How to Recover an Earlier Version of an Office File

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Many users have trouble recovering stored Excel files. How to recover a previous Excel version depends on saving. Ctrl+Z or Cancel can restore an open Excel file. However, if edited Excel files were saved and closed, the recovery process would be harder. In this article we will talk about how to recover previous Excel files for different versions such as 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007 in two situations. The first situation is when the file is saved, and the second is when it is not saved. Also, we would recommend using the WinfrGUI to easily recover lost saved Excel files.

How to Recover Previous Version of Excel File After Saving

There are two ways that can help you restore an earlier version of an Excel file: Use Windows Backup Features and Excel Workbook Management Features.

Method 1: Recover Earlier Version of Excel File from Previous Versions

  • Search for Excel/Word files in File Explorer, then right-click and select “Properties”
  • Choose the version to recover from the “Previous Version” menu. Then click “Restore”.

Method 2: Restore Excel File to Previous Version with Excel’s Built-in Tool

  • Open your file.
  • Click “Information” under “Manage Documents” in “Files”. Open “When I Close Without Saving”.
  • Click “Restore” in the top bar to overwrite the stored version.

How to Restore Previous Version of Excel File Not Saved

If you haven’t saved the file yet, you can try the following two ways to recover the previous version of the Excel file.

Method 1: Recover unsaved Excel files from AutoRecover

If the AutoRecover option is enabled, Windows will automatically save the version of your file while you are working with it. Follow these steps to recover unsaved Excel files:

  • Click File > Information > Manage Workbooks > “Recover Unsaved Workbooks”
  • Select a file and click “Open”
  • Click the top bar to save the file.

Method 2: Recover Old Version of Excel File from .TMP file

Microsoft Office will automatically save the temporary file for the file you are editing. You can try to find the file.TMP to find an earlier version of an Excel or Word file:

  • According to the location of the TEMP file folder on your PC:
  • For Windows 7 users: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\For Windows 8/10.
  • Search and find a temporary Excel or Word file that starts with “$” or “~” and ends with “.TMP” Selects the valid version of the TEMP file, based on the date, then copies it and saves it to another secure location by changing the extension from.TMP’s going to be.XLS.XLSX or.DOC.DOCX

How to get an earlier version of Excel file with WinfrGUI

If you have deleted an earlier version of Excel file, or if the file is lost due to deletion errors, hard drive formatting or other reasons, you can use WinfrGUI to help you recover Excel files from PCs or other storage devices in only three steps.

Now install this application and follow these steps to get your missing Excel files back easily.

  • Step 1: Run WinfrGUI. Select the drive you lost files and start scanning by clicking on “Find Lost Data”. This software allows you to recover lost data from all devices including HDD, SSD, USB drive, SD card, pen drive, camera, etc.
  • Step 2: See the full scan results. You can select the file type you want by clicking on the File Type Filter. WinfrGUI supports file recovery of various types such as photos, video documents, emails, audio files and many more.
  • Step 3: Select the file you want to view first. Click on “Recover” and set the storage or cloud drive location to save the recovered data.
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4 Alternative Ways to Recover Excel’s Eariler Version

There are different ways to recover previous Excel files depending on the platform you use.

Recover previous versions of Excel files from SharePoint

If you are using SharePoint, you are lucky because it has an easy way to recover both saved and unsaved versions of Excel files to restore Excel files in SharePoint. Follow these steps:

  • Start SharePoint and go to the list or library where the file addresses are. If you can’t find the library or item, click “Site Content” then click “View All Site Content” and scroll through the list.
  • Right-click on the name of the document or date and select “Model History” from the menu. You may have to click the three-point icon before selecting “Models History”.
  • Scroll through the file version list until you find the desired version. Click on the arrow icon behind editing time.
  • Click on “Show” to open the version or “Resort” for opening and saving.

Recover previous versions of Excel files from the team

If you’re using Microsoft Teams, you can’t access your previous Excel file directly. However, you could open the file through another app and recover it from there. Follow these steps to do so:

  • Go to the File tab in the team
  • Find the file you want to recover and click on the three-point icon located on the right of its name to see the options.
  • Click “Open in SharePoint” if you’re using SharePoint, or “Opens in Excel” if not.

If you have opened a file in SharePoint, follow these steps:

  • Right-click “Files” and choose “Generation History”. Selecting “General History” may require clicking the three-point icon.
  • Scroll through file versions to locate the right one. Select the arrow behind editing time.
  • Click “Show” or “Resort” to open and save.

If you have opened a file in Excel on Mac, follow these steps:

  • Pause the mouse to the “Files” tab, then to “Restore” in the dropdown menu.
  • Select “Back to last saved version”
  • Shows a list of all Excel files. Select the version you want to return.
  • If you want to replace the current version file with the previous one, select “Restore”. If you would like to save the previous version without rewriting the current file, click the option button and select “Recover Copy”.

In Windows 10, the procedure will be slightly different:

  • From “Files” pick “Information” from Remove.
  • Search “Workbook Manager” for the file version you want to recover.
  • Rewrite the current version by clicking “Restore”. You can also click “Comparison” to compare without duplicating.

Recover previous versions of Excel files from OneDrive

If you are using OneDrive, follow these steps to recover an earlier version of Excel file:

  • Open OneDrive and log in with your Microsoft account.
  • Find the latest saved version of the Excel file you want to recover and right click on it. Or open the file and select “More” from the menu at the top.
  • Click on “Generation History”
  • You will see a list of versions of the file. Find what you want to recover. Click on the three-point icon on the side and select “Restore” in the older version of OneDrive. Click the arrow icon behind the model name and choose “restore”.

Recover previous versions of Excel files from Office 365

For Office 365 users, the file recovery feature in Excel hasn’t changed. The process of recovering previous version files is the same in all versions of Excel, but varies depending on the device you’re using.

On Mac, follow these steps:

  • Open the last saved Excel file you wanted to recover.
  • Pause the mouse to the “Files” tab, then to “Restore” in the dropdown menu.
  • Select “Back to last saved version”
  • Shows a list of all Excel files. Select the version you want to return.
  • If you want to replace the current version file with the previous one, select “Restore”. If you would like to save the previous version without rewriting the current file, click the option button and select “Recover Copy”.

On a Windows 10 PC, follow the following instructions:

  • Open the last saved Excel file you want to recover.
  • Click “Files” and select “Information” from the Remove menu.
  • Search the “Workbook Manager” section and find the version of the file you want to recover.
  • Click on “Restore” to rewrite the current version. Alternatively, click on “Comparison” to compare the version without duplicating the current one.

Conclusion

If you fail to write your Excel file and experience loss of data, you can use the four methods mentioned to recover previous version files. It is important to note that in addition to recording errors, users may encounter Excel loss for various reasons such as mistaken deletion, storage device formatting, system failure, virus attack or dumping. In these cases, the above methods may not work. To recover deleted Excel documents, we recommend using WinfrGUI. This software can easily locate missing Excel files from PCs or other storage devices in three simple steps. Install the program now and follow the instructions to easily recover your lost Excel/Word files.

Also Read: How to recover word file that was not saved?