How to recover overwritten excel file on mac？

If you're using Time Machine, here's where it shines. I once saved a major project by rolling back to an earlier version using Time Machine. Just follow these steps to recover overwritten excel file on Mac:

• Open Finder and go to the folder where your Excel file was last saved.
• Click on the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and select “Enter Time Machine.”
• Browse through the backups until you find the version of your file before it was overwritten. Restore it, and you’re golden!

To recover overwritten Excel file on Mac. Excel has this incredibly useful AutoRecovery feature that can sometimes save you. I’ve forgotten about it a few times and just jumped straight to recovery software. Just go to File > Open Recent to see if there’s an earlier version hanging around. You might find what you’re looking for without needing to dive deeper!

Sometimes Excel stores temporary files, and I learned this the hard way. If you want to check for temp files, go to this path in Finder:

/Users/YourUsername/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery

I once found a version of my document here that I thought was lost forever!

Time is of the essence! If you realize you've overwritten a file, don’t just sit there staring at the screen, hoping it will magically come back. The longer you wait, the higher the chance that the old version is going to be fully overwritten by new data. I once put off recovery for a couple of hours, and by the time I got back to it, my chances of finding the old file were pretty slim.

Your Mac might have stored a temporary version of your Excel file. To find these, open the Finder, and check Applications > Utilities > Terminal, then type:

open $TMPDIR

This opens a temp folder where you might find older versions of files.You can recover overwritten Excel file. I once stumbled into a temporary file that saved my life (and a few hours of work)! Just don’t assume it’ll be there; sometimes it can be hit or miss.

Recovering an overwritten Excel file with Time Machine is definitely a lifesaver, but Time Machine only backs up files when your Mac is connected to the external drive. If you forget to plug it in for a while, you might miss out on some of the latest versions. I once had a project where I’d gone a few days without backing it up because I was on the go, and when I tried to roll back, the backup was missing crucial changes I had made. So, make it a habit to keep that drive connected.

When you recover a file from Time Machine, you’re bringing back an older version, which can mean losing any edits you made since that backup. Imagine finally retrieving that Excel file only to realize that you also lost a bunch of other important updates. I had a similar experience where I recovered a file but had to redo a lot of work, which was super frustrating.

Sometimes, if you're using an older version of Excel or a particular format, you might run into compatibility issues when restoring an older version of your file. Luckily, I haven’t faced this too often, but I have come across a few projects where older Excel files didn’t open correctly due to newer features being used. So, just be mindful of how many formats you're juggling.

+1 use Time Machine, if you don't use Time Machine you are about to learn why its critical that you do. If you are not familiar with Time Machine it requires an External Hard Disk such as the OWC Mercury Elite Pro and you can learn how to set it up and use Time Machine in Back up your Mac with Time Machine.