The AutoRecover Prompt
If Excel crashes, the Document Recovery pane offers your unsaved work the next time you open it.
Excel's Safety Net
Excel quietly saves a recovery copy every few minutes. After a crash it offers those copies back. It is not a substitute for saving, but it has rescued a lot of work.
- Excel crashes — Or the power fails
- Reopen Excel — The recovery pane appears
- Pick a version — Then save it properly
How to do it
Reopen Excel after a crash ▸ the Document Recovery pane appears on the left ▸ click a file
Change how often it saves at File ▸ Options ▸ Save ▸ Save AutoRecover information every N minutes.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Recovery pane | Appears after a crash |
| Autosaved version | With its timestamp |
| Original version | Your last real save |
| Save As | Do this immediately |
Recovery vs Saving
File ▸ Options ▸ Save ▸ AutoRecover every 10 minutes
| Situation | AutoRecover helps? |
|---|---|
| Excel crashed | Yes |
| Power cut | Yes |
| You clicked Don't Save | Sometimes, via Recover Unsaved |
| You deleted the file | No |
| You overwrote the data and saved | No |
Result: Every 10 min
Set it to 5 minutes. The cost is nothing and it halves what you can lose.
Do this
- Set AutoRecover to 5 or 10 minutes
- Save the recovered file under a new name at once
- Still press Ctrl + S regularly
Avoid
- Relying on AutoRecover instead of saving
- Closing the recovery pane without checking versions
- Working on a recovered file without saving it properly
📌 AutoRecover only helps after a crash. It does not help if you closed a file and clicked Don't Save.
Practice
- Set AutoRecover to 5 minutes in Options.
- Find the AutoRecover file location.
- Look at File ▸ Manage Workbook ▸ Recover Unsaved.
Quick quiz: Excel crashed and the recovery pane offers two versions. What should you do first?
- Pick one and carry on working
- Open the newer one, check it, then Save As with a new name
- Close the pane and reopen the original
Show answer
Open the recovered version ▸ check it ▸ Save As a new name — A recovered file is not saved yet. Secure it before doing anything else.
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