Summary: Are you facing error ‘Excel data may have been lost’ in your Excel file? If yes, then you can learn the causes and methods to repair your corrupt file. There are manual fixes and also advance Excel recovery software to repair your corrupt file and resolve the error.
This error message can leave a user numb and stoned. Since Excel file contains crucial and vital user data. In such scenario, the idea of data loss in itself is threatening. The error ‘Excel data may have been lost’ can result in permanent loss of data if not resolved. Therefore, in this article, we are going to provide you some easy workarounds to repair the file. We will also discuss about Excel file recovery software which is an advance solution to resolve all the Excel error issues.
But, first and foremost, why does Excel file experience ‘Excel data may have been lost’ error? What are the causes which lead to this error?
Reasons behind this Excel Error-
Corruption: There is chance that your Excel file is corrupt, which disturbs the proper data structure, and hence you receive the error.
Abrupt or Sudden System shutdown: The file may experience error due to sudden shutdown of the system while you are working on the Excel program.
Compatibility: If you open Excel file in a new version of MS Excel while the file was created in the older version of the application, then it may lead to this error due to the compatibility issue.
Virus and Malware Attack: Virus and Malware attacks can corrupt Excel files, and make it inaccessible, causing error in the file.
Disk Space: Insufficient storage space in the drive where file is saved affects file integrity, leading to error.
How to Fix the Excel File Error ‘Excel Data May Have Been Lost’?
There are different methods to repair your corrupt file; manual and software based. You can follow the methods explained below:
Method 1: Open and Repair
In this method, you will use Excel’s native tool to repair your corrupt file. Follow the steps given below:
- In MS Excel, select the File, and then click on ‘Open’ from the options.
- From the ‘Open’ window, navigate to the location and choose the ‘corrupt’ Excel file.
- After selecting the corrupt Excel file, click on the drop-down icon next to the ‘Open’ option at the bottom.
- Now, in the drop-down box, select the Open and Repair option.
- A pop-up page will appear. From there choose an ‘action’ – Repair, Extract Data, and Cancel, click on ‘Repair’.
- Once your corrupt Excel file is repaired, you will get a notification box ‘Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content’. You can view the log of Excel data repair by clicking the provided hyperlink. Click ‘Close’ to end the procedure.
Method 2: Import Data to a New Workbook
In this method, you will repair the file by creating a new workbook in Excel and import the data from the corrupt Excel file. Follow the steps for guidance.
- Open Excel and create a new workbook.
- Go to ‘Data’ and select ‘From Text.’
- From the ‘Import Text File’ window, navigate to choose the corrupt Excel file.
- Once, you selected the corrupt Excel file, click on the ‘Import’ button.
- A ‘Text Import Wizard’ will open. From there, under ‘Choose the file type that best describes your data:’ check mark on either ‘Delimited’ or ‘Fixed width’ options, and click ‘Next’.
- From the ‘Text Import Wizard’ set the delimiters your data contains, and then click ‘Next’.
- In the next window of ‘Text Import Wizard’ choose the column data format, and then click ‘Finish’.
- Now, in the ‘Import Data’ box, under ‘Where you want to put the data?’ choose ‘Existing worksheet’ or ‘New worksheet’, and click ‘OK’.
- Your repaired Excel data will be imported on the new worksheet you created above.
If the above methods do not able to repair the corrupt file, then you can employ Excel file recovery software like Stellar Repair for Excel. The tool allows you to repair all kinds of Excel file corruption as well as it is capable of restoring your file data.
Method 3: Use Stellar Repair for Excel to Repair corrupt Excel file
Stellar Repair for Excel is a complete tool to repair all types of Excel files. It can restore all the objects for Microsoft Excel with complete integrity and accuracy. The Excel recovery software also offers preview of the repaired worksheet with original properties and cell formatting.
Some Key Feature of the Stellar Repair for Excel:
- Repair multiple corrupt files at once.
- Restores all Excel objects such as, numbers, texts, tables, charts, and etc.
- Offers preview of repaired file and recovered objects.
Follow the steps to repair your Excel file error ‘Excel Data May Have Been Lost’.
- Download and Install Stellar Repair for Excel.
- Launch the tool, and from the open window, Browse and add the corrupt Excel file to repair. If you do not know the location of the file, you may click on ‘Find’ to search the file.
- Now, after selecting the files for repair, click on ‘Repair’ to begin the process.
- You can view the progress of Excel repair process in the new dialog box.
- Once, the repair is complete, you can preview the content of repaired file.
- Click ‘Save File’ from the ‘Home’ menu at the top, and select the destination from the options ‘Default Location’ or ‘Select New Folder’.
You will receive ‘Repaired file saved successfully’ message after your repaired file is saved. Click ‘OK’ to end the process
Conclusion:
Excel file error ‘Excel data may have been lost’ can seriously leave you annoyed and worried. We have discussed manual workaround to repair Excel file, and also discussed about Excel file recovery software like Stellar Repair for Excel. The manual workaround comes with limitations like, time consuming, risk of data loss, and requires technical skills. Therefore, in such scenario you can use a better alternative like third-party tool Stellar Repair for Excel to restore all Excel’s object with accuracy and integrity.
