How to Recover a Deleted Excel File in Windows 11/10 | 4 Best Choices

Microsoft Excel files usually create worksheets that can automatically calculate numbers and statistics information. An Excel file can be very helpful when you want to organize the data personally or for work. While using the computer or laptop, it is possible to lose Excel files because of many accidents, such as accidental deletion or forced quit Excel without saving. How to recover a deleted Excel file in Windows 10/11? The Excel files can be easily restored if you have backups on external hard drives or in OneDrive.

Most users don't have a habit of backing up Excel files, and data loss always happens suddenly. Don't worry! We will offer four tested methods:

Recovery Methods	Editor's Review
🗂️Excel Recovery Software	With the EaseUS professional recovery program, you can find Excel files that are no longer in the Recycle Bin. You can restore other files with a recovery program in the meantime, by the way.
🗑️Recycle Bin Recovery	When you accidentally remove the Excel file in Windows, the Excel file will be moved to the Recycle Bin immediately.
📒Recover from Temp Files	MS Excel will create temporary files to help users recover unsaved Excel worksheets. You can restore important Excel data from a temp file.
👩‍⚕️Data Recovery Services	When all the methods cannot work, and the Excel you deleted is so important, you can contact professional data recovery engineers for help.

Method 1. Recover Deleted Excel Files in Windows with Data Recovery Software

Most users who need to recover deleted Excel files usually don't have any backup files and cannot find any files in the Recycle Bin. That makes applying data recovery software the best solution.

Is it hard to find a trustworthy recovery tool? EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard should be the first choice. This software is 100% safe, and you can benefit a lot from its user-friendly interface. Download this software now!

After clicking the download button, wait for the package to be prepared. Double-click the exe files and install the EaseUS recovery tool.

This software can help you find missing Excel files, Word, PDF, and Adobe files from multiple devices. This software can even recover Excel files not saved. Check the following step-by-step guide to recover a deleted Excel file in Windows 11 or 10.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Excel recovery software in Windows 10 or 11. Locate the "PC Recovery" interface, and choose the folder where you have saved the Excel files. If you are not sure of the file location, scan the whole disk to recover deleted files in Windows 11/10.

Step 2. Change the "Path" to "Type" and choose "Document". You'll see many folders; select xlsx or xls folder to recover xlsx files.

Step 3. Check the list to find the Excel files you want, and click the "Preview" button to view the details.

Step 4. You can preview the Excel worksheet one by one with the arrow. Select the Excel file you want to recover and choose a new location to save it.

If you find this detailed tutorial helpful, share this page on the social media platform and let more readers know!

Method 2. Retrieve Deleted Excel Worksheets from the Recycle Bin

Will deleted Excel worksheets go to the Recycle Bin after deleting them? It depends. If you delete the Excel file from an external hard drive, SD card, or USB flash drive, the Excel will not appear in the Recycle Bin. If you want to recover deleted files from external hard drives, you should rely on backups or recovery software. The recycle folder will only keep the files you deleted from a local disk.

Check how to recover deleted Excel files from the Windows Recycle Bin. We'll take Windows 11 as an example.

Step 1. Locate the Recycle Bin and open it in Windows to perform Recycle Bin recovery.

Step 2. The recently deleted files will all be here. Choose the deleted Excel files and right-click on them. Select "Restore", and the Excel worksheet will go back to the original location.

Note: If you need to recover files after emptying the Recycle Bin folder, it's better to go back to Method 1.

Method 3. Restore Deleted Excel Files from Temp Files

After Microsoft has released the AutoRecover option, it is easier to recover unsaved Excel files with temporary files. You can directly go to the Excel temp file location to check if there are useful Excel files remaining: C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel. Or you can follow this tutorial to restore deleted Excel files from the Temp folder.

Step 1. Run Microsoft Excel in Windows, or you can open any xlsx file with MS Excel to launch the application.

Step 2. Choose "File"> "Open"> "Recover Unsaved Workbooks".

Step 3. Then, the Excel temp folder will show up, and you can double-click the Excel file to view the details.

You can use the same method to recover unsaved PowerPoint or Word documents. 

Method 4. Recover Deleted Excels in Windows with Data Recovery Services

The last method should be your backup plan, which you can use after all the methods fail. You may have seen data recovery labs in daily life, and these professional recovery centers can help users fix hard drive errors without losing data.

If you cannot find suitable data recovery centers nearby, you can contact EaseUS data recovery services for help. Our engineers will work 24 hours a day to help users resolve data loss and hard drive issues. You can click the following link to start a chat with us.

Conclusion

Remember to allow Recycle Bin to keep deleted files for 30 days, and you can easily retrieve deleted data from the trash folder. When there is no backup and no file in the Recycle Bin, go to download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and restore lost Excel files in the Windows operating system.

Deleted Excel Recovery in Windows FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions, and you'll learn more information from the answers below:

1. Can I recover permanently deleted Excel files in Windows 10?

Basically, you cannot recover a permanent Excel file in Windows 10. But you don't know whether the file is really permanently erased and overwritten or not. If the data is overwritten, you can only restore the files with recent backups.

2. What is the best Excel recovery software?

We recommend EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, which can work on both Windows and macOS operating systems. This recovery software will give you the necessary instructions when you launch the software for the first time. It's a totally safe and user-friendly recovery product.

3. How do I recover accidentally deleted Excel files?

The best solution to recover accidentally deleted Excel files is going to the Recycle Bin. Because the Windows Recycle Bin folder will keep deleted files for less than 30 days, you can check the folder after deletion, and you can find deleted stuff in most situations.