Microsoft Excel is a powerful and common platform which allows you to format, organize and calculate data in a spreadsheet. Losing important Excel (.xls) documents on any device, including your Mac can be a frustrating experience, especially if it contains critical data or information. However, with the right Mac data recovery methods and tools, you can recover lost .xls documents and prevent data loss. Here, in this comprehensive guide, we will explore various methods to help you know how to recover lost Excel documents on Mac, ensuring that valuable data is not permanently lost.
Common Reasons for Deletion of Excel Documents on Mac
Before you use any Mac data recovery software or apply manual methods to recover lost or deleted Excel documents, it is important to understand the exact cause of this issue. Here are some common reasons why Excel documents usually get deleted on Mac:
- Accidental Deletion: You may have inadvertently deleted Excel documents while organizing files or cleaning up their storage.
- Emptying Trash: If you empty the Trash folder on Mac, it permanently deletes Excel documents that were previously moved to the Trash folder.
- Formatting Storage Devices: Formatting a storage device, like hard drive or USB flash drive, without backing up Excel documents can cause file deletion.
- System Crashes: Unexpected system crashes or software errors may corrupt or delete Excel documents.
- Hardware Failure: Hardware issues, like failing hard drive or sudden power loss, can delete Excel documents stored on Mac.
- Software Bugs or Glitches: Bugs or glitches in Excel or other software applications can sometimes corrupt your documents or lead to sudden deletion.
- Malware or Virus Infections: Malicious software, like viruses or malware, can target and delete Excel documents as part of its destructive activities, leading to data loss.
Best Practices Before You Start Recovery
Now that you are familiar with the reasons for the deletion of Excel documents on your Mac, it’s time to proceed with the recovery methods to restore lost .xls documents. Before you apply any recovery method, it’s crucial to follow these best practices:
- Stop saving new files on the affected drive or storage device to prevent overwriting the lost data.
- Check the Trash folder on your Mac to see if the deleted .xls documents are present there as every file after deletion moves to the Trash folder before getting permanently deleted.
- If the documents are stored on an external storage device, ensure that your Mac properly connects and recognises it.
Quick Methods to Recover Deleted .xls Documents on Mac
Whatever is the cause for the deletion of Excel documents on your Mac, there are several Mac data recovery methods available that you can apply for deleted file recovery. In this part of the blog, we will explore such recovery workarounds one by one:
Method 01: Recover Lost .xls Documents on Mac from Trash Bin
As mentioned above, checking the Trash folder on Mac for recovering any deleted file or folder is good practice. Every file when deleted on Mac goes to the Trash folder and remains there for 30 days before permanent deletion. Here’s how to recover lost .xls documents on Mac from the Trash:
- Firstly, open the Trash folder on your Mac.
- Now, locate and select the specific Excel file that you need to recover. To recover multiple deleted files, use the search box at the top left corner of the window and select them.
- Right-click on the deleted Excel file and select the “Put Back” option to restore the selected file to its original location.
Method 02: Recover Deleted Excel Files Using Time Machine
If your deleted .xls document is not present in the Trash folder, then it might be permanently deleted from your Mac. In such cases, you can check any previously created backup of your file to restore it. Time Machine is Mac’s in-built backup utility which allows you to create backups of important files and to restore them when data loss occurs. Follow the below-given steps to recover lost Excel document using Time Machine backup:
- Connect your Time Machine backup disk to your Mac.
- Open the folder that contains the deleted Excel file and tap the Time Machine icon from the menu bar.
- Go through the timeline using the arrows, select the Excel file you want to recover and click on the “Restore” button to retrieve the deleted Excel file.
Method 03: Recover Lost Excel Document Using Online Backup Options
You can try recovering lost or deleted Excel files on Mac via online backup services like iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. Here’s a step-by-step guide to recover your lost .xls documents using iCloud:
- Open a web browser on your Mac and go to the iCloud website. Sign in to your account using the correct login credentials.
- Once logged in, go to Settings>Advanced>Restore Files. Then, locate and select the deleted or lost Excel files you want to recover.
- Lastly, click the Restore button to save selected files to their original locations.
Method 04: Use Data Recovery Software to Recover Lost/Deleted xls Document on Mac
If all the above-mentioned data recovery methods fail to recover your lost or deleted Excel documents on Mac, you can try using a professional Mac data recovery software. Among several such recovery tools, we recommend using the Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac. It is an all-in-one data recovery software which supports the recovery of files deleted due to many reasons, including accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, virus attacks, etc.
Here are some amazing features of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac tool which makes it best for your lost Excel documents recovery:
- Recover various types of files, including Excel documents, Word documents, photos, videos, and many more
- Allows you to preview recoverable files before saving them to your device
- Provides 100% security during the recovery process
- It provides a user-friendly interface, so even not-techy users can easily restore lost files
- Compatible with APFS, HFS+, FAT32, and exFAT file systems.
- Recover files deleted from a wide range of devices such as SD cards, USB flash drives, external hard drives, and more.
Follow the below-given simple steps to know how to recover lost .xls documents on Mac using this Mac data recovery software:
Step 1: Download and install the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool on your Mac. Launch the software and from the homepage, select the type of file you need to recover. To restore lost Excel documents, click Documents and then press the Next button.
Step 2: Now, select the storage drive from where your Excel document was deleted and click Scan to start the scanning process.
Step 3: Once the scanning process is complete, preview the Excel files and select the files you want to recover. Click the “Recover” button to save selected files back to your device.
That’s it! With the above three simple steps, you can easily recover permanently deleted or unsaved Excel files on your Mac using the Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool.
Wrapping Up
Recovering lost .xls documents on Mac using the above-mentioned methods and tools will be a quick and easy approach. Start by checking the Trash folder, then move to Time Machine or other backups. If all manual methods fail, you can use a third-party software for data recovery on Mac, like Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to restore permanently deleted Excel files. The key is to act promptly and to create proper backups of important files to help in such data loss issues.
