Tutorial: How to Recover Deleted Excel Files in Office 365

How do I recover deleted excel files in Office 365?

Luckily, it is not that complicated to recover deleted excel files in Office 365. But you need to take different moves with specific problems. Follow the steps in this post and learn how to recover deleted excel files in Microsoft 365 under different situations.

How to recover accidentally deleted excel files in Office 365 [2 methods]

When you have accidentally deleted some excel files, you can use the following two methods to get them back.

Method 1. Use the Undo feature to get the deleted excel files

If you deleted your excel files by mistake just now, then the Windows Undo feature allows you to quickly recover your files. Simply hold down Ctrl + Z at the same time, or right-click the blank spot and select Undo Delete. The accidentally deleted excel files will back to whether they used to be after that.

Method 2. Restore the deleted excel files from the Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin is well-known to most Microsoft users. This helps temporarily hold data deleted for 30 days or the time limit set by the administrator. During this time, if the user does not empty the bin, it is easy to recover deleted excel files in Office 365.

Step 1. Double click Recycle Bin on your desktop to open it.

Step 2. Locate the excel file you have deleted. Right-click it, and click Restore. Then your file will come back to the location where it was before being deleted.

How to recover permanently deleted excel files in Office 365 [4 methods]

If unfortunately, you have permanently deleted excel files by pressing Shift + Delete, or have your Recycle Bin emptied, you can use the following four methods to recover permanently deleted excel files in Office 365.

Method 1. Retrieve permanently deleted files via professional data recovery software

The first method to retrieve permanently deleted excel files in Microsoft 365 is using professional data recovery software, such as MyRecover.

• Easy-to-operate. It allows you to recover lost/deleted data from Windows within 3 easy steps.
• All-inclusive. It applies to various data loss scenarios in Windows, including recovering data from formatted drives, corrupted partitions, after system crashes, virus attacks, etc.
• High-speed. It recovers lost data at high speed.
• High recovery rate. It recovers your data with a high recovery rate, even if it was permanently deleted.
• Widely-compatible. It supports NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and ReFS in Windows 11/10/8/7 & Windows Server.
• Comprehensive. It can recover lost/deleted texts, pictures, videos, audios, emails, compressed files, etc., in original format.

Step 1. Download, install and launch MyRecover on your computer.  

Step 2. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan to scan.

Step 3. Then the scanning process will start automatically. You don’t need to wait for the process to complete if you find the excel files you want to recover.

Step 4. Choose the excel files that you want to recover. Click Recover xx files and choose a destination path to save the restored files.

Method 2. Find out the excel files automatically saved by Office 365

AutoRecover function in Office 365 helps you automatically keep the files in a time period you set if you have this function enabled, so you are able to recover deleted or unsaved files. But note that this isn’t foolproof, and it doesn’t always work.

Step 1. Open a blank Microsoft Excel document and click the File tab.

Step 2. Click the Options link at the bottom.

Step 3. Click Save from the left. Then make sure you have AutoRecover enabled. If not, you can jump to the next method.

Step 4. Once you find the section with a path showing where your auto-saved documents go, select and copy it. In my case, it’s here: C:\Users\Bryan\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

Step 5. Open File Explorer and paste in the copied file path. Hit Enter.

Step 6. Here, we’ll see the last save of the document you were working on. Click it to open the file.

Step 7. Right-click the Microsoft Excel Binary file, and select Open with.

Step 8. Choose Excel, and click OK. Then your file will be reopened with Excel.

Method 3. Restore deleted excel file from a Windows backup

The third method to recover permanently deleted excel files is to use the Windows built-in utility Backup and Restore. Of course, you need to have this feature enabled in order to use it.

Step 1. Input Control Panel in the Windows search bar, and start it.

Step 2. Click System and Security and then Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 3. Here you’ll see if you have this function enabled. If you do, click Select another backup to restore files from. If you don’t, jump to the next method.

Step 4. Select the backup and then click Next.

Step 5. Search for your excel file by using the Browse for files or Browse for folders option.

Step 6. Choose a location to save the backup, select your excel file and click Restore to recover it.

Bonus tip: Backup excel files with AOMEI Backupper

Another way to back up excel files to prevent data loss is to use the professional backup freeware AOMEI Backupper. 

Step 1. Download, install and launch AOMEI Backupper for Windows on your computer. 

Step 2. Under the Backup tab, select the File Backup.

Step 3. Edit the task name for distinguishing. Click Add Folder or Add File > This PC > Devices and drives to add the photos.

Step 4. Select the destination path to store the backup photos. Network path and cloud drive are supported.

Step 5. Click Start Backup to carry out disk backup and wait until the operation is complete. Click Finish to exit the interface.

Method 4. Use the Previous Versions facility to revert to an older copy of the excel files

The final method is to use the File History to revert to an older copy of the excel files. Also, you need to have this feature turned on in order to use it.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > File History.

Step 2. Here you’ll see if you have this feature turned on. If yes, click Restore personal files. If not, go to the final method.

Step 3. Select the excel file you need to recover and then click the Restore button.

Bonus tips: Recover unsaved excel files in Office 365 [2 methods]

After learning how to recover a deleted excel file in Office 365, you may wonder how do I recover an unsaved excel document in Office 365. In the previous section, we mentioned AutoRecover, an Office 365 tool that automatically saves files, which could help you recover unsaved files. Here in this section, we’ll introduce two more methods used for different situations.

Method 1. Check the temporary files to recover unsaved excel files

For a new file that has never been saved before, you can follow the steps below.

Step 1. Start the Excel on your PC, and click File. Go to Info, find Manage Workbook, then click Recover Unsaved Workbooks.

Step 2. Then your unsaved files will be shown in the pop-up window. Select the files you want to restore and then click on Open.

Step 3. Don’t forget to click File and then go to Save As to save your files carefully.

Method 2. Recover unsaved excel files from Excel recovered files

For a previously saved file that has been closed before you can save the changes made since your last save, you can follow the steps below.

 Step 1. Once you open the Excel file again, you can see the Recovered heading, select Show Recovered Files.

Step 2. The Excel will open a new sheet with the Document Recovery panel, double click the Excel file on the Available File list, and you can get the unsaved excel files.

Conclusion

This post primarily explains how to recover deleted excel files in Office 365. As clearly clarified in the post, you need to take different moves in different situations. No matter whether your excel files have been accidentally or permanently deleted, we believe you can find an effective solution here.