How to Recover and Repair Corrupted Excel Files in Windows 10/11

Followthrough any method below to repair your corrupted Excel:

Workable Solutions	Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Restore from TMP File	Find Excel temp file in C:\Users\AppData...> Locate the TMP file > Copy and change its extension...Full steps
Fix 2. Restore from Previous Version	To recover an Excel file, create a new Excel with the same name, right-click on it, and select "Properties". Then, click on the "Previous Version" tab to access the file's previous versions. This will allow you to restore the file to a previous state if needed.Full steps
Fix 3. Recover Lost Excel	To recover a lost Excel file, run the Qiling File Recovery Software, scan the drive where the file was located, and follow the prompts to retrieve the file.Full steps

Can I repair a corrupted Excel file in Windows 10

"Does anyone know how to repair a corrupted Excel file and restore all lost data in the file in Windows 10 PC? Yesterday, I was editing an important Excel file on my computer running Windows 10 when the Excel file suddenly crashed. Then I tried to open the Excel again, I got this error message 'There is a problem in this file, we couldn't open it'. Yes, the Excel file was suddenly corrupted. Is there any method that can help me to get my data back? How?"

Excel users often face the issue of file corruption due to system, viruses, or other unknown reasons. To effectively restore corrupted Excel files and recover lost data, two quick fixes can be tried: using the built-in "Repair" feature in Excel or the "Open and Repair" option. However, if these methods fail, a complete solution is to use specialized software like Recoverit that can scan the file, identify and recover the corrupted data, and restore it to its original state, providing a high chance of successful recovery.

Quick Fix 1. Restore corrupted Excel file from TMP file

If your Excel file suddenly crashes or becomes corrupted, don't panic! Microsoft's AutoRecovery feature automatically saves temp files on Windows PCs, so you can recover your work. Simply follow these tips to retrieve your file.

Step 1. Follow the temp file folder location on your PC and find the Excel temp files with the TMP extension. This will help you identify and manage temporary files that may be consuming storage space.

For Windows 8/10 users:
C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

For Windows 7 users:
C:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

Step 2. To find the temporary Excel files that begin with "$" or "~" and end with ".TMP", navigate to the folder where your Excel files are stored. Look for files with names starting with "$" or "~" followed by a series of numbers or letters, and ending with ".

Step 3. Save the files with a new extension by changing .TMP to .XLS or .XLSX. Copy them to a safe location.

Quick Fix 2. Restore corrupted Excel file from the previous version

To restore corrupted Excel files, try opening the file in a previous version of Excel. If you've been using Excel 2016, try opening the file in Excel 2013 or earlier. If you've been using Excel 2013, try opening the file in Excel 2010 or earlier.

Step 1. To recover a lost Excel file, start by opening Excel and creating a new file with the same name as the lost file. This will create a blank file with the same name, which can help you remember the name of the lost file.

Step 2. Right-click on the Excel file and select Properties.

Step 3. To resolve the issue, go to Previous Versions, find and select the latest version or the right version before Excel crashed, was deleted, or saved, and click Restore.

Complete Solution: Recover lost/corrupted Excel file in Windows 10

If the former two quick fixes don't really help, relax and just follow the 3 steps below to get your lost corrupted Excel back and repair it back to work again. You can try to use a third-party Excel recovery software, such as Excel Recovery or Excel Repair, to scan and recover your corrupted Excel file.

Part 1. Restore lost corrupted Excel files with file recovery software

File recovery software - Deep Data Recovery helps you recover deleted, lost, or formatted Excel files from storage devices or hard drive partitions in Windows 10 with simple steps. To do this, download and install the tool on your computer, then apply it to get the lost Excel file back.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

Step 1. Select file types and click "Next" to start

Launch Deep Data Recovery on your PC, select the desired file types, and click "Next" to initiate the recovery process.

Select file types that you want to recover

Step 2. Select location and click "Scan"

Select the drive or folder where the Excel files are located, click the "Scan" button to start the recovery process.

Step 3. Locate your excel files

To quickly find the Excel files from the scan results, click the "Documents" option in the left panel, select "Excel", and click "Preview" to verify if the files are the desired Excel files.

Step 4. Recover Excel files

Select the desired Excel files, click the "Recover" button, and choose a folder to save the recovered files.

Part 2. Repair corrupted Excel files

If the restored Excel file can't be opened or fails to work, you can try to repair it using either the built-in Excel repair feature or a third-party repair tool. To do this, you can use the "Open and Repair" feature in Excel, or download and use a dedicated Excel repair software like Excel Recovery or Repairit.

To fix a corrupted Excel file, you can use the Open and Repair tool in Excel. This tool can attempt to repair the file and make it usable. To do this, open Excel and go to the "File" tab.

Qiling is a file repair tool that can repair severely corrupted XLS and XLSX files, allowing you to retrieve everything from the Excel workbook without modifying its original format. You can repair corrupted Excel files using Qiling with simple steps.

Step 1.Launch Deep Data Recovery, select the file types you want to recover, and click "Next" to begin the recovery process.

Step 2. This software allows you to scan a disk with corrupted documents and fix damaged Word, Excel, PPT, and PDF files in a single process.

select the disk with corrupted documents

Step 3. Qiling data recovery and repair tool scans for all lost and corrupted files, allowing you to find target files by type or search for them by name.

Step 4. Deep Data Recovery can automatically repair damaged documents, allowing you to recover and save repaired Word, Excel, and PDF files to a safe location after previewing them.

Method 2. Repair corrupted Excel by saving it as another format

If you can open the corrupted Excel file with no data, try to recover the corrupted Excel by saving it in another format, such as CSV or TXT, which may help to salvage some data.

Step 1. Open the corrupted Excel file and go to Save As.

Step 2. Select Web Page from the possible file formats.

Step 3. To save the entire Excel file, select the file by clicking on it in the Excel window, then click the 'File' tab in the top left corner, followed by 'Save As' (or press Ctrl+S on your keyboard). In the 'Save As' window, choose a location and file name, then click 'Save'.

Step 4. To open the saved file, locate it on your computer, right-click on it, and select "Open with" followed by Microsoft Office Excel. This will open the file in Excel.

Step 5. If the file can be opened normally, go to Save As and choose an Excel format such as .xls or .xlsx.

Step 6. Rename the file to something like "Original File" or "Backup File" and save it. This will prevent confusion with the corrupted file.

Part 3. Recover data from corrupted Excel file

To recover data when the workbook is open in Excel, follow these steps:

If you can open the corrupted Excel file, you can save the data and formula by following these steps: 1) Save the file in the original format, 2) Save the file in a different format like CSV, 3) Save the file as a new Excel file without overwriting the original file. This way, you can preserve the data and formula in the corrupted file.

Step 1. To fix a corrupted Excel file, open the file and select all sheets by right-clicking on a sheet tab and choosing "Select All Sheets". This will allow you to apply changes to all sheets at once, making it easier to troubleshoot and repair the file.

Step 2. Right-click an Excel sheet tab and click Move or Copy.

Step 3. To create a copy of a book, select the "New Book" option and then choose the "Create a copy" box. Click "OK" to proceed.

1. Close the workbook you want to recover data from, and open the Excel program. 2.

If you're having trouble opening a corrupted Excel sheet, you can try to recover your data using one of the following methods: You can try to open the file in Excel's built-in recovery mode, which can sometimes salvage the data. Alternatively, you can use a third-party tool like Excel Recovery or Disk Drill to scan the file and recover any recoverable data.

Option 1. Set the calculation option in Excel to manual

To resolve the issue of an unresponsive Excel file, changing the calculation settings from Automatic to Manual may be beneficial. This can be done by going to the "Formulas" tab in Excel, clicking on "Calculation Options," and selecting "Manual" from the dropdown menu.

Step 1. Open Excel file and click File > New.

Step 2. Click Blank workbook under New.

Step 3. To change the calculation mode in Excel, go to the File tab, select Options, and then click on the Formulas category. From there, click on Manual under Calculation options and then click OK.

Step 4. To recover your saved data in Excel, locate the corrupted file, double-click it to open, and your data should be visible in Excel.

If the Excel file is corrupted, you can try to use external references to link to it. This involves creating a new Excel file and then using the "Link to" feature to connect to the corrupted file. This approach can help you recover some of the data from the corrupted file, but it may not work if the file is severely damaged.

Step 1. Open Office Excel and click File > Open.

Step 2. To fix a corrupted Excel file, navigate to the folder where the file is located, right-click on the file, select "Copy", and then immediately cancel the copy process. This action will allow you to bypass the file's corrupted state and potentially recover the file's contents.

Step 3. Click File > New > Blank workbook.

Step 4. To recover a corrupted Excel file, open Excel and create a new workbook. Go to the "File" tab, click on "Open", and select the corrupted file. In the "Open" dialog box, click on the "General" tab and select "General" as the file type. Then, click on "OK".

Step 5. If the Update Values box appears, select corrupted Excel and click OK.

Step 6. Select cell A1, then click Home > Copy, and finally select an area from cell 1 to all cells that contain data in the corrupted Excel sheet.

Step 7. Click Home > Paste.

Step 8. To copy all selected cells again, click Home > Copy.

Step 9. Go to Home, click Paste, then select Values under Paste Values.

Pasting values from a corrupted Excel file will remove the links to the original file, leaving you with only the data, but no longer connected to the original file.