaseUS Unsaved Excel Recovery

  • Recover unsaved Excel files from formatted hard drive, emptied recycle bin, USB, SD card, Pen drive, external hard drive, etc. 
  • Repair corrupted Excel files after the data recovery, also repair damaged photos, videos, and Word.
  • Recover unsaved Word documents, Excel, PPT, and other files. You can also preview the unsaved files before recovery.
 Download for Win Recovery Rate 99.7%
 Download for Mac Trustpilot Rating 4.8

Now, download and use EaseUS data recovery software to retrieve unsaved Excel files in three simple steps.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on the computer. Choose the disk where you lost the unsaved files, and click "Search for Lost Data".

select a location and click scan

Step 2. You'll see the Path and Type tab on the left side,  click "Type" and "Unsaved Files". This unsaved file recovery software will help you recover unsaved Word, Excel, PPT, and other files with ease.

choose unsaved files

Step 3. Choose target files and click the "Preview" button. Then, click "Recover" to restore these unsaved files. Be careful not to revert the recovered files to the original location, as this may overwrite the file. You can also save the recovered files to cloud storage like OneDrive or Google Drive.

recover unsaved files

How to Recover Unsaved Excel from Temporary Files

In Office 2010 and the higher version, recovering Excel temp files is quite easy by using the AutoRecover feature. Take the following two ways to recover unsaved Excel files in Windows 10. 

You can also restore an unsaved Word document from temporary files in these two methods. 

Method 1. Using Recover Unsaved Workbooks 

Step 1. Open Excel, and click "File" > "Open" > "Recent" > "Recover Unsaved Workbooks" in the bottom left corner.

how to recover temporary Excel fiels - step 1

Step 2. Select the unsaved file and click the "Open" button. Then, on the pop-up window, choose "Save As" to recover it.

how to recover temporary Excel fiels - step 2

Method 2. Using Manage Workbooks  

Step 1. Open Excel, and click "File" > "Info" > "Manage Workbook". Click "Recover Unsaved Workbooks" from the drop-down menu.

how to recover unsaved Excel file

Step 2. Select the unsaved file and click the "Open" button. Then, on the pop-up window, choose "Save As" to recover it.

how to recover unsaved Excel file

Conclusion

The loss of Excel files happens from time to time, whether it is an unsaved or saved document. If you lose an unsaved Excel document, you can try to recover from Excel temporary files. While if you want to restore unsaved or permanently deleted Excel files, you need EaseUS data recovery to make it.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can Undelete files Windows 10 on HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, SD card, or other storage media effectively.

 Download for Win Recovery Rate 99.7%
 Download for Mac Trustpilot Rating 4.8

Extra Tip: How to Enable AutoSave Feature in Excel to Create Temp Files

You can turn on the AutoRecover feature in Excel in the steps below. 

Step 1. Open Excel go to "File" > "More" > "Options".

Excel options

Step 2. Select "Save" on the left panel. Tick the boxes of "Save AutoRecover information every * minutes" and "Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving".

Step 3. Click "OK" to save the changes.

turn on Excel autorecover

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Updated by Dany

Dany is an editor of EaseUS who lives and works in Chengdu, China. She focuses on writing articles about data recovery on Mac devices and PCs. She is devoted to improving her writing skills and enriching her professional knowledge. Dany also enjoys reading detective novels in her spare time.

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Written by Jean

Jean is recognized as one of the most professional writers in EaseUS. She has kept improving her writing skills over the past 10 years and helped millions of her readers solve their tech problems on PC, Mac, and iOS devices.

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