Autosave not working - no files are there

Equating a "10 minute" setting with AutoSave demonstrates a lack of understanding of the feature.

It is important to differentiate and use the proper terminology in our discussions. AutoSave and AutoRecover are two DIFFERENT technologies. Heck, even Microsoft can't keep it straight in their own documentation - so it's no wonder anybody is confused.

AutoSave is a new feature that works in conjunction with OneDrive and SharePoint sites to continuously save and share your file - when you have an Office 365 subscription. It is different from the legacy technology called "AutoRecover" which saves your file periodically depending on the setting you have set in options. In your case, "10 minutes."

When AutoSave is ON, AutoRecover is OFF. AutoSave saves your document every few seconds, and creates a new revision history every 10 to 15 minutes based on your version history settings in OneDrive / SharePoint. AutoRecover saves your document every several minutes only when you have been completely idle in the file (this is clearly not right but this has been proven during testing, maybe a bug, but still fact). So much as clicking on another worksheet will start the timer over before AutoRecover saves a copy.

When AutoSave is ON the File -> Save As and File -> Save are removed. Why? Because your file is always being saved - continuously.

AutoSaved previous versions of a file are accessed from the TITLE BAR in Excel or from the OneDrive / SharePoint web portal. AutoRecovered documents are located from File -> Info -> Manage Workbook.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't bugs or issues here. But, unless the two distinct technologies and the proper expectation from both of them is fully understood we will continue to blame the software when there is really just a misunderstanding about the features and how they work.

What is AutoSave?

More info on AutoSave

Find lost or missing files in OneDrive

Help protect your files in case of a crash

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.

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..

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.

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.