Quick Fix to Accidentally Hit Don’t Save on Excel

Office job requires opening many Excel files. Accidentally hit don’t save on excel on one or two tabs or a power interruption can shut off your system. Does that indicate your efforts were wasted? No surprise! Have excellent news! Excel allows you to recover unintentional “Don’t Save” clicks.

Part 1: The Best Ways to Recover Unsaved Files After Accidentally Hit Don’t Save on Excel

Losing important Excel files due to an accidental click can be frustrating, but with the help of WinfrGUI, you can recover unsaved files in just a few simple steps. Check out the tutorial video below for assistance:

The main features of WinfrGUI:

• Recover lost data from Windows 10 and 11.
• Recover deleted, formatted, inaccessible, or lost files and folders.
• Easily recover MS Office files, deleted images, videos, music files, documents, emails, and more.
• Supports data recovery from laptops, computers, internal and external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, NAS storage, etc.

Follow these steps to recover an Excel file that wasn’t saved after clicking “Don’t Save”:

• Open WinfrGUI and select the drive where you lost your Excel files.
• Start WinfrGUI to scan for lost or deleted Excel files and identify recoverable files. Preview them as needed.
• Select the Excel file to restore and click “Recover.” after reading the preview. Choose where to save the recovered file, and recovery is complete.

Part 2: How to recover unsaved Excel files using 6 other methods.

There are several ways to recover accidentally deleted Excel files or files that haven’t been saved. Let’s explore these methods together:

Method 1: Recover unsaved Excel files from “Show Recovered Files.”

This is the main way to recover an unsaved Excel file. Follow these steps:

• Open the Excel file and click on “File,” then go to “Open.”
• Click on “Recent” and look for the “Show Recovered Files” button. Click here to access all the files you haven’t saved yet.
• Find the file you need and save it by giving it a new name.

Method 2: Recover unsaved Excel files from temporary files.

Microsoft Office has an “AutoRecover” feature that helps save your documents while you work. This is available for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Your unsaved files will be stored in a specific directory according to the version of Windows you are using. Temporary files are located here:

• Windows 10: C:\Users\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\Unsaved Files
• Windows 8/7/Vista: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
• Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Unsaved Files

Note: These temporary files have a filename prefix indicated by a tilde (~) to show that they are temporary files and have not been permanently saved. This helps save space on your hard drive.

Method 3: Recover unsaved Excel files using Excel’s AutoSave and AutoRecover functions.

Excel’s AutoSave and AutoRecover protect and restore data. AutoSave stores new worksheets, whereas AutoRecover recovers unsaved files after a crash or closing. To utilize these features:

• Open Excel and choose “File” > “Open” > “Recent.”
• Find “recover unsaved workbook” or a similar option in your Windows version.
• Clicking here opens the Excel file search page.

Method 4: Recover unsaved Excel files using the Recent Workbooks option.

As previously, click “File” > “Open” > “Recent Workbooks” > “Recover Unsaved Workbooks.”

Open the chat box to search for files. Please pick and save.

Method 5: Find unsaved Excel files from previous versions.

To discover an altered copy of an unsaved Excel file, perform these steps:

• Open the Excel file.
• The document recovery panel lists unsaved documents. Click any name to load file.
• Rename the file after getting it.

Method 6: Recover Excel Files from OneDrive and Dropbox

You can save your work to OneDrive or Dropbox and access it from anywhere. To recover an unsaved Excel file using these cloud services:

For OneDrive:

• Go to https://onedrive.live.com.
• Register or log in with your Microsoft account.
• Explore the OneDrive interface and recover files that you haven’t saved yet.

For Dropbox:

• Visit http://dropbox.com.
• Please register or log in to your account.
• Find the Excel file you need and download it.

Part 3: Accidentally Hit Don’t Save on Excel: FAQ

How to enable the AutoSave and AutoRecover functions.

Enable these features to save and recover your Excel file automatically. Follow these steps:

• Click “File” > “Options” > “Save”
• See “AutoRecover information” & “check the latest AutoRecovered version if I close without saving.”

Can I create a backup copy of the saved Excel file?

That’s right! Follow these steps to enable automatic backup for the workbook:

• Go to “File” > “Save As” and click on “Browse” to open the “Save As” dialog box.
• In the chat box, click on “Tools.” (located in the lower right part).
• Select “General Options” and check “Always create a backup copy.”
• Click agree and save the file in the location/folder you want.

Can we recover the document if we clicked “don’t save”?

Yes, you can easily recover unsaved documents. Open Excel and look for the “Recover Unsaved Files” button on the main menu bar. Click here to access all unsaved files, find the one you need, and save it by giving it a new name.

What will happen if I accidentally click “Don’t save”?

Accidentally clicking “Don’t Save” might erase all files. However, a solution exists. WinfrGUI is the greatest Excel file recovery program.

Summary

Here are seven ways to restore unsaved Excel files after unintentionally clicking “Don’t Save.” If the other six ways are too difficult, use WinfrGUI data recovery.

>>Also Read: Where To Find Autosave Excel Files