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I opened, edited and saved a file in Excel several times last week without issue. This included adding a new sheet, then editing it over several days.
The file is in my work account's OneDrive.
Today I opened that same file to find that all my recent work (the whole sheet) has vanished; it seems to now be a version from 2 months ago, according to the last saved date. So naturally there is nothing in version history, and I cannot find any way to check for unsaved recent changes, but in any case, it was saved and opened again several times last week without issue, so I wouldn't expect unsaved recent changes to contain anything except perhaps the most recent edit.
How is this even possible!! Is there any way to recover the many hours of work I have lost?
My device is Windows 11, I have a personal account and a work account on the machine (and I have checked; it wasn't saved in my personal OneDrive).
A family of Microsoft spreadsheet software with tools for analyzing, charting, and communicating data.
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After 3 hours of looking, this was the ONLY thing that worked for me. Will be exporting my data from Excel to a different program. Never had this issue with Google Sheets (free?!)
I can't recall which of the suggestions gave me the clue but I remember finding my lost file in a directory near where it was recommended, not exactly where specified.
I suggest searching more generically such as navigating to C:\Users\user_name\AppData and then searching for *.xlsx (including subfolders) and see if your lost file appears.
Also, a caveat: if you have saved the erroneous file, it might have overwritten the one you want. (OneDrive is a good idea on paper - less so in action.)
I tried all the suggested fixes, and there is NOTHING saved in previous entries for me. I added copious amounts of data yesterday and EVERYTHING is gone. In addition, what was showing now, is from months ago. Even the data from the end of last year is completely gone! This is catastrophic for me. 9 MONTHS of data completely gone.
WHY???
If ANYONE has any suggestions, I would truly appreciate it. And I do use OneDrive AND I normally save an additional copy to my harddrive, so I just am lost as to what to do.
Thanks
Same / similar thing just happened to me, but my Excel file is saved to Google Drive. Not sure if that is lunacy having MS files on Google Drive and expecting support in the event of crisis. Computer crashed and somehow self-saved another Excel file over the top of my business critical file. I've just spent the best part of 3 hours following every recommended step on this forum and googling like a maniac to try and retrieve an earlier version of said file, all to no avail. Then just as I was about to give up, I stumbled on something new which I've seen no mention of anywhere .... so if all else fails try this.
Using the search function in File Explorer, search for the name of your document (partial name will do) making sure to "Search Results in this PC" rather than selecting a specific folder or drive. When your file appears right click on it and select Show More Options, then Manage Versions. If you're as fortunate as I was, it will produce a long list of versions of the file (I got 100 versions going back around 12 months) - sort them by the Date Modified field and then find the one you want. Hey Presto !
Happened to me just nowwwwww. Is there any way to recover the recent edits?
UPDATE: Problem fixed. Followed @guestasaurus instructions. Found a file with the same document name in the TempBackUpFile folder of Excel inside C: drive.