


In the bottom left corner is Recover Unsaved Spreadsheets.Click on File tab in the upper left corner.In Office 2010 and higher, you have an additional option, built in to the product, called Recover Unsaved Spreadsheets The temp file for excel can also look like ~dfxxxx.tmp.

This means that they look different from word or any other temporary files that are being saved there by other applications. The files are identifiable as they are saved as a number.
#How to find excel temp files on mac windows
You will find the settings under "Save" where you can also disable the Auto Recover feature for that particular work book.Įxcel automatically saves every 10 minutes to the default location of "C:\ Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp" or "C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp" on Windows 7/Vista. With Office XP, AutoSave has been moved out from Add Ins to Options, in a similar way to Word. Go to "Tools" "Add ins" and choose "AutoSave". To enable the AutoSave feature, you have to use an Add In. If you have it enabled and want to experiment with a spreadsheet, you should create a copy then open that so that the AutoSave doesn't overwrite the original. This is because it isn't always practical to have this functionality enabled. There are others, but these are the ones most likely to contain data that can be recovered.įinding and using the temporary and auto save filesĮxcel doesn't have the AutoSave feature enabled as default, you have to add it. These are good ones to look for to find some lost info. This temporary file will have a few different letters after the tilde (or squiggly line " ~ "). If the file is stored on a network drive then it will be temporarily created there. This can be either in the windows temp directory, in "C:\ Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft". When a new file is started a temporary file is created. Therefore you may want to experiment before you rely on this information. Microsoft have changed the way AutoSave and Auto Recover works in different versions of Office.
#How to find excel temp files on mac how to
However many people don't know how to use these features or that they even exist.Įven if you don't have these features enabled, you can sometimes recover data from the various temporary files that are created by Office while you are working on the document. Microsoft Office has extensive AutoSave and Auto Recovery options that allow you to rescue your work in the event that it is lost due to a power failure, system crash or plain human error.
