Losing hours of complicated spreadsheet formatting and data entry because of a sudden power outage or an unexpected application crash is a nightmare scenario. While Microsoft Excel includes an AutoRecover feature, its default configuration only takes a snapshot of your work every 10 minutes. In a fast-paced data entry environment, 10 minutes represents a massive amount of lost work. Fortunately, you can dive into the Excel options and force the program to automatically save your workbook much more frequently.
How to Change the AutoRecover Interval
You can adjust the automated save timer directly from the main Excel settings menu.
- Open Microsoft Excel on your computer.
- Click on File in the top left corner of the ribbon.
- Look at the very bottom of the green left-hand sidebar and click on Options.
- In the Excel Options dialog box, click on the Save tab on the left.
- Locate the section labelled Save workbooks.
- Ensure the checkbox next to Save AutoRecover information every X minutes is ticked.
- Change the number in the box from 10 down to 5. (You can set this as low as 1 minute if you are performing critical, rapid data entry, though it may cause slight stuttering on older, slower computers).
- Directly below that, ensure the checkbox for Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving is also ticked.
- Click OK at the bottom of the window to apply your changes.
How to Access Your AutoRecovered Files
If Excel does crash, the next time you open the program, a Document Recovery pane should automatically appear on the left side of your screen, displaying the backups it managed to capture. However, if this pane does not appear, you can retrieve the files manually.
- Click File, then select Open.
- At the bottom right of the main screen, look for a small button labelled Recover Unsaved Workbooks.
- Clicking this will open a hidden folder deep within your Windows AppData directory containing all the temporary files Excel automatically saved in the background based on your new 5-minute interval.