Excel’s auto recovery feature repeatedly saves a copy of the workbook that you are currently using based on a specified time period. The default period for Excel is 10 minutes, but you can increase or decrease this time period as you see fit. The shorter the time period, the more frequently Excel will save the current file. This means that if something happens; like a computer crash, a power failure, or a problem with Excel, you should have a fairly recent copy of the file to recover from.

 

If you specify a longer time period between auto saves, there could be greater differences between the current file and the recovery files. If you are forced to recover from a system or application failure, the copy of the file that you recover from could be substantially different from the file that you were working on when the problem happened.

 

To change your Auto-recovery settings, choose Tools->Options from the Excel menu bar, and click on the Save tab on the Options dialogue box.

 

 

 

You can click on the up and down arrows in the field labelled minutes to specify more or less time between Auto-Saves.

 

If you put a check in the Disable AutoRecover checkbox, the auto recover feature will be deactivated.

 

Notice that the location of the AutoSave files are specified in the AutoRecover save location: text field.

 

When you are finished, click the OK button.