How to find an unsaved excel file

Q: Where are unsaved Excel files stored?

To do this, click File” on the ribbon, go to the Info” section, and choose Manage Workbook”. Choose Recover Unsaved Workbooks” to display and recover unsaved Excel files. Excel saves unsaved files to the folder C:UsersAppDataLocalMicrosoftOfficeUnsavedFiles. You can also access the files from this folder.

Excel for Microsoft 365 PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Excel 2021 PowerPoint 2021 Excel 2019 PowerPoint 2019 Excel 2016 PowerPoint 2016 More...Less

Table of Contents Show

If you’ve saved the file
If you haven’t saved the file
Need more help?
How do you recover an Excel File that was not saved?
Where are unsaved Excel files stored?

If the AutoRecover option is turned on, you can automatically save versions of your file while you’re working on it. How you recover something depends on when you saved it.

If you’ve saved the file

Open the file you were working on.
Go to File > Info.
Under Manage Workbook or Manage Presentation, select the file labeled (when I closed without saving).
In the bar at the top of the file, select Restore to overwrite any previously saved versions.

Tip: In Word, you can also compare versions by clicking Compare instead of Restore.

If you haven’t saved the file

Go to File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Workbooks in Excel, or Recover Unsaved Presentations in PowerPoint.
Select the file, and then select Open.
In the bar at the top of the file, select Save As to save the file.