Excel Recovery
Inspect damaged XLSX or XLSM files and recover readable worksheet values into a new workbook when possible.
Browser-only limit
This tool diagnoses Office Open XML workbook packages and can export readable sheet values. It does not bypass encryption, recover lost passwords, or send files to a server.
Drop your file here or click to upload
Supports .xlsx, .xlsm · up to 50MB · or paste a file from your clipboard
Which Recovery Problem Do You Have?
"Excel recovery" covers four different situations, and only one of them is something a browser page can help with. Find yours before spending time here:
| Situation | Where the data lives now | This page |
|---|---|---|
| You have the file, but it will not open or reads as damaged | Inside the file, if the parts survived | Yes - inspect it and export the readable values |
| Excel closed before you saved | Excel's AutoRecover folder on that computer | No - use Recover Unsaved Workbooks in Excel |
| The file was deleted | Recycle Bin, Trash, or a cloud recycle bin | No - restore it first, then come back if it is damaged |
| The good version was saved over | Version history or a backup, not the file itself | No - use Version History or Previous Versions |
Honest Limits of Browser-Based Recovery
This page reads a file you choose. It has no access to your disk, your temporary files, Excel's AutoRecover store, or any cloud account, because a web page is not permitted any of that - which is also why nothing here is uploaded. Anything that promises to recover unsaved or deleted spreadsheets from a website is either describing a desktop program or is not being straight with you.
Encryption is the other hard stop. A workbook that demands a password before it opens is genuinely encrypted; its bytes cannot be read without the password, so the diagnostic reports it as unsupported. See Excel password recovery for the realistic options there. Sheet and workbook protection are a different thing entirely and can simply be removed with the password remover.
How the Value-Level Rebuild Works
When the workbook parses, recovery walks every sheet, reads each cell's value, and writes a fresh workbook from those values alone. Nothing from the damaged file is re-used, which is what makes the output openable even when the original is not. Sheet names and order survive (trimmed to Excel's 31-character limit); formulas arrive as the results Excel last stored, dates as their serial numbers, and styles, merged ranges, charts, images, pivot tables and macros are dropped. A recovered .xlsm comes back as .xlsx without its macros.
The export is only offered when the parse succeeded and at least one worksheet part was found. When it is unavailable, the report tells you which of the two failed, which is the useful information: a missing required part means the archive is incomplete, while a parse failure on an otherwise complete package means the XML inside is malformed and Excel's own Open and Repair is worth a try.
Before You Replace the Original
- Keep the damaged file. Every further attempt should work on a copy.
- Check the recovered workbook's last row and column against what you expect - truncation is silent.
- Re-apply date and currency formats; the values are correct, the formats are not carried over.
- Rebuild formulas from the results if you need the sheet to keep calculating.
- If the diagnostic could not parse the file, try corrupt Excel repair for the triage steps and Excel's Extract Data mode.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, and no browser tool can. Unsaved work only exists in Excel's own AutoRecover store on the computer where you were typing - a web page has no access to it. In Excel, open File > Info > Manage Workbook > Recover Unsaved Workbooks (Windows) or File > Open Recent > Recover Unsaved Workbooks. This page recovers data from a file you can hand it, not from work that was never written to one.
No. Deletion is a filesystem event, not a workbook problem. Check the Recycle Bin or Trash first, then the OneDrive or SharePoint recycle bin if the folder was synced, then Windows File History or macOS Time Machine. Once you have the file back, bring it here if it will not open.
No. Excel rewrites the workbook on save, so the previous contents are gone from that file. Recovery has to come from a version store instead: File > Info > Version History in Excel for a OneDrive or SharePoint file, the Previous Versions tab in Windows Explorer for a file server share, or a backup.
A new .xlsx containing the cell values of every sheet the parser could read, with sheet names and order preserved. Formulas come back as their last stored result, dates as serial numbers, and formatting, charts, pivot tables, images and macros are not carried over.
Probably, yes. A truncated worksheet part can still parse: the reader gets valid XML up to the point where the file was cut and returns what it found. That is why the recovered workbook should always be checked against a row count you recognise before it replaces anything.