Microsoft Autorecover File Location Mac

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Office 2011 for Mac is full of useful features, including the autorecovery tool in Excel. Although crashes in Excel for Mac 2011 are extremely rare, it doesn’t hurt to make sure Excel 2011 is backing up your changes as you work. The following sections show you what to do to ensure Excel is making backups and how to retrieve the backup if you need to.

Setting up AutoRecover in Excel for Mac 2011

Take a moment to make sure your preferences automatically save an emergency backup file of your work. Before you do that, remember that AutoRecover is not a substitute for saving your files often! To set up AutoRecover, follow these steps:

Dec 31, 2017  I keep getting this message on my Mac running MS 2016 with High Sierra: Word is unable to save the AutoRecover file in the location you have specified. Make sure that you have specifies a valid location for AutoRecover files in Preferences, and that you have permission to write files to the location. Alternatively, from Word's File menu, choose Open. And browse to the location of the file. Finding AutoRecovered files in Mac OS X. Word for Mac OS X saves the AutoRecovered file as AutoRecover save of filename, where filename is the name of the document on which you were working. The default AutoRecover location is.

After you turn on AutoRecover, Excel saves your work at the specified interval so that you can recover in the event that the system or Excel crashes. Retrieving an AutoRecover file in Excel for Mac 2011. If your computer or Excel crashes, you can recover your work up to the most recent AutoRecover save, but only if you turned on AutoRecover saves. Jan 30, 2019 Did you encounter a crash of Word, Powerpoint or Excel? And you want to know where to find the autorecovery files? Or are you working on files and leave them open for several days and want to make copies each hour or so, just in case, of the recovery files, e.g. With ChronoSync? The location. If you can't locate an AutoRecover file in the location that is identified in the Folder name list, search your whole drive for any.asd files. To do this, follow these steps: Windows 10 and Windows 7. Select Start, type.asd in the Start Search box, and then press Enter. If the File list does not contain AutoRecover files. Save a file in Office for Mac. When you save a file, you can usually change its name, storage location, and file format all at the same time, if you want to do so. However, you might not want to do all of those things, and the instructions in this topic describe each option individually. The more frequently that AutoRecover saves files. Choose File→Open from the menu bar. Type AutoRecover or type a keyword or phrase in the Spotlight Search box in the top-right corner of the Open dialog. Double-click the most recently saved AutoRecover file, or select the file and click Open.

  1. Choose Excel→Preferences from the menu bar.

  2. In the Sharing and Privacy section, select Save.

  3. Select the Save AutoRecover Information After This Number of Minutes check box.

  4. Enter the number of minutes that you want between AutoRecover file saves, or use the increase/decrease control.

  5. Click OK.

    After you turn on AutoRecover, Excel saves your work at the specified interval so that you can recover in the event that the system or Excel crashes.

Retrieving an AutoRecover file in Excel for Mac 2011

If your computer or Excel crashes, you can recover your work up to the most recent AutoRecover save, but only if you turned on AutoRecover saves. Take these steps to restore any workbooks that were open at the time of the crash:

  1. Click the Excel Dock icon.

    Excel presents any documents that you’re working on that have been saved at least once. Recovered documents have (Recovered) in the title bar.

  2. To keep the recovered version, choose File→Save As.

    The Save As dialog appears. Take one of the following actions:

    • To replace the existing file with the recovered version:Navigate to the file or use Spotlight to locate the existing file. Then, click the filename to change the recovered file’s name to the existing filename. Click Save to overwrite the existing file.

    • To save the recovered file without overwriting the original: Select a location to save the recovered file and enter a name for the file in the text box. Then click Save.

To discard a recovered workbook, click the red Close button to close the workbook. When prompted, don’t save changes.

To permanently remove AutoRecover files from your computer, follow these steps:

  1. Quit all open Office applications.

  2. In Finder, press Command-F.

  3. Enter AutoRecover in the text box.

  4. Select all AutoRecover files.

  5. Drag the files to the Trash.

  6. Empty the Trash.

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Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Summary

Microsoft Excel now has a built-in AutoRecover feature that has replaced the AutoSave add-in that exists in versions of Excel that are earlier than Microsoft Excel 2002. The AutoRecover feature saves copies of all open Excel files at a user-definable fixed interval. The files can be recovered if Excel closes unexpectedly, for example, during a power failure.

This article contains an overview of the AutoRecover feature.

More Information

How to configure the AutoRecover settings

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Excel 2010

The controls to configure the AutoRecover feature are in the Save settings in Excel Options.

Note To open the Save settings, click the Microsoft Office Button in Excel 2007 or the File menu in Excel 2010, clickExcel Optionsin 2007 or Options in Excel 2010, and then click Save.

To configure the AutoRecover settings, follow these steps:

  1. Under Save Workbooks, click to select the Save AutoRecover info everycheck box to turn on the AutoRecover feature.

  2. In the minutes box, you can type any integer from 1 through 120. This box sets the number of minutes that will occur between saves.

    The default is 10 minutes.

  3. In the AutoRecover file location box, you can type the path and the folder name of the location in which you want the AutoRecover files to stay.

    The default location is as follows:

    drive:Documents and Settings*user_name*Application DataMicrosoftExcel

    Notes

    • If the location that you type is local (on your hard drive) or is on a network drive, and if this location does not exist, you receive the following error message:

      Cannot access directory path.

      To determine the unique number that is associated with the message that you receive, press CTRL+SHIFT+I. The following number appears in the lower-right corner of this message:

      100100

    • If you click to clear the AutoRecover file location box but do not enter a new location, AutoRecover files will continue to be saved to the location that you cleared. This will occur until you type a new location.

      The AutoRecover file location box remains empty until you type a new location.

  4. You can turn off the AutoRecover feature in an individual workbook. To do this, click to select the Disable AutoRecover for this workbook only check box under the AutoRecover exceptions for box. Make sure that the workbook name is selected in the AutoRecover exceptions for box.

Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and earlier versions of Excel

The controls to configure the AutoRecover dialog box are on the Save tab of the Options dialog box.

Note To open the Options dialog box, click Options on the Tools menu.

Microsoft Autorecover Files

To configure the AutoRecover dialog box, follow these steps:

  1. Under Settings, click to select the Save AutoRecover info everycheck box to turn on the AutoRecover feature.

  2. In the minutes box, you can type any integer from 1 through 120. This box sets the number of minutes that will occur between saves.

    The default is 10 minutes.

  3. In the AutoRecover file location box, you can type the path and the folder name of the location in which you want the AutoRecover files to stay.

    The default location is as follows:

    drive:Documents and Settings*user_name*Application DataMicrosoftExcel

    Notes

    • If the location that you type is local (on your hard drive) and if the location does not exist, you receive the following error message:

      Cannot access directory path.

    • If the location that you type is on a network drive, you will not receive an alert until your first AutoRecover attempt. You receive the following error message:

      Microsoft cannot save AutoRecover info to path. Please check the network connection or change the location on the Save tab of the Tools, Options dialog.

    • If you clear the AutoRecover file location box but do not enter a new location, AutoRecover files will continue to be saved to the location that you cleared. This occurs until you type a new location.

      The AutoRecover file location box remains empty until you type a new location.

  4. You can turn off the AutoRecover feature in an individual workbook. To do this, click to select the Disable AutoRecover check box under Workbook options.

When an AutoRecover event is triggered

When an Excel file is open and AutoRecover is turned on, AutoRecover does not save the file until the first change is made to the file, the AutoRecover save time interval passes, and Excel has been idle for some time (the default is 30 seconds). After AutoRecover saves the file, the file is only saved at subsequent save intervals if further changes are made.

When AutoRecover files are deleted

To keep from filling up your AutoRecover location with unneeded files, AutoRecover files are automatically deleted in the following situations:

  • When the file is manually saved.
  • The file is saved with a new file name using Save As.
  • You close the file.
  • You quit Excel, whether you choose to save the file or not.
  • You turn off AutoRecover for the current workbook.
  • You turn off AutoRecover by clearing the Save AutoRecover info every check box.

AutoRecover save timing

The AutoRecover timer checks for changed Excel files at the interval you set in the minutes box on the Save tab in the Options dialog box. The timer starts when you start Excel.

Note

In Excel 2007, the minutes box is in the Save category in the Excel Option dialog box. In Excel 2010, the minutes box is in the Save category under File, Options.

Microsoft Autorecover File Location

When the first save interval passes, Excel checks to see whether any open files have been changed. If Excel locates changed files, an idle timer starts. The purpose of the idle timer is to make sure that the user does not make entries in the worksheet while the save operation occurs. The idle timer restarts each time that the user makes an entry into the worksheet so the AutoRecover save file is not created until both the save interval passes and no entries are made for the duration of the idle time.

The default idle time is 30 seconds. To change the default idle time, use the AutoRecoverDelay registry key. To do this, follow these steps.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Find

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

  1. Quit Excel if it is running.

  2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

  3. Locate and then select one of the following registry keys, as appropriate for the version of Excel that you are running.

    For Microsoft Excel 2002:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice10.0ExcelOptions

    Previous versions of Office, such as Office 2010 and Office 2007, may work with Office 365 with reduced functionality. Microsoft office 1 user 2 macs download. Publisher: Windows PC client program and/or features only; cannot be used across devices. Most plans that do not include the desktop version of Office work with the latest version of Office, Office 2013, and Office 2011 for Mac.

    For Excel 2003:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0ExcelOptions

    For Excel 2007:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice12.0ExcelOptions

    For Excel 2010:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice14.0ExcelOptions

  4. On the Edit menu, click New, and then click DWORD value.

  5. Type the following name for the new value:

    AutoRecoverDelay

  6. Press ENTER.

  7. Right-click the AutoRecoverDelay registry key, and then click Modify.

  8. In the Value data box, type a number between 1 and 600. This is the number of seconds before AutoRecover tries to save.

  9. When you are finished, click OK.

  10. Quit Registry Editor.

Note

Autorecover File Location Windows

Only manually performed actions in the program affect the idle timer. Formulas that automatically update the file do not affect the idle timer. Excel saves the file when the idle time is reached, between the automatic updates to the formulas.

File formats that are saved by AutoRecover

AutoRecover saves all file formats that can be opened in Excel. To maintain speed and simplicity, AutoRecover saves all files as the current Excel file format, regardless of the original file format opened. The file is saved as a hidden file with an arbitrary filename with the extension .xar (for example, ~ar18a.xar).

When you try to save a recovered file upon reopening Excel after it closed unexpectedly, the original file format and name is suggested as the Save file type. Excel stores the original file name and its related .xar file name in the registry for the purpose of recovery.

AutoRecover and multiple instances of Excel

When more than one instance of Excel is running and one instance closes unexpectedly, a new instance of Excel is automatically started and the AutoRecover files are opened. If all instances of Excel close unexpectedly, but the computer is still running, a single instance of Excel is started and all AutoRecover files are opened. In the case of a power outage, all recovered files are opened when you start Excel again.

Compatibility

All AutoRecover settings, except the Disable AutoRecover workbook option, are stored in the system registry. AutoRecover settings are compatible with files from previous versions of Excel is not an issue.

What Is A File Location

When the Disable AutoRecover workbook option is set, and the file is opened in an earlier version of Excel, saved, and then reopened in a later version of Excel, the Disable AutoRecover workbook option is not affected.

References

For more information about how to troubleshoot errors when you save Excel files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Autorecover File Location Powerpoint

271513 How to troubleshoot errors when you save Excel files