[4 Ways] How to Recover An Excel File That Was Saved Over

Do you, like many users on this forum, want to know how to recover an Excel file that was saved over? If you have saved your Excel file but it was overwritten by a new version of the file or accidentally deleted, that would be a rather tricky problem. But don't be nervous, we have prepared here 4 different solutions for you to choose from and listed the detailed steps to recover lost Excel files.

4 ways to recover an Excel file that was saved over

We will give you 4 solutions in the following content. If they fix your problem successfully, please recommend them to everyone who met the same question as you met.

Way 1. Recover an Excel file using the Undo feature

If you have just finished the operation and your Excel file is still open, then it is possible to recover an Excel file that was saved over.

Just go to click on the Undo icon in the top menu list until it recovers to the version that you want.

But this method only works if you have just finished editing your Excel file and the file is still open. If you encounter a situation where this is not the case, please refer to the other methods below.

Way 2. Recover an Excel file with the Previous Version in Excel

How to restore an Excel file that was saved over? Maybe you can try the Excel built-in tool that can help you to restore previous version of Excel file directly. Follow the easy steps to recover your Excel file:

1. Go to choose the File tab and then select the Info option on the left menu.

2. Under the Manage Versions section, you can see all the auto-saved previous versions here. Try recovering the one you want here.

If the version you want to recover does not exist here, this method is not suitable for you. Maybe you can try file recovery software.

Way 3. Recover an Excel file from temporary files

To find a solution to how to recover Excel file that was saved over, you can go to the temporary files folder to find your lost Excel file. If you see your Excel file here, you can view and save it following the steps below:

1. Navigate to the folder that saves Microsoft Office temporary files.

★Note: 

If you are using a Windows XP PC, the path is C:\Documents and Settings\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles.

If you are using a Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista PC, the path is C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles. (Replace UserName with your PC username)

2. Find the Excel file you need here.

3. You can open the file to choose Save As to recover it.

If the folder may not save the Excel file you want, then please refer to other solutions below.

Way 4. Recover an Excel file from a backup

There is another solution if you have activated the Windows File History feature. You can recover lost data on Excel from a backup easily following the steps below:

1. Find the saved-over Excel file to right-click on it. Choose the Properties option.

2. Choose the version you want to recover and click on the Restore button.

But this method is only suitable for users who have activated the Windows File History feature and created backups before. If you have not done this, please refer to the last solution.

Recover a deleted Excel file via a free data recovery tool

If your Excel files are deleted due to different reasons, how to retrieve Excel file saved over then? Here comes a free file recovery tool - MyRecover.

MyRecover can help you to recover Excel file after crash, deletion, and other situations successfully. Besides, you just need to operate a few clicks on a clear graphical user interface to recover your deleted Excel file with ease.

Let’s have a look at the advantages of MyRecover:

● Perfectly integrate with Windows 11/10/8/8/7 and Windows Server systems.
● Able to recover more than 200 types of data including Excel, Word, PDF, PPT, photos, videos, audios, etc.
● Keep the filename/path/format of the recovered files.
● Scan and recover files at a high speed and recovery rate.

Now, press the Download Software button to download and install it on your PC. And here is a 3-step guideline to recover a deleted Excel file via MyRecover easily.

1. Choose the partition or disk where your Excel file was deleted. Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

2. You will see your deleted Excel file and other missing files after Quick Scan/Deep Scan automatically.

3. Please check the scanning result and select a new location to store your recovered Excel files. After that, click on the Recover X files button to recover your deleted Excel file via MyRecover.

Wrapping things up

Reading here, you may have found an efficient solution to how to recover an Excel file that was saved over. You can use the Excel built-in tool, the previous version feature from backup to do that. And if your Excel file was deleted accidentally, a professional data recovery software like MyRecover will help you to recover it without effort.