Can’t See My Excel Files After Reinstalling the Excel App on a New Mac?

data recovery
1

I was using the Excel app on my MacBook and saved multiple spreadsheets locally.

Then my laptop crashed beyond recovery. After getting a new Mac and reinstalling Excel under the same subscription, I expected my recent documents to appear automatically.

They didn’t.

Now I can’t access any of those previous files. Is there a way to retrieve them?

2

An active Microsoft subscription does not automatically back up locally saved files.

If your spreadsheets were saved:

  • Only on the Mac’s internal drive
  • Not synced to OneDrive
  • Not stored in iCloud Drive
  • Not backed up via Time Machine

Then reinstalling Excel on a new device won’t restore them. The app installs clean, but your old local files don’t transfer unless they were synced or backed up.

You can try iBoysoft Mac Recovery Mode. It can load iBoysoft data recovery software directly from iBoysoft’s server, helping you scan your crashed MacBook to find the Excel files.

3

You can check the iCloud Drive and see if you have Desktop & Documents syncing enabled. Or, if you have enabled OneDrive, log in at onedrive.live.com and check if any files were synced.