Recover Excel Files For Mac



The recovery software are not useful with the corrupted Excel files. The best solution is to create regular backup of your critical data. The format problems occurs usually when you upgrade the version of your Office application suite or try to open an Excel file from Windows computer on your Mac. Luckily, Microsoft Excel has an excellent file recovery tool that often helps you to recover these accidentally deleted documents if you can’t just pull it out of the Recycle Bin.

Now, browse through the older versions of your files and restore them with ease. Recover Permanently Deleted Files Using EaseUS Data Recovery Software on Mac. Just in case, you have cleaned up the entire Trash along with the important items, an efficient data recovery software can get the job done for you. Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel 2016 for Mac PowerPoint 2016 for Mac Excel for Mac 2011 PowerPoint for Mac 2011 More. Less AutoRecover, a feature that is available in some Office applications, attempts to recover files automatically in the event of an application or system crash. Overview of Excel Files. An Excel file, most commonly found with the extension '.xlsx', is.

Summary :

Usually, excel files are your important documents. If they get lost or deleted by mistake, you must want to know how to recover deleted excel files. In this article, MiniTool introduces various methods based on different situations to recover excel files. No matter you are running Windows or Mac, you can always find a way to get your deleted excel files back.

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Do You Want to Recover Deleted Excel Files?

Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet which features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and more, is developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It is a widely used spreadsheet for these platforms nowadays.

The excel files contain some important data and information for you. If they get lost or deleted unexpectedly, you will ask: how to recover deleted excel files?

In practice, the situations of excel files loss are different. Thus, specific solutions are also diverse.

In the following contents, we will walk you through the steps to recover deleted excel files on Windows/Mac in different situations:

  • How to recover excel files from Recycle Bin or Trash
  • How to restore excel files from backup
  • How to recover deleted excel files via a third-party tool

Method 1: Recover Excel Files from Recycle Bin/Trash

When you delete files from your computer, these files will not be deleted from the device immediately. If you are running Windows, they will be moved to Recycle Bin. While if you are using Mac OS, they will be moved to Trash.

Before they are deleted permanently, you will be able to restore them from Recycle Bin or Trash. So, just open Recycle Bin or Trash on your computer to check whether your needed excel files are there. If yes, choose them and then restore them to their original path(s).

Windows 10 Recycle Bin corrupted? Cannot show files you have deleted? Get solutions to quickly recover deleted files from Recycle Bin & fix the issue.

However, if the deleted excel file not in Recycle Bin or Trash, it must be deleted permanently. In this situation, this solution is unavailable. Then, you can try the next method.

Method 2: Restore Deleted Excel Files from Backup

This method also tells you how to recover deleted excel files without software. That is, how to restore deleted excel files from backup if there is an available backup file.

Of course, Windows and Mac are two different operating systems. So, their snap-in backup tools are also not the same. How to recover deleted excel files from backup in Windows 10 and Mac? We will introduce them respectively in the following contents.

How to Recover Deleted Excel Files in Windows 10 from Backup

Backup and Restore (Windows 7) is a Windows snap-in tool which can be used to back up your computer. If you have used this tool to back up your excel files, you will be able to restore your deleted excel files from the previous backup.

To do this work, please follow these steps:

  1. Press Start.
  2. Choose Setting.
  3. Go to Update & security > Backup > Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
  4. Choose Restore my files and follow the wizards to restore your deleted excel files from the backup.

How to Recover Deleted Excel Files Mac from Backup

The built-in tool on Mac which can back up your computer is Time Machine. If you have created a backup of your Mac with Time Machine, you can enter Time Machine to restore specific files such as excel files from that backup.

To recover excel files from your Time Machine backup, you can follow these steps:

1. Connect the Time Machine backup disk to Mac.

2. Open a window that contains or once contained the excel files you want to restore.

For instance, you want to restore the items from a folder which is named as REPORTS, thus, you need to open that folder firstly.

3. Select Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu. Then, you will enter the following interface:

4. Find the excel files you want to restore. There is more than one way to do this work:

  • Use the timeline on the right edge of the screen to see the files in the Time Machine backup according to the backup date and time.
  • Use the up and down arrows on the screen to switch to the last time the contents of the window changed.
  • Use the Search function to find the target item and then move through time while seeing changes to that item.

5. To check whether it is the file you want to recover, you can select it and press Space Bar to preview it.

6. Choose the file you need and press Restore. Then, the file will be restored to its original path.

Want an alternative to Time Machine for Windows 10/8/7 to back up your PC? MiniTool ShadowMaker is the best alternative to keep your PC safe.

Method 3: Recover Deleted Excel Files via a File Recovery Tool

If there is no available backup for you to restore, what should you do then?

When you search for recover deleted excel file free online, you will see third-party data recovery software is recommended. Here, you need to select a reliable tool to recover your excel files.

MiniTool has such kinds of tools for you to choose:

  • If you are running Windows, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to retrieve your deleted excel files
  • If you are using Mac, you need to use MiniTool Mac Data Recovery to get your deleted excel files back.

How to Recover Deleted Excel Files in Windows 10

With MiniTool Power Data Recovery, you can rescue your lost and deleted files from computer hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, and more. It has a Trial Edition that allows you to scan the drive to find the files you want to recover. Press the following button to get it.

In the following contents, we will show you how to recover deleted excel files in Windows 10 with this software.

Step 1: Open the Software to Scan the Target Drive

Open the software and you will enter This PC interface directly. Then, choose the drive which contained the deleted items before and press Scan to continue.

Step 2: Find the Excel Files You Want to Restore

When the scanning process ends, you will see the scan results that are displayed by path. You can open each path to find the items you want to restore.

You can also use the Type feature to look for the files according to the data type. Additionally, you can also use the Find function to find your needed files by their names.

Select one item and press Preview to check whether it is the file you want to recover. Currently, this software supports previewing 70 types of files.

Step 3: Upgrade the Software and Recover Excel Files

If you are sure this software can find your needed excel files, you can update it to a full edition to recover your data without limits. Just go to the MiniTool official store to get the edition you want.

For example, if you are a personal user, you can choose the Personal Deluxe Edition. Or, if you want to know how to recover deleted excel files from server with this program, the Business Standard Edition is the minimum choice.

After receiving the license key, you need to press the Register button in the scan result interface to register the software. Then, choose the items you need, press Save and choose a proper path to save them.

Note: Please keep in mind that do not save the files to the original path, otherwise, the deleted items on that path might be overwritten and become unrecoverable.

After these three simple steps, your needed excel files will be recovered to the specific path and you can use them directly.

Similarly, if you want to rescue excel files from removable disk drives like USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, you can use the Removable Disk Drive module of this software. Learn more information from this post: SD Card Recovery - MiniTool Helps You Solve Multiple Situations.

How to Recover Deleted Excel Files Mac

MiniTool Mac Data Recovery is specially designed to restore deleted files Mac. It has a Demo Edition which also allows you to recover 1MB files. Press the following button to get this free edition.

Then, the following content is a full guide on how to recover deleted excel files Mac using this software.

Step 1: Choose a Proper Recovery Module

Open the software and choose Damaged Partition Recovery to continue.

Step 2: Select the Target Volume to Scan

This software will show you all the volumes it can find on Mac. You need to choose the one which saved the deleted excel files before deletion and then press Full Scan to start the scanning process.

Step 3: Find the Items You Want to Restore

Likewise, the scanned files will be listed by path. You can open each path to find your needed excel files. On the other hand, you can also use the Type and Find features of this software to locate your needed items easily.

Step 4: Use a Full Edition to Get Your Data Back

Similarly, MiniTool Mac Data Recovery Demo Edition does not allow you to recover more than 1MB files. You need to use a full edition to recover more. Go to the MiniTool Store to get a suitable license and then register the software to retrieve the deleted excel files without limits.

Bonus: How to Recover Unsaved Excel Files

The above 3 methods tell you how to recover deleted data in excel after save. However, in some cases, you also want to recover unsaved excel files. For example, the excel file may be closed unexpectedly due to a power failure, or you want to restore an earlier version of the excel file.

Here are two situations in which you can recover unsaved excel files:

1. If the excel file is closed unexpectedly before you save the most recent changes, Document Recovery will automatically open the next time you open the Office app. It will give you the opportunity to recover unsaved excel files.

You can get the detailed recovery steps in this article: Recover your Office files – Office Support.

2. If the AutoRecover feature of your excel is turned on, you can automatically save versions of the excel file while you’re working on it.

Learn the detailed steps in this post: Recover an earlier version of an Office file – Office Support.

Extra Tip: Back up Your Important Files

To protect your files including excel files, you’d better back up your data regularly. Using a third-party file backup software is recommended and MiniTool ShadowMaker is worth trying.

You can press the following download button to get the Trial Edition of this software to free use for 30 days. To get the detailed backup steps, you can refer to this post: How to Backup Files on Windows 10? Try These Top 4 Ways.

Bottom Line

After reading this post, you must know how to recover deleted excel files in different situations. You can just choose one method based on your actual case. Hope these solutions can help you out.

Should you have any question when dealing with this excel file recovery issue, you can contact us via [email protected] or let us know in the comment. You can also share your opinions with us here.

Recover Deleted Excel File FAQ

If you have backed up these deleted Excel files, you can restore them from your backup file. If not, you will need to use special data recovery software to get them back. You can try MiniTool Power Data Recovery:

  1. Download and install this software on your computer.
  2. Open the software and select the drive that contained the deleted Excel files before.
  3. Press Scan to start the scanning process.
  4. Go to find the needed Excel files and recover them.
  1. If you have backed up your Android Excel files, you can get the deleted ones from the backup.
  2. If there are no available backup files, you can use MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android to rescue your deleted Excel files from Android.
The previous backup file is your first choice to recover the permanently deleted files. If this method don’t work for you, you can try MiniTool Power Data Recovery, professional data recovery software, to get your deleted data back.

When you delete files from your computer, these files will be moved to Recycle Bin. If you don’t deleted them from the Recycle Bin, you can restore them to their original locations:

  1. Open Recycle Bin.
  2. Find the files you want to recover and select them all.
  3. Right-click on them and select Restore.

Summary

How to recover deleted Excel files? How to retrieve unsaved Excel files? EaseUS data recovery software makes Excel file recovery simple and effective for both Windows and Mac users. No matter you are running Windows or Mac, you can always find a way to undelete your excel files.

PAGE CONTENT:
Part 1. Restore Deleted Excel Files in Windows 10/8/7 (4 Methods)
Part 2. Retrieve Unsaved Excel in Windows 10/8/7 (2 Solutions)
Part 3. Three Ways to Recover Deleted Excel Files from Mac
Part 4. Two Solutions to Get Back Unsaved Excel from Mac

Microsoft Office Excel, a spreadsheet application, distributed by Microsoft. Its wonderful features make it a very widely applied spreadsheet. From Microsoft Office Excel 2007 for Windows, 2008 for Mac, Office Excel 2009/2010 till now Office Excel 2016, Microsoft really made a great job in updating its Office tools.

When you delete Excel files from the computer and empty the Recycle Bin or Trash Bin, they would disappear from your computer. The Excel contents would not be destroyed immediately. Windows or Mac will mark Excel files for deletion and removes them from the file system database when you delete them. This doesn't mean they are immediately gone, and you still have a chance to undelete Excel files.

Part 1. Restore Deleted Excel Files in Windows 10/8/7 (4 Methods)

In fact, when you delete a file, Windows will mark the space occupied. Therefore, if you need to recover deleted Excel files, don't save new data to space where you used to store the Excel files so to prevent new data overwriting the deleted Excel files. So, how to recover deleted Excel files? Here are 4 methods on how to recover deleted Excel, follow the details below:

Method 1. Undelete Excel Files from Recycle Bin

If you delete the Excel files on your hard drive, you should go to the recycle bin to restore them. If you delete a file on an external device, this method will not work.

Step 1. Open 'Recycle bin'.

Step 2. Right-click the deleted Excel and choose 'Restore'.

Method 2. Restore Deleted Excel from the Previous Version

This method is very helpful for users to restore Excel files or documents on partitions, not on the desktop. This method only works when Windows Backup functionality is enabled. How to do it?

Step 1. Locate the folder that used to contain the file. Right-click it and choose 'Properties'.

Step 2. Open the 'Previous Version' tab to list all the previously stored version of the Excel file.

Step 3. Choose the right version and click 'Restore' to retrieve the document.

Method 3. Undelete Excel Files Using 'Ctrl+Z'

Once you deleted your Excel files, you still can undelete your Excel files by clicking 'Ctrl+Z' to undo deleted Excel files.

Important: After you deleted an Excel file, you should perform no further action on the computer.

You can hit 'Ctrl+Z' to undo delete your Excel files, and the files will go back to the computer hard drive location. Also, you can right-click on the panel and click 'Undo Delete' option to get your files back.

Method 4. Recover Deleted Excel Files with Undelete Software

This method is used to restore permanently deleted Excel files without backups. If you have emptied the recycle bin in Windows 10/8/7 etc, you'll need professional data recovery software to help you. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a powerful disk data recovery software. It undeletes files even if you've emptied the Recycle Bin or format the file.

  • Supported OS: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Windows Server 2003 - 2019.
  • Supported Office Version: Office 2003 - 2019 (Including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).

Simple steps for Excel file recovery are as follows:

Step 1. Specify a location.

Run EaseUS Data Recovery Software. Choose the drive X: or perhaps a specific folder on Desktop or somewhere else where you lost the excel files, and then click 'Scan'.

Step 2. Scan for data.

During the scan, you'll see more and more data showing up very quickly in the 'Deleted files' result. That's part of what the software has found and displayed. To quickly find the Excel files in the massive data in the scan results, click on the 'Filter' on the top area and choose 'Documents'. Or, search .xls or .xlsx in the Search box.

Step 3. Preview and recover.

You can double click on a file to preview its integrity. Finally, select the desired files and click 'Recover'.

Also read:Recover Deleted or Unsaved Word Document on Windows 10

Part 2. Retrieve Unsaved Excel in Windows 10/8/7 (2 Solutions)

If you forget to save your Excel files, you can follow the two solutions to restore Excel files in Windows 10/8/7.

Solution 1. Restore Unsaved Excel From Temp File

Step 1: Follow the temporary file folder location on your PC and find the crashed or unsaved/lost Excel document.

  • For Windows 10/8 users: C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalMicrosoftOfficeUnsavedFiles
  • For Windows 7 users: C:UsersusernameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftExcel

Step 2: Check and select the temporary unsaved Excel file in which the program crashes, then copy and save it as a new file.

Solution 2. Get Back Unsaved Excel From AutoRecover

Recover Excel Files For Mac

Make sure that you have turned on the AutoRecover feature in Excel and then you can recover data.

Step 1: Open a new Excel file.

Step 2: Click 'File' > 'Open' > 'Recent' option.

Step 3: Then check the recently used Excel document and find the unsaved file.

Step 4: Click 'Recover Unsaved Workbooks' and wait.

Step 5: You can open the Excel file and click 'Save AS' to store the Excel as a new file to a safe location on your PC.

Part 3. Three Ways to Recover Deleted Excel Files from Mac

What if you deleted Excel files from Mac? How to recover deleted Excel files from Mac? You can get back deleted Mac files by following the methods below:

Method 1. Restore Excel from Mac Trash

The Trash on Mac is where files stored after being deleted from the Mac system. If you move an item to the Trash Bin, you can recover your deleted files or folder using one of the three options below:

  • Open 'Trash' > drag the items out
  • Go to 'Trash' > select the items > click 'File' > choose 'Put Back'
  • Open 'Trash' > choose the items > tap 'Edit' > choose 'Copy [filename]' > paste the items to elsewhere

Method 2. Recover Lost Excel from Mac Backup

If you have turned on Time Machine and made a backup plan for backing up Excel files on your Mac, you can follow the next steps to recover lost Excel files with Time Machine:

Step 1. Enter 'Time Machine'

Step 2. Select the file or folder you want to restore, then select an older version of the file or folder.

Step 3. Press the 'Space' bar to preview and see whether it's the one you want.

Step 4. Click 'Restore' to restore the selected Excel files.

Method 3. Recover Permanently Deleted Mac Excel Files Using Software

If your Word, Excel or PPT got lost permanently from your Mac resulted from mistaken deletion, disk formatting, virus attack, partition loss, etc., you can use third-party software to recover the files. And EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is one of the top best Mac data recovery software worthy of trying. With this tool, you can recover Mac deleted files from memory card, USB drive, internal/external hard drive, and more. Follow the video to get back lost Office files from Mac:

Part 4. Two Solutions to Get Back Unsaved Excel from Mac

Two ways are listed below to recover the unsaved Excel files on Mac. We also offer online tutorials on how to recover unsaved or lost Word documents on Mac, check it if you need.

Also read:How to Recover Unsaved Word Document on Mac

Solution 1. Recover Unsaved Excel File from the Temporary Folder

If you forget to save your Excel files on Mac, you can follow this method to bring back lost Excel files:

Step 1. Go to 'Applications' > 'Utilities' > 'Terminal'.

Step 2. Type open $TMPDIR and press 'Return' to open the Temporary files folder. Select the folder named 'TemporaryItems'. Then, find the unsaved Excel file under 'TemporaryItems' and restore it.

Solution 2. Restore Unsaved Mac Excel File from AutoSave

AutoSave automatically saves a new Excel document that has been created but not saved yet. While AutoRecover can help users retrieve unsaved Excel files on Mac. If the two options are enabled, you can retrieve unsaved files on Mac in Excel 2010 - 2016.

Step 1. Go to 'Applications' >' Utilities' > 'Terminal'.

See More Results

Type defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true into Terminal and hit 'Return' to make all the items visible.

Step 2. Click 'Finder' > press 'Return' on your Mac.

Type /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery and click 'Go' to open Excel's AutoRecovery folder.

Recover Excel File For Mac

Step 3. Find the unsaved Excel files. Then recover them to another safe location on Mac.

Conclusion

After reading, you must have known how to recover deleted Excel files in different situations and different devices. Also, if you forget to save Excel files, you can also try the solutions above to get back the unsaved Excel files. If you are looking for ways to undelete Word, we can also do you a favor. By the way, take a regular backup of your 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007 & 2003 Excel files so that you can restore them, even you are faced with system crash or permanent deletion of the files.