[4 Ways] How to Recover Permanently Deleted Excel Files in Windows 10

The Microsoft Excel workbook is widely used all over the world due to its excellent data visualization and analysis capabilities. It is frequently used by many retailers, industries, and businesses.

But sometimes, you may accidentally delete important Excel files and find that deleted files not in the Recycle Bin, which means that those Excel files were permanently deleted. Then, here comes this question:
Is it possible to recover permanently deleted Excel files in Windows 10?
Yes, in most cases, you can recover permanently deleted Excel files in Windows 10. However, if new data overwrites the lost Excel files, you have no chance to recover them. Therefore, once the data loss has happened, please stop using the partition/disk you used to save Excel files.

Then, follow the detailed instruction below to learn about how to recover permanently deleted Excel files in Windows 10.

How to recover permanently deleted Excel files in Windows 10 without software

In Windows 10, there are three methods to help you get permanently deleted Excel files back without software. But please be noted that there are some prerequisites to try each method.

If you are looking for the efficient way to recover Excel files, a data recovery software in the next part may be a better choice for you.

1. Recover permanently deleted Excel files automatically saved by Office

If you have the AutoRecover function enabled in Office, it will automatically keep the files for the time period you specify, allowing you to recover deleted or unsaved files. However, keep in mind that this is not a perfect method, and it does not always work.

To better illustrate, let’s take Office 365 as an example. The steps are almost the same if you are using other versions of Office.

Before trying this method, you need to check you have enabled AutoRecover before with the following steps.

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

Step 2. Click the Options link at the bottom > Click Save from the left pane to have a check.

If not, you can jump to the next method. If it has been enabled, keep going to recover permanently deleted Excel files with it.

Step 3. 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 4. Open File Explorer and paste in the copied file path. Hit Enter.

Step 5. Here, we’ll see the last save of the document you were working on. Click it to open the file.

Step 6. Right-click the Microsoft Excel Binary file, and select Open with.

Step 7. Choose Excel, and click OK. Then your file will be reopened with Excel.

2. Recover permanently deleted Excel files via Previous Version option

If you just empty the Recycle Bin and the File History or restore point is enable, chances are that you can recover permanently Excel files via Previous Version option. Here are the steps.

Step 1. Go to File Explorer > locate the folder where the Excel file was previously saved.

Step 2. Right-click the folder > Properties > Previous Versions > select an earlier version > Restore.

3. Recover permanently deleted Excel files from File History Backup

This method only functions when a backup of your files is prepared already. Otherwise, you will only get a warning saying there is no backup to restore.

It is advisable to take measures and keep regular backups. Using AOMEI Backupper to simply protect your data could be an excellent option.

Step 1. Start the Control Panel, click System and Security.

Step 2. Click File History > Then go to Restore personal files.

Step 3. Find your deleted Excel file, then click the Recycle icon at the bottom of this window to restore your deleted files.

An easy way to recover permanently deleted Excel files

It is difficult and sometimes impossible to recover permanently deleted Excel files without software. The professional data recovery software - MyRecover - is highly recommended to make things easier and faster.

Free download the software and learn about know how to recover permanently deleted Excel files in Windows 10.

Step 1. Run MyRecover on your computer > Hover the mouse over the drive, and click Scan to let the tool scan your disk.

Step 2. The deleted/lost files will be scanned and listed in the Scanned files list. You can click each folder to browse them here.

You can also search the name of the files or folder in the search bar to find your Excel files.

Step 3. Locate and choose the lost Excel files from the list > Click Recover x files > Choose a destination to save the files so that you don’t need to worry where are recovered Excel files stored.

MyRecover also allows you to recover data from wiped/partitioned hard drive, USB, pen drives, and so on. Just plug them into computer, and make it with the three steps above.

Conclusion

Hope you have a clear idea about how to recover permanently deleted Excel files in Windows 10. When you encounter Excel files lost, the inbuilt Windows features can be of some help. If you fail to recover Excel file with them, you can choose MyRecover as your helping hand.