Forum Discussion
202627
Sep 01, 2026Copper Contributor
Please Help_ Disappeared Excel Doc
Dear Expert, I just lost my Excel Document that improved after I have downloaded from the Chat GPT. I have improve many different sheets on the documents but it is now only see the excel sheets that...
SarahWilson1
Sep 03, 2026Brass Contributor
First, stop editing or saving over the current workbook and make a copy of it. You may have opened an older copy, especially if the original was downloaded more than once.
Try these steps:
- In Excel, go to File > Open > Recent and check whether another copy of the workbook appears.
- In File Explorer, search for *.xlsx and *.xlsm, then sort the results by Date modified. Check Downloads, Documents, Desktop and OneDrive. Also look for names such as filename (1).xlsx.
- In Excel, go to File > Info > Manage Workbook > Recover Unsaved Workbooks. Open any recent version you find and immediately save it under a new name.
- You can also press Win + R, enter %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles, and check for recovery files.
- If the workbook was saved in OneDrive, right-click it and open Version history. You may be able to restore or download the version containing the missing work.
- Check whether the worksheets are simply hidden. Right-click any visible sheet tab and select Unhide. If no sheet tabs appear, go to File > Options > Advanced and enable Show sheet tabs.
ChatGPT keeps the version that was originally downloaded, but it does not automatically keep edits subsequently made in Excel. If the missing changes were never saved and there is no AutoRecover or OneDrive version, unfortunately they may not be recoverable.