Learn how to recover deleted Excel sheets to get back lost work in proven ways.

Losing an Excel sheet can feel like accidentally shredding an important business report. It’s full of stress, frustrates you, and has the potential to damage personal or professional projects. If you’ve ever deleted an Excel sheet mistakenly, you know how overwhelming it can be to recover your hard work.

But don’t worry; recovering a deleted sheet isn’t as complicated as it seems. In fact, with the right steps, you can restore your data in no time. Let me show you the tried and tested methods with simple steps and real images.

Using the Document Recovery Tool

This is the best solution with the highest success rate when you need to recover a deleted worksheet immediately after deleting it from an Excel workbook.

Let me show you how this technique works in quick steps below:

I’ve deleted the Test worksheet from my Excel file.

Now, press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to bring up the Task Manager tool.

Find the Microsoft Excel process in the Processes column.

Right-click and select End task from the context menu.

This will force Windows to close the Excel app forcefully.

Now, open the Excel app again and you should see the Document Recovery navigation panel on the left side of the app interface.

It should show the last few versions Excel has stored when you previously made changes in the source workbook.

Select the most recent or any other saved version in the Document Recovery panel and it should open the backed-up Excel file in a new window.

If you see the deleted worksheet in the newly opened Excel file, press Ctrl + S to save the file in a new name.

This method won’t work if you delete a worksheet, save it, and close the Excel workbook.

Using the Recycle Bin

The first place to look for a deleted Excel workbook is the Recycle Bin on the Desktop.

Open the Recycle Bin app and look for the deleted Excel file.

If the file is available, select it, right-click, and choose Restore from the context menu.

This method will only work if you have deleted the whole workbook and a specific worksheet and have not disabled the Recycle Bin feature on your PC.

If you wish to recover a single deleted worksheet from a workbook, this method won’t work.

Using the Recent Files Menu

The Recent Files menu in Excel is a convenient way to recover deleted sheets, especially if you recently worked on the file. This method works best if you’ve saved the file before the sheet was deleted or if Excel’s AutoRecover feature is enabled. Follow these steps to locate and restore your data efficiently:

Click on the File tab located in the top-left corner of the screen.

From the right-side window of multiple tabbed menus, choose the Recent option.

This will display a list of files you’ve recently worked on with an indication of the time and date of modifications.

Look through the list and find the Excel file containing the deleted sheet. You should go for an earlier version of the deleted file.

Click on the Excel workbook to open it in a separate and new Excel window.

If you’ve saved the file before deleting the sheet, you can find and restore the lost data.

Now, press Ctrl + S to save the recovered Excel file.

Using Auto-Saved Versions

Auto-Saved Versions in Excel is a built-in feature for workbook backup. It automatically saves temporary copies of your workbook at regular intervals.

This feature helps you recover unsaved changes or restore previous versions of a file in case of accidental deletion, software crashes, or power outages. It works by saving backup copies of the file to a designated location in the background while you work.

To retrieve a deleted worksheet using this tool, click the File tab in the Excel ribbon menu.

You should see the Microsoft Excel backstage view.

Click on the Info menu in the left-side navigation panel.

The detailed Info screen will open on the right side.

Click on the Manage Workbook button.

Select the Recover Unsaved Workbooks option.

Microsoft Excel will redirect you to the Excel directory in the Microsoft 365 installation folder.

A file browsing session will open automatically showing the number of backups it has created automatically.

Select a backup file of your choice and click on the Open button.

Using AutoRecover Files

Excel automatically saves a backup copy of all open workbooks on your PC. Excel uses these backup files to provide options to restore the last saved progress when the app closes unexpectedly when the PC restarts suddenly, or if there’s a power failure.

You can visit this backup file location on your PC to check if there are multiple versions of the same Excel workbook have been saved or not.

You can visit this location on your PC:

C:\Users\CtOS\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel      

In the above location address, make sure you change the user name part CtOS to the actual user name of your PC.

If you’re working on a MacBook, access the following directory on the device:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecover/

You’ll see some Excel files as shown in the above screenshot.

Open those files and see if any of these have the deleted worksheets you’ve been willing to restore.

You can also check the UnsavedFiles directory in the local storage to see if there are any temporary saved files from which you can restore the worksheet.

C:\Users\CtOS\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles 

You’ll need to change the user name, which is CtOS in the above address line.

Using Microsoft OneDrive

The AutoSave feature in the Excel for Microsoft 365 desktop app allows you to back up the Excel file in the OneDrive cloud storage. However, the changes are saved automatically so if you delete a worksheet in the Excel workbook, this edit will reflect in the cloud storage version.

If you’ve disabled the AutoSave feature after uploading it once in OneDrive and then deleted the worksheet, there’s a high chance you can restore the deleted worksheet from OneDrive.

For example, I’ve deleted the selected worksheet in the Excel workbook shown above. It was previously synced with my OneDrive account using the AutoSave button and have ever since deactivated it.

So, the first version is available in OneDrive. So, I can simply access Microsoft OneDrive, and click on the Excel tab in the Recent menu to apply the filter to show only Excel files.

Now, locate the target file in OneDrive, right-click, and hover the mouse cursor over the Open option in the context menu.

Click on the Open in Excel option in the overflow menu to access the OneDrive backup file in your Excel desktop app.

The Excel desktop will download and open the OneDrive version of the source workbook. Finally, I got back the deleted worksheet.

I can simply use the Ctrl + S shortcut keys to save the Excel file in my local storage.

Using the Windows File History Tool

If you’re working with your Excel file on a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC, you can use the built-in data recovery tool Windows File History to recover a deleted worksheet from an Excel workbook.

This method often works well if you have accidentally deleted a worksheet, saved the workbook, and closed it. Later on, you couldn’t find a worksheet in the Excel file, and remember that you deleted it earlier.

In this situation, Windows File History comes in handy.

Close the source workbook.

Now, go to the location of the workbook, select it, and right-click to bring up the context menu.

Click on the Properties option to open the File Properties dialog box.

Navigate to the Previous Versions tab.

You should see multiple versions of the same Excel workbook.

Select an earlier version before the date when you deleted the worksheet.

Click on the Restore button.

Windows will restore the old version of the Excel file that has the deleted worksheet.

Using Preservation Hold Library

Suppose, you have deleted a worksheet from an Excel workbook hosted in SharePoint, you can still recover the lost sheet using the Preservation Hold Library.

The Preservation Hold Library is only visible to specific users and the site administrator. Also, it’s only available when the site administrator applies a file retention policy to the SharePoint domain.

So, here are the quick steps to use this technique to get back deleted worksheets from Excel workbooks.

Log in to your SharePoint site where the file was located.

Click on the gear icon in the top-right corner of the SharePoint site.

Select Site Contents from the dropdown menu.

Look for a library named Preservation Hold Library. This library may not be visible to you if you don’t have the necessary access rights. If you can’t find it, consult with your SharePoint administrator.

Open the Preservation Hold Library.

Use the Search Bar or manually browse through the library to locate your Excel file.

Once you find the file, select it.

Choose Restore or Download to save a copy locally or restore it to its original location.

Conclusions

So, these are some proven ways to get back a deleted worksheet in your Excel workbook.

If the deletion is accidental and you notice it instantly, start with the Document Recovery tool to reinstate the deleted sheet. It should work in most of the cases.

Did you find this Microsoft Excel worksheet recovery guide useful? Comment below to share your feedback or suggestions.