Autosave not working - no files are there

Probably a little late for many, but I just wanted to pass this along. It might be helpful to someone.

First, for Nicklas L, XLB files are Excel’s backup/AutoRecover workbooks. For more recent versions, XLSB is the extension.

Word saves its AutoRecover files as ASD, regardless of version, I think.

BUT--I think you have to access them through File | Open | Recover Unsaved Documents in the corresponding app.

On my system, Word and Excel 2013, when I click on File | Open | Recover Unsaved Documents, nothing is there. Both Word and Excel go to this folder if I click on Recover Unsaved Documents …

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles\

… but there are no unsaved documents there. (This is in the application data Local folder.)

But if I click on Recover Unsaved Documents in Word and then manually navigate to this folder …

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Word\

… that is actually where they are, each one in its own folder with cryptic names. (This is in the application data Roaming folder.) I can then find and open both unsaved and autosaved documents. I just have to figure out the names, which is not that hard.

Likewise, if I click on Recover Unsaved Documents in Excel and then manually navigate to the following folder, I can then find and open the unsaved and autosaved workbooks …

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Excel\

… though they're also in folders with cryptic names.

To see what would happen, I tried changing the AutoRecover file location option in Word to a different folder. However, Word continued to save AutoRecover documents in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Word. To be fair, Word also saved an AutoRecover copy in the new location, but as soon as Word closed normally, it disappeared. (If Word crashed, it remained.) So using a different location doesn’t seem worthwhile.

I tried changing the AutoRecover file location option in Excel to a folder I created, but it didn’t make any difference. Excel continued to save AutoRecover files in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Excel\ and put nothing in the new location.

I agree that this doesn't really appear to be a very good design. I get the impression that this is a transitional process that (I hope) someday will work the way it is supposed to.

On another subtopic, when I tested the timing in Word, with the interval set at 3 minutes, it consistently saved after 5 minutes, which is not very friendly of it.

Thanks vkrlc!  I've now found that some files are automatically being saved, in the location you indicated.  Which, of course, is not where they're supposed to be saved.  Mine is set to autosave every 4 minutes, but it looks like it's doing it every 11-12 minutes.  One of the Excel files I've had open for a while has not been autosaved, but then I haven't changed it either, so perhaps that makes a difference.

Probably a little late for many, but I just wanted to pass this along. It might be helpful to someone.

First, for Nicklas L, XLB files are Excel’s backup/AutoRecover workbooks. For more recent versions, XLSB is the extension.

Word saves its AutoRecover files as ASD, regardless of version, I think.

BUT--I think you have to access them through File | Open | Recover Unsaved Documents in the corresponding app.

On my system, Word and Excel 2013, when I click on File | Open | Recover Unsaved Documents, nothing is there. Both Word and Excel go to this folder if I click on Recover Unsaved Documents …

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles\

… but there are no unsaved documents there. (This is in the application data Local folder.)

But if I click on Recover Unsaved Documents in Word and then manually navigate to this folder …

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Word\

… that is actually where they are, each one in its own folder with cryptic names. (This is in the application data Roaming folder.) I can then find and open both unsaved and autosaved documents. I just have to figure out the names, which is not that hard.

Likewise, if I click on Recover Unsaved Documents in Excel and then manually navigate to the following folder, I can then find and open the unsaved and autosaved workbooks …

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Excel\

… though they're also in folders with cryptic names.

To see what would happen, I tried changing the AutoRecover file location option in Word to a different folder. However, Word continued to save AutoRecover documents in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Word. To be fair, Word also saved an AutoRecover copy in the new location, but as soon as Word closed normally, it disappeared. (If Word crashed, it remained.) So using a different location doesn’t seem worthwhile.

I tried changing the AutoRecover file location option in Excel to a folder I created, but it didn’t make any difference. Excel continued to save AutoRecover files in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Excel\ and put nothing in the new location.

I agree that this doesn't really appear to be a very good design. I get the impression that this is a transitional process that (I hope) someday will work the way it is supposed to.

On another subtopic, when I tested the timing in Word, with the interval set at 3 minutes, it consistently saved after 5 minutes, which is not very friendly of it.

I have the same problem as well. Autosave in PowerPoint is not working as it should. I have it turned on and it clearly states that it should save every 10 minutes. But when I go to the designated file, it does not have the file that I worked on. The solution(s) you offered do not work. 

Could you please actually address this issue? Or at least bring this complaint before MSFT. This obviously is an issue that many people have experienced.

I have a similar problem - two Excel files - one on my c: drive, one opened from One Note.  Autosave on in both - pointed noted about differences between autosave and autorecover but the outcome was the same for both files - I went downstairs for half an hour and when I got back, Excel crashed and reloaded my original files, rather than anything that had been autosaved - an afternoon's work - gone.  

When I tried to look for the autosaved files in the 

C:\Users\Gillian\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

I couldn't find anything - there didn't seem to be a Microsoft file there at all - only an Apple one.    The file had not synced back to OneNote either so 

Back to work..

My issue was that I was editing a document and *manually* saving it on onedrive periodically.

When my computer restarted for windows updates I tried to go back to the file but it was not saved since the *first* save.

And I couldn't find any fragments or copies in my %appdata% folders or other temporary storage locations.

My 'fix' for this issue has been to manually force my documents to store locally on the computer and use Google Drive sync to keep copies online.  Of course, Google is ending support for this app in the near future but there's a replacement coming.