Excel Frozen How to Save: 4 Solutions

MS Excel is great for collecting, presenting, and analyzing computer data. Excel sometimes freezes, especially when saving a spreadsheet. What happens when Excel freezes and you need to save? Insufficient storage capacity, many apps open, and a sluggish machine are the main causes of Excel unresponsiveness. Wait 5 seconds to 5 minutes to check whether the system recovers. Four practical ways can assist you address this problem.

4 Fixes to Excel Frozen How to Save Issue

Fix 1: Close Excel and recover the unsaved file using recovery software.

Lost unsaved Excel files are irritating, especially if you invested a lot of work on them. However, optimism remains. Third-party data recovery software can find and restore accidently lost Excel files from your hard disk. WinfrGUI is a popular recovery program.

The main features of WinfrGUI include:

• Works with unsaved Excel files, photos, documents, and videos.
• The characteristics that make it a useful file recovery tool.
• Preview retrieved files before saving.

If you want to recover deleted or unsaved Excel files, download WinfrGUI now and follow the detailed guide on recovering unsaved Excel files:

• Start WinfrGUI and choose the drive where you lost unsaved files.
• Click “Search for Lost Data” on the left Path and Type tab.
• To restore unsaved Word, Excel, PPT, and other files, choose “Type” and “Unsaved Files”.
• Select the files and click “Preview” to preview them. Restoration of unsaved files is completed by clicking “Recover”. Do not overwrite the original files by storing them in the same place. The restored data may be saved to OneDrive or Google Drive.

Fix 2: Wait for Microsoft Excel to respond.

Give Excel at least 5 seconds or a maximum of 5 minutes to check if it starts responding again. The spinning wheel often indicates that Excel or the system is working on a challenging task that requires more time. Typically, Excel or Word will return to normal operation within a few seconds. However, if you find yourself waiting for more than five minutes, you should cancel the program and try to save your document before hoping that it will function correctly again.

Fix 3: Use shortcuts to save Excel files.

Excel has several ways to save files, but using a shortcut to save is one of the most efficient methods. Instead of going to the file options and saving the workbook, you can save your Excel file in just one step. To save your work, simply press the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + S” after working in the Excel workbook. This will open the “Save this file” dialog box, where you can rename the file and specify the location. After that, you can easily overwrite the current file by using the shortcut Ctrl + S whenever you want to save it. If you find these steps helpful, feel free to share them with your friends on social media!

Fix 4: Force close Excel and recover unsaved Excel files.

If Excel is unresponsive when you try to save, it is important to take the necessary steps to avoid permanently losing your data. First, you need to recover the previously saved spreadsheet. Follow these steps to force close Excel on Mac or Windows and recover the unsaved Excel file:

For macOS:

• Click on the “Apple” icon in the menu bar.
• Choose “mandatory release.”
• Select “Excel” and click “Force Quit.”

For Windows:

• Press “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” on the keyboard to open the “Task Manager.”
• Search for “MS Excel” in the list of open apps and select it, please.
• Click “End Task” to force close Excel.

To enable the auto-save feature in Excel, follow these steps:

• Click on the “File” tab.
• Select “Options” (or “More…”) “Options” (if you can’t find it)
• In the “Excel Options” dialog box, select the “Save” option on the left.
• Check the box “Save AutoRecover information every” and you can adjust the time interval as you wish.
• Click “OK” to save the changes.

Please ensure that the AutoRecover feature in Excel is enabled before trying additional methods to resolve the unresponsive Excel issue. This way, you can recover all types of Excel files. Follow these steps:

• If you are using Windows 7/8/10/11, please open a new file in Excel.
• Go to “File” > “Open” > “Recent”.
• Please search for the currently open Excel document that has not been saved during the issue.
• Click on “Recover Unsaved Workbooks” and wait for the program to recover any failed Excel files.
• A pop-up window will appear, allowing you to access the corrupted Excel document. Just click “Save As” to save the file.

Additional tips: How to avoid Excel freezing.

To prevent Excel from freezing and encountering issues, consider the following solutions:

• Excel Update: Update the Microsoft Excel application to fix software issues that cause the program to freeze. Just go to the “File” tab, select “Account,” expand the “Update” options, and then choose “Update Now.”
• Disable the antivirus software: If your antivirus program is interfering with Microsoft Office programs like Excel, it may cause freezing. Temporarily disable the antivirus software and then reopen the Excel document.
• Repairing damaged MS Office: A damaged or problematic Microsoft Office product can cause Excel to freeze. Please try repairing the Microsoft Office document to resolve this issue.
• Install the latest updates for Windows and Office: If Windows and Microsoft Office are not updated to the latest version, it may cause Excel to freeze. Please make sure you have installed the latest updates for both.

In summary, when dealing with complex calculations and large datasets, Excel users often encounter program freezing issues. We have proposed methods to save your work and prevent Excel from hanging. By trying these techniques one by one, you should be able to solve the problem. And if you lose any data, installing WinfrGUI is very important.

>>Also Read: How to Recover a Replaced File: 3 Possible Solutions 

Excel Frozen How to Save: Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What should I do when Excel is not responding?

A1: This article offers solutions for Excel not responding:

• WinfrGUI recovers unsaved Excel.
• Excel response pending.
• Just press Ctrl+S to save.
• MS Excel unsaved file recovery.

Q2: Can I recover an unsaved Excel file?

A2: In Excel, go to “File” > “Info” > “Manage Workbook” > “Recover Unsaved Workbooks” to restore unsaved files.

Q3: Where is the automatically recovered Excel file saved?

A3: After selecting File, pick “Info” from the left sidebar to discover Excel AutoRecover files. All automatically saved document versions are adjacent to version management settings.

Q4: Why does Microsoft Excel become unresponsive when saving?

A4: If you perform something else while using Excel, saving a file may become unresponsive. Please let the current task finish before continuing. You can continue debugging if no other processes use Excel.