Excel autorecover not working for days. How to get back new file?

Excel autorecover hasn't worked for days. It does not autosave any file and we hasn't noticed until the program hung. How can we get back the new file? Is it still possible?

We were working on a new file for hours. Then the program hung when I tried to open another file. The file was just a small file without any complexity. I still don't get why opening this would make it hang. I was forced to kill the program.

Re-opening Excel, nothing was recovered. Hours of work on the new file is gone. The new file hasn't been saved yet. The name is "Untitled".

I went to C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel. The file was not there.

1. I believe Excel created a temporary file for that new file. Where should I look for to locate that temp file?
2. Why does autorecover fail to work? How to fix it? A repair does not work.

We missed the good old Excel 2007. Autorecover never fails.

Thanks a lot.

If the file is not in the directory you mentioned, I'm afraid it is gone (however some people suggest you might be able to find them if you have "show hidden files" on)

It seems that more people have that problem with Excel 2016.

Some of the responses I read suggest the following:

- Deleting the data in C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel, afterwards it seemed to save the files there for some people.
- Checking the options -> save -> Autorecover exception for (workbook) -> Disable AutoRecover for this workbook only (seems Excel automatically checks the box for some workbooks)

It appears that the AutoRecover function is really buggy in Excel 2016 though, so I would suggest saving frequently instead, as it doesn't seem like they will be fixing it anytime soon.

Ferdy

Originally Posted by mastertonn

When we create a new file and keep inputting data, the program has to store the data somewhere, doesn't it? I believe the data is still there but I just don't know where to look for, perhaps in some system or temp folder?

It might still be in a temp file somewhere, this website says there might still be .tmp files in C:\Users\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles (for windows 10)
for windows 7 or xp the path is the same as you mentioned above though, as this is where Excel saves these temp files (these temp files generally get deleted when Excel is closed, they only remain when AutoRecover actually works)

Originally Posted by mastertonn

The first method works. So do I need to keep emptying all files in that folder to make sure AutoRecover works consistently?

I don't know if you have to keep doing this, as the guy who posted this solution didn't state this. I just got this of the Microsoft forums https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...e-589cdb797f15

"I was able to resolve this issue on my computer with windows 10 & O365. I did a Online quick repair but that didn't seem to fix it.

Then i deleted the files in "C:\Users\userName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel"

Then my test files and all of my other files started creating files in that directory every minute like they should have. The "Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving" didn't start working until I did this as well.

good luck"

As you can see, I just Google myself through this

Originally Posted by mastertonn

The good old 2007 does not have this issue. Autorecover always works.
I don't see any real meaningful improvement after I upgraded to Excel 2016, but I experienced several regression (autorecover, conditional formatting). Urgh!

Yeah, it is pretty sad that Microsoft doesn't appear to respond to the issue either.

Ferdy

I doubt there will be any third-party software that will save your excel files automatically, considering everyone expects the auto save and auto recover functions within Excel itself to work. Highly doubt there will be anyone who would invest time and resources into developing a program for something that doesn't work due to a bug, sadly.

(note: i'm just getting all this info by googling)

From what the search results tell me the 2016 one is most problematic, 2010 seems to affect only a few people and don't see anyone about the 2013 one.