How to Disable AutoSave in Word and Excel

What Is AutoSave in Word/Excel

Recently, Microsoft has included an autosave feature that is turned on by default. This feature is available when a file is saved to Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365. AutoSave can be useful because there may be a time when you want to make changes to a file without saving it. But there is a problem, any change you make is automatically saved - meaning your original document is overwritten, even if you don't want it to be. Thus, we are going to talk about how to turn it off.

Part 1. How to Disable Word/Excel AutoSave on Windows

If you are using Windows 10/8.1/8/7, you can disable Word/Excel AutoSave by the steps below.

Step 1. Open an Office 365 program that can open a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. file and click "File".

Step 2. Select "Options" from the left navigation.

Step 3. In the "Options" window, select "Save" from the left navigation.

Step 4. Uncheck the "Autosave OneDrive and SharePoint Online files by default" option.

Part 2. How to Disable Word/Excel AutoSave on macOS

If you turn AutoSave Off for an individual file the application will remember to keep it off every time you reopen that file. Things could be a little bit different if you are going to turn off AutoSave on Mac.

Step 1. Open Excel or Word or any of the Office programs and click (in our case) Excel in the toolbar on top of the screen.

Step 2. Click "Preferences".

Step 3. In the Preferences Dialog box, click the "Save" button in the "Sharing and Privacy" at the bottom of the box.

Step 4. Unselect the "Turn on AutoSave" by default.

Part 3. How to Recover Lost Word/Excel Files on Your PC

Microsoft Office comes with an AutoSave button turned on by default. It is a very good idea for data protection. Since you have turned off the AutoSave option with the steps below, you must take the risk of data loss. But you can restore the deleted or lost files with professional data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. This file recovery software can recover unsaved Word, Excel, and PPT files with simple steps.

Follow the steps below to recover lost Word or Excel files.

Step 1. Choose the Word file location

Choose the drive or a specific folder where you lost Word documents and click the "Scan" button.

Step 2. Locate your Word documents

The software will start immediately scanning all lost data on the selected drive. After the scan, click the "Documents" option in the left panel. Choose the target Word file from the scan results. Then, click "Preview".

Step 3. Recover the deleted Word documents

After previewing, select the desired Word files and click "Recover". Remember, save the recovered documents in another location rather than original place. 

Conclusion

AutoSave is a new feature available in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 subscribers that saves your file automatically. You are advised to keep the AutoSave turning on to protect your Office data. But sometimes it can cause some issues, you can also disable the option with the methods above. If you are faced with Office data loss, you can also turn to EaseUS EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.