Autosave not working - no files are there

no, that is not the problem. The problem is there were no files saved. Keep in mind I have autosave set to 10 mins. I watched it save numerous times in the task menu. I was working on the file the entire night and it crashed at 11pm. The latest backup was from 9:30pm and the data reflected that it was that old. 

Where are the files from 9:30-11 that were saved every ten minutes?

Now, to make things worse, Excel is throwing me every kind of error it can. I am crashing on startup, getting a resource error even though I created a new workbook of 30kb only.

At this point, I reinstalled office, but this is ridiculous. I can't keep doing this and spending so much time dealing with this unstable program. I have been using Excel as a professional  for over 6 years and this is the worst it has ever been

Hello,

Let us refer to the following link ‘Recover an earlier version of an Office file’ and check if it helps:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/recover-an-earlier-version-of-an-office-file-HA010356735.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HP010354296

As for the error message ‘'Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close other application’, you may try the steps in the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2655178/en-us

Note: The steps in the article also applies to Excel 2013.

In case if that doesn’t help, do get back to us with the results so that we may assist you further.

Thank you

Are you looking in the right place for the files? 

Take a look in the same place you set the autorecover time interval:

 File menu > Options command > Save option to see exactly where the "Autorecover" copies are saved. Personally, I change it to the same place as my default file location. That way it is easier to see when they start "piling" up, and delete any "orphans".

Note: Office STILL does not have a true "autosave" feature. The 'autorecover' feature is NOT the same as autosave.

If you are working on important (to you) files, you may want to implement a true timed autosave feature. There are a number of macros and addons that can do it for you. They will us SAVE AS to created timestamped, or numbered, backup copies.

True Autosave Macros for Office - File History

This file you are working on is HIGH VALUE (to you). You MUST take extra steps to protect the time and creativity you have invested in this file. You MUST make frequent backups.

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A good general rule for backups is:

Remember 3-2-1 to have good backups --

o at least 3 copies of any file,

o at least 2 different storage mediums (say on a hard drive, thumb drive, DVD or the cloud),

o at least 1 copy offsite -- in case of fire etc!  (ie thumb drive moved to a different building)

Steve Gibson

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PS: yes “correct” the plural of medium is media, but I don’t speak latin! <grin>

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You can do your backups manually or make use of automated tools.  A strategy I have used is timed backups during the editing session (5 minute). Then the final end of day save is copied to second medium. I rotate the “second” medium with an Offsite copy.  Once a week I go in and clean up the 5 minute incremental backups to keep just the end of day copy (to free up space!)

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I have used the “autohistory” tool at codeplex. It is easy to use, but like any automated process it uses up a lot of space.

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Unfortunately, although Office apps have been around since the the mid 1980’s, MS has not figured out that we need a good “Autosave” backup feature. In the past there was a “versions” feature in some office apps, but it only kept incremental copies of files, not full files. Win7 has a file “versions” feature, but it is tied into “System Recovery Points”. Not very useful.  The following links tell how to setup macros that run automatically and use SAVEAS to save full copies of the file with the date/time included in the file name. You have to manually delete the “extra” backup files, but you control the process rather than Windows or Office. It is a bit more work, but I find it worth it for very important files that are changing frequently.

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Autohistory for Word 2007 / 2010, Excel 2010 (Version Control)

https://autohistory.codeplex.com/

Creates a Date&Timestamped copy of file every time you perform a normal Save. You can access any of the older versions. It creates a folder for each document affected. You have to the option of creating a single “universal” backup location.  The History is located in a NEW GROUP on the View Tab.

zApps-apps Collection for 2007/2010/2013 - 7 day free trial Word, Excel, PowerPoint

http://www.greatcirclelearning.com/software/zapps-apps/zapps-apps-collection

The zAPPs-apps Collection adds functionality to Microsoft Office Word, PowerPoint and Excel to automate common work tasks and automatically save local copies of your files. Your ability to reuse content is optimized, your ability to work with images is enhanced, and copies of your files are saved locally every time you save so that you can instantly go back to a usable copy if you have a crash or overwrite content you need. The zAPPs-apps Collection streamlines and accelerates your work process.

The Collection contains 16 tools that run in Excel, PowerPoint and Word to help you:

Saving Excel in Multiple Locations

http://excel.tips.net/T002774\_Saving\_in\_Multiple\_Locations.html

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Excel- Saving in Two Locations

http://excel.tips.net/T003042\_Saving\_in\_Two\_Locations.html

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Saving in Multiple Locations

If the drive letter assigned to your USB drive is always the same, you can use code like the following in the ThisWorkbook module.

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)

    On Error Resume Next

    Application.EnableEvents = False

    ThisWorkbook.Save

    ThisWorkbook.SaveCopyAs “J:\” & ThisWorkbook.Name

    Application.EnableEvents = True

End Sub

Change the “J” to the appropriate drive letter.

If the drive letter may change but the volume label is always the same, use code like the following in the ThisWorkbook code module:

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)

    Dim DriveLetter As String

    Dim VolumeName As String

    On Error Resume Next

    Application.EnableEvents = False

    ThisWorkbook.Save

    VolumeName = “YourVolumeName”

    DriveLetter = GetDriveLetter(VolumeName)

    If Len(DriveLetter) > 0 Then

        ThisWorkbook.SaveCopyAs DriveLetter & “:\” & ThisWorkbook.Name

    End If

    Application.EnableEvents = True

End Sub

Private Function GetDriveLetter(VolumeName As String) As String

    Dim FSO As Object

    Dim DD As Object

    Set FSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)

    For Each DD In FSO.Drives

        If DD.IsReady = True Then

            If StrComp(DD.VolumeName, VolumeName, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then

                GetDriveLetter = DD.DriveLetter

                Exit Function

            End If

        End If

    Next DD

End Function

Change VolumeName to the appropriate volume name.

In the last issue of WordTips there were a number of readers that got the idea that I was suggesting that people should use the FastSave feature. In fact, I got quite a bit of feedback on that tip, some of it quite pointed. (According to one reader, I was even “irresponsible.” Another stated that I was doing a disservice to readers.)

I am sorry if I gave the impression that I thought FastSave is a great idea. That is far from the truth; I do not. There are several other “features” of Word that I think are ill conceived or totally unnecessary, as well. It doesn’t change the fact that they are features and people can use them, if they desire. WordTips are not designed to promote one method of doing something over another, but to provide alternative ideas that people can incorporate into their Word use, if they so desire.

With that being said, let me point out specifically why you should not use the FastSave feature.

·      Other word processors may not be able to open Word documents saved with the FastSave feature enabled. For instance, WordPerfect says it can open Word documents, yet some versions of WordPerfect cannot open FastSaved Word documents.

·      Third-party software designed to work with Word documents (such as some grammar checkers, document management programs, and desktop publishing software) will not work correctly with FastSaved Word documents.

·      Find File (either in Word or in Windows) may not work correctly with FastSaved Word documents.

·      FastSave results in more complex files being saved on disk. Any time you increase complexity, you run the risk of corrupting the files easier.

·      FastSaved files take up more disk space.

·      There have been reports of macro viruses “living on” in FastSaved documents, even though you thought you had them removed.

·      The list could go on and on, but you get the idea. In short, unless you have a specific need to use FastSave (such as if you are only creating simple documents using Word 6 on a slow 286 machine), it is probably a good idea to turn it off. The FastSave feature is turned on by default in all versions of Word, even in the original Word 97. Only if you are using Word 97 SR-1 is it turned off by default.

As a side note, according to the Microsoft Knowledge Base there are several circumstances under which a FastSave is not done by Word, even if you have enabled the feature. These circumstances include the following:

·      When you save a document for the first time. (This makes sense, right?) This includes when you choose Save As to save under a new name or in a new location.

·      When your document is saved on a network server or remote volume. (Word only performs a FastSave to a local volume.)

·      When Word reaches the limit of how much information it can save using the FastSave option. In this case Word does a normal save, and then again starts using FastSave for future saves.

Nuff said? (I hate it when I’m irresponsible.)

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Saving All Open Workbooks

http://excelribbon.tips.net/T011079\_Saving\_All\_Open\_Workbooks.html

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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/131333   (this tip is old, I didn’t test it)

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AutoSafe http://www.jkp-ads.com/download.asp

Version 3.5 of Autosafe enables use in environments with long paths/filenames. The standard Autosave (note the spelling) utility that ships with Excel just saves workbooks at a set interval, overwriting the file on disk. This is not very convenient if you planned to leave the master file intact and save the changed workbook using a different filename. It also does nothing to simplify recovery of unsaved/changed documents after a system crash. This Autosafe utility creates copies of open workbooks at regular intervals in a separate (user-selectable) directory. It does not overwrite the master file(s), that is up to the user to do, using normal methods. As soon as a workbook is closed the backup copy is deleted from the backup directory. If an abnormal termination of Excel occurs, the backup copies remain on disk, and Autosafe finds them the next time Excel is started and presents recovery options to the user.

Autosafe comes with an autoupdate function which checks for updates every week. Includes the following languages: English, Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Français, Indonesia, Italiano, Nederlands, Norsk, Hrvatski, Slovenščina, Korean, Русский (Russian), Lithuanian and Hungarian.

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I have experienced the same problem now on two separate occasions. I thought the first one was just a fluke because it was the day I updated to Windows 10. But yesterday, I spent about 8 hours working on Excel files. They were showing as autosaving the entire time. I went to sleep, the computer updated again overnight, and BOOM everything reverted back to last user save a week ago.

I don't understand why this is such a hard fix. If Windows is going to run an automatic update, is it really that hard for it to run a save script before it initiates? Or fix the autosave? Seems like common sense to me...so I am thinking this is a bug. Very annoying and frustrating.

I just had the same problem using Word.  Autorecover on, 10 minutes, and after Win10 crashed, lost 2 hours of work. No *.asd files in the expected places, etc. etc.

This is really a serious issue here. Just saying that, "Autorecovery is not autobackup," is not a good enough answer, Microsoft. If people can write macros to implement true autosave, when can't microsoft make this an option?

Totally disappointing.