excel losing data

Make sure that under Tools - Options - Save the option 'Save AutoRecover info every (for example) 10 minutes' has been selected and that the directory selected under AutoRecover save location still exists.

It may be also a user education issue. If the spreadsheet is critical for the business operations and if the data loss continues, the user should save it say every two hours using a naming convention like myexcel ddmmyy v1.xls, myexcel ddmmyy v2.xls and so on.

Microsoft's knowledgebase article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;271513
lists the following reasons for problems in saving Excel files:

? You save an Excel file to a network drive where you have restricted permissions.
? You save an Excel file to a location that does not have sufficient drive space.
? The connection to the Excel file has been lost.
? There is a conflict with an antivirus software program.
? You save an Excel file that is shared.
? The 218-character path limitation has been exceeded when you save an Excel file.
? The Transition Formula Evaluation feature is turned on in Excel.
? The file was created from a template that contains embedded objects.

Good luck!

This may sound obvious, but make sure your client isn't over-typing an existing note (cell). Never underestimate the ability of end-users to come up with novel ways to screw things up and blame the software....

Or have I got those last two words in the title the wrong way around?

I think you will find either that someone is opening instead of saving - yep I've seen it or more than one user has the ss open (second one as read only perhaps) then overwriting with a save as....

I've had users lose data when using roaming profiles badly. Especially in the old days with NT. Is it possibly something like that?

Hi,

I have faced similar problems and fix it by recover the xls file. I used a tool called Advanced Excel Repair to repair my Excel xls files. Its homepage is http://www.datanumen.com/aer/ Hope this still can help in the future.

Alan