How To Recover Excel Data After Accidentally Clicked Don’t Save Excel File?

Summary: In this article learn how to recover Excel file after clicking don’t save. Follow the given solutions here and restore unsaved Excel files effectively.

Losing unsaved Excel data is really a big dilemma. It doesn’t matter whether you lost an entire spreadsheet or just the latest edits. It is a real pain as it takes a lot of time to recover lost data after accidentally hit don’t save on Excel.

Data loss is the worst nightmare in Excel and it can occur anytime just due to sudden crash or you accidentally clicked don’t save Excel or other hazards.

Although I am here to help you out, there are few ways that help you recover unsaved, lost, deleted or accidentally clicked don’t save Excel files.

Let explain it best with the user experience..!!

I accidentally clicked “don’t save” on a file and then I closed. I really need this file. It was a file on the “ScreenFlow” software. Is there any way I can go back to recover this file?

                                                                                                                                     Original Post in Quora

You may not restore the most recent changes but are worth a shot than starting from scratch.

So, go ahead, read the article and follow the given solutions one by one to restore unsaved Excel files.

Best Software To Recover Accidentally Clicked Don’t Save Excel File

You can make use of the Excel Recovery Tool, this helps you to recover deleted, corrupted, lost Excel file even without any backup. Not only this it is also capable to repair corrupt, damaged Excel (XLS and XLSX) files and fix Excel errors as well.

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* Free version of the product only previews recoverable data.

With this, you can recover chart, chart sheet, table, cell comment, image, cell comment, formula, and sort & filter and all data components from corrupt Excel file. It is easy to use and support all Excel versions.

Why To Choose Excel Recovery Tool?

• Quickly recover and repair both .xls and .xlsx file.
• Easily restore multiple corrupted Excel file simultaneously.
• Restore everything including worksheets, cell comments, worksheet properties,charts and other data.
• Too easy to use so that even a novice user can also use it.
• Supports both Windows as well as Mac operating system.

Steps To Utilize MS Excel Repair Tool:

How To Recover Accidentally Clicked Don’t Save Excel Files?

Follow the given methods one by one carefully to recover accidentally deleted data in Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 & 2007.

1: Recover Data From Within Excel

Excel saves the works on a regular basis by its own, as if in case Excel quits accidentally (system crash, sudden power cut etc.) there is still a chance available for data recovery in Excel.

• Open Excel again, you can see the Recovered heading > choose Show Recovered Files.

• Now Excel will open new spreadsheet > with Document Recovery panel

• And click on any file listed to see most recent save.

Well, it is not always updated as you can’t recover the most recent edits but can recover other stored data.

2: Recover From Temp Files

Microsoft Office saves temporary files occasionally as backups, so this is also an option available to recover lost Excel workbook data due to in Excel accidentally clicked don’t save.

So, you can also look for temporary files and try recovering them.

Follow the steps to do so:

• Press Win key + R > and in the Run Window type the below-given address > hit Enter
• The Windows 8/10 users:
  • C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
• The Windows 7 users:
  • C:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\
• And find temporary Excel files begin with “$” or “~” and end with “.TMP”
• Next copy the files save to another safe location and change the extension from.TMP to .XLS/.XLSX.

In this way you can restore the accidentally clicked don’t save Excel files.

3: Make Use Of Excel AutoSave And AutoRecover Option

In Excel two options are available the AutoSave and AutoRecover, this allows you to recover unsaved or accidentally deleted data only if it is enabled.  Luckily both the AutoSave and AutoRecover options are by default turned on in Excel.

 Here learn about AutoSave and AutoRecover option and also how to use it.

Excel AutoSave: This tool automatically saves the recent document you have just created but haven’t saved yet.

Excel AutoRecover: It allows you to recover unsaved files lost due to sudden closer or crashing of the Excel file. With this, you can restore last saved version displays in Document Recovery pane when you open Excel next time.

Please Note: This feature only works on the saved Excel workbooks, if you never save the file then the Document Recover Panel won’t show in Excel.

* I had discussed the recovery process in the first step (Recover data from within Excel)

You can also configure the AutoSave (AutoRecover) settings in Excel; here follow the steps to do so:

• Go to the File tab > choose Options > click Save on left side
• And assure both Save AutoRecover information every X minutes and also tick mark the Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving option

• Next click OK.

The AutoRecover feature is by default set to automatically save, you can change it to every 10 minutes. You can also change the time interval as you like.

You can also change the Excel AutoRecover file location and specify AutoRecover exceptions.

So, this is it, now you can easily restore Excel file when something goes wrong. And follow the steps given in the article to recover lost, deleted or accidentally clicked don’t save Excel.

Well, there are many cases seen when the Excel AutoRecover is not working, so, it is very important to back up your data regularly to avoid data loss situation.

4: Recover From Previous Version Option

Excel allows the users to recover the previous versions of your documents. So, if you accidentally clicked don’t save Excel workbook, then follow the given instructions to recover Excel file.

In Excel,> open the File tab > click Info > Manage Versions button, you can see entire autosaved versions of your file

Excel automatically saves the version of the workbook at specified intervals but if any changes were made to the spreadsheet between the intervals, then the name of every version has data and time plus autosave note on it.

When you click on any of them, it open with the most recent version of the workbook, you can compare and identify the changes.

However, if in case the program is closed incorrectly, then the last autosave is labeled with (when I closed without saving).

When you open this Excel file a message appears above your worksheet then in the yellow bar click on Restore button for reverting last unsaved workbook version.

Please Note: Entire previously Autosaved Excel versions are deleted as the document is closed so if you need to have a look at previous version again then make sure to create a backup copy of your data.

So, these are the ways that help you to fix accidentally clicked don’t save issue on Excel and recover data from Excel workbook. 

Steps To Utilize Excel Recovery Tool:

Now It’s Your Turn

Data loss is inevitable, this happens anytime but you can make the whole process less painful by creating a backup at the regular interval of time.

Well, you can make use of the above-given steps to recover data after accidentally clicked don’t save Excel. Hope the given solutions work for you to recover unsaved Excel data and from now onward you don’t have worry about how can i recover an Excel file i didn’t save.

So, make sure to follow the given steps carefully and if nothing works make use of the Excel Recovery software as this offer maximum advantages and easy data recovery in Excel.

If, in case you have any additional questions concerning the ones presented, then visit our Repair MS Excel Facebook and Twitter.

Good Luck….