5 Ways You Can DIY to Recover Overwritten Excel File Anytime

Excel is the best companion to help you deal with data and info graphics. Overwriting an Excel file to keep it to the latest one is very common. However, accidents always come unexpectedly, like Jaffa:

"I make some changes in my Excel file, and saved it over. However, when I realize there are something that I want to keep in the previous Excel file. How can I recover an Excel file I saved over?"

When you realize you want to recover a previously version of Excel file, you come to the right place.

Recover Overwritten Excel File

Today, we will share you the list of best 6 efficient ways to help you recover an Excel file that is saved over. You can always find the best one to restore the wanted Excel file saved over.

• Solution 1. Get back the saved over Excel file through Undo (When Excel file is not closed)
• Solution 2. Retrieve replaced Excel file via AutoRecover (AutoRecover is enable)
• Solution 3. Restore overwritten Excel file from temp file (AutoRecover is enable)
• Solution 4. Find Back the substituted Excel file from Windows previous version (System backup is ON)
• Solution 5. Recover deleted/lost/overwritten Excel file (Easiest and safest)

You need to make sure your Excl file is still open, then you are 100% successful to recover the previous Excel file.

Try clicking the Undo option in the Edit menu > until it reverts to the previous version that you are looking for.

But, if your Excel file is saved over and closed, then you should follow the skills below to get the Excel file recovery.

When you want to try this way, you need to check if your AutoRecover is active on your Excel. If yes, just follow the steps, if not, please jump to Solution 3 directly.

Step 1 Go to File > help > Options > Save to see if AutoRecover is running.

Step 2 On the File tab, click Info > Mange Workbook to pick up one previous version of Excel file.

If you cannot find the auto-recovery version of Excel file that is saved over, then you can move on the next way.

Microsoft Office's AutoRecover feature also saves all Excel files under editing as a temp file and save them to a specific location in Windows C drive.

So if your Excel file got lost, replaced or even overwritten, you my directly restore it from TMP files.

Step 1 Navigate the temp Excel file with .TMP extension.

For Windows 7 users:

C:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

For Windows 8/10 users:

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles\

Or, you can press Windows + R key > Type %temp% to navigate the temp folder.

Step 2 Locate and find the temporary excel files begin with "$" or "~" and end with ".TMP".

Select the exact Excel temp file by date, copy it to another place and change the extension from .TMP to .XLS/.XLSX or .CSV.

Surely, if you did not enable AutoRecover in Excel, then how to do?

Of course, turn to Windows system backup for help.

Windows previous versions are either copies of files and folders created by Windows Backup or copies of files and folders, which Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point.

For recovering the saved over Excel file, you need to pay attention to the 2 points:

1. Make sure your computer system protection is ON.

Go to Control Panel > System and Security > System > System protection > Check the drives where you saved over an Excel file is ON or OFF under the option of Protection.

If your system protection is not ON, try to turn on it just in case in the next time (Select the hard drive that you want to backup automatically > Configure > Only restore previous versions of files > select the max usage > OK).

2. The restored Excel is only restored from certain point, not 100% sure to contain all data that you want.

Step 1 Locate the Excel file that is saved over, and right click to pick Properties.

Step 2 Under the option of previous versions to pick up the version that you want to recover.

Commonly, you are able to find the restored Excel file. But if you may fail to find the previous Excel version for the reasons below:

A restore point or backup has not been made since the file was changed.

System protection might not be turned on for the drive those files are stored on. If system protection is not turned on, Windows can't create previous versions.

Considering the reasons, you have to go to visit the last solution.

In this solution, you need the professional Excel file data recovery tool to help you. Excel File Data Recovery is the reliable hard drive recovery software for Excel 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2013RT and 2016.

It is designed to recover all lost files like office documents from any data loss situations. Only three steps can recover all lost Excel files.

Step 1 Free download this software to your computer. Install and launch it immediately. In the main interface, select the data type as Document and pick up the hard disk drive. Click Scan to get a quick scan on your hard drive.

Step 2 From the scan result of quick scan, you can click Document to find XLS or XLSX folder

Step 3 Open Excel folder, check the exact Excel file that you need, and click Recover to start to restore the overwritten Excel file to your computer.

If you cannot find the Excel file, you can click Deep Scan to get more Excel files scan.

Now it is your turn

Here we should make a conclusion that, there are 5 options to help you recover the Excel file saved over. The 4 free solutions are limited to use in some a situation. The last one way is regarded as the easiest and highest successful rate.

You can pick up the most suitable one that you need exactly according to your needs.

If you have any questions when you follow the method, do not hesitate to leave your comments below.