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I was working on an Excel file which I had saved earlier when my MacBook crashed (several hours between manual Save, extremely repentant at the moment). With help from another thread (Locating Autorecover files Excel 2011 doesn't find), I have been able to locate the AutoSave to myfile.xlsx in the ~Users/myAccount/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Office 2011 AutoRecovery folder.

Here is the problem: I can see the excel files ONLY in the Terminal but not in the Finder. In Finder I see only the MS Word AutoRecovery files. I tried copying the file I need using Terminal to my Desktop but then again I see it only in Terminal, and cannot open it.

ls -la gives (only myfile shown among many)

-rw-r--r--@ 1 myAccount 444659088 52963 Jun 30 17:15 AutoSave to 71360362myfile.xlsx

Upon recommendation, I also tried this:

Office 2011 AutoRecovery myAccount$ cat "AutoSave to myfile.xlsx" > /dev/null

which gives: -bash:  /dev/null: No such file or directory

I'm using MS Office 2011 on Mac OS X (10.9.5). Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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gsingh
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  • (1) Why do you have the directory name in *double* double quotes?  All filenames and pathnames should be enclosed in backticks — \`AutoSave\` displays as `AutoSave`.  (2) Do you mean `/Library` or `~/Library`?  (3) Please do `ls -la` (in the Terminal) in the directory where the file(s) are, and post the results in your question. (4) Can you read the file(s) at the system level?  Do `cat "AutoSave to myfile.xlsx" > /dev/null` and tell us what happens.  (5) Are you using Excel 2011?  Please use the appropriate tag. Please do not respond in comments; [edit] your question to make it more complete. – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' Jul 06 '16 at 00:41
  • I have managed to find a solution to my problem. The key was to unhide the hidden files in the directory. Got the hint from this blogpost (). To unhide the files, I ran the following command on Terminal: `defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES` Now I can see the excel AutoSave files in `~Users/myAccount/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Office 2011 AutoRecovery` (they are still greyed out I guess to show that they are hidden). I copied the file I needed to desktop, changed extension from `.xlsx` to `.xlsb`, and here was my six hours of work back!!! – gsingh Jul 06 '16 at 18:07
  • Here is the link to the blog I refer to above (http://www.technonerdsblog.com/blog/autorecover-file-saves-the-day-a-personal-experience). Sorry it took me time to find it again and now couldn't edit the comment above. – gsingh Jul 06 '16 at 18:21
  • You should post that as an answer.  Include the link to the source, but also include enough information that somebody else would be able to perform the procedure without referring to the blog. – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' Jul 06 '16 at 20:36

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I have managed to find a solution to my problem. The key was to unhide the hidden files in the Office 2011 AutoRecovery directory. Got the hint from this blogpost (http://www.technonerdsblog.com/blog/autorecover-file-saves-the-day-a-personal-experience).

To unhide the files, I executed the following command on Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Once I did this, I closed all Finder windows and opened a new Finder window. To access the ~Users/myAccount/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Office 2011 AutoRecovery, I clicked on GO in the top menubar and pressed the alt/option key. This shows the Library shortcut as long as the alt/option key is pressed. Now in the Office 2011 AutoRecovery directory I can see the AutoSave to myfile.xlsx file (and all autosave files for .xlsx files but they are still greyed out I guess indicating that they are hidden).

I copied the latest version of the autosave file I needed to my desktop and changed extension from .xlsx to .xlsb (the autosave file is in a binary format and MS excel will read it only with .xlsb extension). And here was my 6+ hours of work back!!!

gsingh
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