Excel document vanished after edit - excel

I had an excel sheet for the past few year which I edited every week (several times per week) and had no problem with.
I last opened and edited it 3 days ago. After what I saved it and closed Excel. Now, after opening excel, it still appears in the list of recent documents BUT displays an error saying "Sorry, we couldn't find DOCUMENT_PATH_AND_NAME. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?"
The document is no longer in the forder where it used to be and is also not in the recycle bin. A search in windows explorer found just a shortcut to the document (pointing at the folder it used to be into). I restarted the computer, used a recovery software (recuva) without much success.
It happened with Excel 365 2016 on a Windows 8.1 computer.
Any idea how to get that document back? thanks in advance for your help.
P.S.: before you talk about backups, I have a backup from early april but cannot do without the data added between that first week of april and now.

You have made the common mistake of not backing up your work, and it also seems like you have been unsuccessful in recovering your data with a recovery program. Realistically speaking, you basically have one choice.
You will have to recreate the contents of the document starting from early April.
If such a task is impossible, I advise you to scream into a pillow and to then make yourself a big cup of camomille tea spiked with vodka.
Best of luck

Related

How to force Excel365 into working offline?

We moved to Sharepoint Online (SPO) this year and are collaborating heavily in Excel365. The experience is something of a disaster and I am hoping that I might get some responses here about "best practice" or peoples' experiences in that environment.
Observation #1:
All Excel's now open with AutoSaveOn=True. This is a total disaster because people often open Office files to simply take a look. Early users were horrified when they realized they had accidentally changed an archive file. We addressed this issue by setting AutoSaveOn=False in Auto_open.
(The AutoSaveOn=True experience requires a complete rethink of accustomed operating patterns. The established pattern when changing a file is: 1) open the original; 2) make changes; 3) save under a new name. With AutoSaveOn=true, you must: 1) make a copy of the file in the file manager; 2) open the copied file; 3) make changes. We have not managed to retrain our user base.)
We now get a different issue. In a network environment where 5 users have an Excel open purely for reference, the 6th user who is editing that file often has to fight against Office/SPO to somehow get it saved. There exists a concept of a "file lock" and someone has it. Who is unclear, and releasing it seems next to impossible. Opening an Office file "read-only" on purpose does not seem to be a concept Microsoft recognizes.
Observation #2:
All our production Excels are XLMs, not least because of the Auto_Open above. That is, working Online is not an option. (Which may be just as well because the online experience does not compare for the Excel pro.) All our users therefore synchronize relevant SPO archives to their OneDrive (OD). This should be a good thing anyway, since we are also nomadic folk, often working from the road when there is no internet. SHOULD NOT be a problem, right?
Right ... Turns out that Excel surreptitiously replaces links to other Excels on the OD with links to SPO such that when you hit the road, Excel will just hang up trying to access stuff on an unavailable Internet/SPO :( The user is forced to repoint all links manually to his OD to make it work.
Except it won't - because the Auto_Open now fails. Turns out, AutoSaveOn is not a valid property in the absence of a network connection. It seems that there are two code bases of Excel. One that is invoked with a network present, the other when there is none.
Observation #3:
When the user has somehow survived the horrific offline experience and returns to a network, the spreadsheet links fail again. Excel now throws a completely incomprehensible hissy-fit, complaining that none of the OD files exist, even though they are patently there. The only way I know to cure this issue is by going thru all links again and repointing them to the identical paths. (Behind the scenes, Excel of course uses this dialog to replace links to OD with links to SPO.)
Conclusion:
It seems that the modern Excel really wants to work in AutoSave mode but Microsoft doesn't really manage the experience. There is also no transparent switching possible between working offline and working online. All of this appears to be owed to two different code bases - online and offline - trading under the same name "Excel". We do not really require the online experience. It would be perfectly adequate for our purposes to work with the offline code on OD only, and OD can update SPO when a network is present.
Question: Does anyone know how to fool Excel into using the offline code base even in the presence of a network connection?
Any other experiences or pointers?

c++ write-to/update excel file opened in EXCEL.EXE

I have a requirement to update an .xlsx file that is simultaneously open in MS Excel.
This should work so that the formulas are re-calculated every time value in updated while user can see the updates happening in real time in Ms Excel.
Tried with OpenXLSX, but didn't work as I want it to (which was somewhat expected).
I done some research(on SO as well) and the term Interop keeps popping up, though not in context of c++ but c#.
I know it is not impossible, as I have seen it in action.
Is there an existing library that can do this operation using c++?
If not, how should I move forward to achieve the said goal?
It would really help even if you could point me in the right direction.
Appreciate any help.

Version Control for Excel

I'm currently writing my master dissertation about version control in Ms Excel and would love to understand the problem more thoroughly. Does anyone face the problem and would be willing to discuss this in a 10min zoom call? Will hopefully be able to provide the solution in 2 months time.
t.muller#lse.ac.uk
Problem description:
If I'm working on a spreadsheet and need input from my co-workers on the same spreadsheet, I'd start to send the sheet around (probably via Email if we worked on excel offline). Unfortunately, we tend to quickly lose an overview of the different versions in the chain, and it sometimes even happens that some of us are mistakenly working on an old version. As soon as we managed to gather the input from everyone, we struggle to get to the root of newly introduced bugs and understand and approve all changes made.

Export Excel file to Google Sheet

Hi guys,
I'm trying to push data from an excel file to a google spreadsheet, using VBA
User Story : When my user close excel, it automatically pushes the data into a back up on google sheet.
I've read some solutions about the Google API, but i do not understand how to use it.
if someone has an explanation it would be nice
Regards,
Thomas
Mixing Excel and Google is going to be a tough journey. They have a lot of compatible features and implementations and then a whole bunch of things that are just not compatible.
You won't be able to control what your users do in Excel so the "backup" may end up as a poor representation of the excel version.
If it is purely for backup, you could go the MSFT route and use OneDrive/O365 which keeps versions for you if you store in a local OneDrive. You can use auto save to keep your backup up to date.
You could go the google route by using sheets on the desktop browser.
As Thomas suggested, go with an off the shelf sync tool if the data and format is straight forward. I have had very mixed results for even some simple stuff.
Not wishing to start a tech-religion war by recommending one over the other but how you are trying to achieve this feels fraught with risk and may be hard to future-proof.
HTH.

My excel file keeps freezing

I have a file with the usual sumifs and vlookups. Nothing complicated computationally!
It has a lot of conditional formatting
As I remove the formulas the wait cursor remains there for shorter and shorter.
When I remove all the formulas and the formatting the file is fine as in I do not get the wait cursor. What is left is a file with no calculations and flat data.
Even with calculations that are just summing I am getting the wait cursor
I have tried excel open and repair. This does not work.
My sumifs have been changed to refer to a finite array as opposed to whole columns (which are also finite for the pedantic! but say these are infinite)
I think what I want to know, is what is known to cause a wait cursor to appear in excel? What can I do to minimize the time that the wait cursor appears?
I have looked on google and am not finding anything useful or relevant to my problem
I am starting to realise that wait cursor seems to always appear for a split second when I insert a column! however with my few sumifs formulas the wait cursor is getting longer and longer. Is it possible for sumifs formulas to calculate quickly but add to the wait cursor time the more sumifs you add?
Old question :
I have an excel file that keeps freezing
It calculates and saves very quickly. it is only 3090kb
Every time I insert a column or add a sheet for example I get the egg timer and if I click it starts to say 'not responding'
It only happens with this file so I don't believe it is my computer or excel version
the file was working fine before. I extended the formulas in about ten tabs (although not that many calcs added) and then it started to freeze
even if I delete every tab so there is just a blank sheet in the file it still freezes
Please help. Thanks
Please do not answer yet, I am still investigating and will get back to this. thank you
EDIT: The WAIT cursor not egg timer
Check if there are any hidden sheets with the data that is slowing it down.
Right click on sheet tab and unhide.
Make this practice to use this Macro or set Row Height to 15 so they don't Wrap. Wraptext in large excel files causes it to slow down to the point of freezing:
activesheet.cells.wraptext = false
#Jasmine - I wasn't suggesting that you are making anything up, nor was I my comment intended to be facetious. My point was that your question sounds self-contradictory to me.
When learning a new coding language, learning which questions to ask and how to phrase and share your problem is a skill in itself.
The fact that your file functions (a.k.a. calculates) 'properly'
until more identical formulas are added, sounds to me like it's no longer calculating properly, so I was unsure what you meant.
As for the `size doesn't matter' comment, it's another valid point about how some people ask questions when mistakenly thinking that file size has any significance. I've encountered and solved thousands of [seemingly unique] issues over the years but the last time I looked at the size of my file would have been back when it would've had to fit on a diskette.
Similarly, I often see questions here where the "asker" includes irrelevant statistics like the number of records in their database, as if you need to code differently for 10 records versus 10,000,000 (which isn't generally true, btw). I can't help but chuckle at some questions where the O.P. spends more time describing the formatting of a cell than the formula it contains (that's causing the issue). But from their point of view, it's significant.
Think of the people reading your question as sitting in your office blindfolded while you explain your problem. If you're asking for (free) help from others who cannot see what you can, with zero previous knowledge, does it not make sense to make a question absolutely as clear as possible -- even if that involves Googling a word to update your terminology that you know is incorrect? (or is the onus on the reader to figure out what you mean?
**Did you click the links I posted for you (above) to learn how to better communicate your problem and edit your question to add more specific examples and more information as requested and described in those links? (or was that a "waste of time" as well?) There were specific questions for you as well.
This site was frustrating for me when I first joined too but the rules and posting etiquette were not made immediately known to me by a stranger with a few seconds to spare. I had a major learning curve and some pretty nasty comments from people since I was breaking rules I wasn't even aware of. I am actually breaking a major rule right now, can you identify it perhaps by familiarizing yourself with the site in the Help Center?
Hint: I'm probably going to get "scolded" for the method I am using to give you this advice as opposed to the short comments and links I would normally post on a question that needs more information so I or others can give an informed answer. Some people don't like posting a question and not getting a custom written set of code promptly written just for them. Some people are grateful for every bit of advice they can get from a stranger, others never come back and find a site more suited to their needs.
Remember, there is a ton of existing information on this site and others because it's very unlikely that whatever problem you're having has been experienced - and solved - by many, many people before you. By researching as much as possible, you learn both about your problem and about which questions get "better" answers than others.
Anyhow I hope you read fast, this answer might not be here long (I wanted to be clear but without a whole whack of comments back and forth...)
Jasmine, if you're still angry with me, you can "get me back" if you can find the correct Flag button. The answer to my question for you in is there too... (It's not option #2, as lest not intentionally!)
Good luck & happy holidays to all!

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