Excel files disappeared, Excel saying to sign in

Thanks for the reply. Just to confirm, have you already checked both OneDrive accounts from a web browser, including the Recycle Bin in each one? I mean the personal OneDrive and the work OneDrive, not only the account that is currently showing in Excel.

Also, do either of these accounts have an active Microsoft 365 subscription assigned to them?

For my Personal account yes it is attached to an active MS 365 subscription obtained through Apple. And i checked it from a web browser; it is showing LESS THAN 0.1 GB of storage usage against 1.0 TB capacity. I just checked my work account - I can access it through a web browser yes, it forces me over to Edge (enterprise default browser) and have to use a token to get though our firewall, but cannot get to an easy place to see files. That said I can currently access my work Excel files synced to my work OneDrive account.

Thanks for the update. Since your personal OneDrive is showing less than 0.1 GB used out of 1 TB, that strongly suggests the missing spreadsheets are probably not currently stored in that personal OneDrive account, unless they were deleted, moved, or saved somewhere else originally.

At this point I would separate the issue into two parts:

First, for the Excel sign-in loop on the iPad, please try clearing the saved Office credentials from iPad settings, not only uninstalling the app. Go to iPad Settings > Excel > Reset Excel, then enable Delete Login Credentials. After that, fully close Excel, reopen it, and sign in again with the personal Microsoft account that owns the subscription.

Second, for the files, please continue checking the storage locations directly, not only Excel’s Recent list. The Recent list can disappear or change when the app credentials/cache are reset, and it is not the actual storage location. Please check:

Personal OneDrive on the web: My files, Recent, Recycle Bin, and Personal Vault if used.

Work OneDrive on the web: My files, Recent, Recycle Bin, and any SharePoint/Teams locations your organization uses.

The iPad Files app: Browse > On My iPad, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, and Recently Deleted.

Search by partial file names or by “.xlsx” instead of relying only on the file names shown in Excel Recents.

If you have an active Microsoft 365 subscription and you are sure these files were stored in your personal OneDrive, you can also try restoring OneDrive to a previous state.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/onedrive/restore-your-onedrive-files

Thank you, I will try these. I am a bit more nervous about the files since my OneDrive is not showing any storage usage. I know I kept a few spreadsheets on my ipad (yes backs up to the cloud) because those had more sensitive information. The others I believe were on my OneDrive (or maybe my iCloud account - ?). I have searched all of those folders directly in recent days without any success - but will go through all methodically again.

When the first few files disappeared and I was experiencing the sign-in issues, I still could see most of my old spreadsheets in Recent as well is in Files on my iPad, I just could not see any of the ones I used recently (and most frequently). I could even see the Excel file folder I set up in my Files. After I uninstalled Excel and then reinstalled it, ALL spreadsheets disappeared including the Excel spreadsheet folder (but I did say ok to something in the process that noted my files and data would still be [in my account / the cloud… sorry for not being crisp here]. So still hoping it is a sync issue.

Will search again, then try to restore my OneDrive to a previous state, thank you for your continued support.

A pleasure, please let me know the results. I do believe that is a Sync issue, but it also seems that you have several saving locations possible and also more than one account available.

A bit of an update, not great but holding out some hope for a sync issue. When I launch Excel, it shows I am logged into OneDrive for both my personal and my work accounts, and it is not prompting me to log into my personal account, maybe that issue is resolved.

For the missing Excel files, I searched all over, local on device, in iCloud, in OneDrive, Deleted, etc. They are nowhere to be found. So I started the process of Restoring my OneDrive. When I went to select a custom date, I noticed the timeline had zero activity in the account except an empty Excel file I opened two days ago in this hunt process. That suggested to me restoring to a previous date would not bring my files back (but maybe I should try anyway?). I was actively editing spreadsheets a week ago, spreadsheets I know I stored locally on my iPad and am 100% certain I did not accidentally delete them. I also tried adding different accounts to Excel while I had it opened - used all other active email addresses including the one attached to my Apple account (I am subscribing to Microsoft through my Apple account). The only email address Microsoft recognized was the one I have been using in this process.

I am going to check with my work IT department next week. I have a bit of a new “conspiracy” (lol) theory, I am wondering if my work firewalls may have removed the files. Sometimes when I open certain personal files (created and saved personally, not at work on work server), I get a prompt to classify the file (we have a system at work that requires this - for ex “Restricted” or “Private”). I usually get out of the file and am later able to access it without that issue. Also when logging in and out of my OneDrives yesterday I got a prompt “Your organization has removed its data from this account (607)” and told me to log back into my work account. - It says “its” data, but what is it called “its” data, and everything seems clean and there for my work files. It is odd enough (and I am running out of options) so I need to check with my IT department.

I guess i should also check the Apple route - since my iPad is backed up to the cloud, shouldn’t there be a version up there with these files still on there (or maybe not if it periodically saves and overwrites to the latest data version, which currently does not have Excel files).

Last thing I will mention in case I did not before, if helpful at all - when I noticed the handful of recent files missing and could not find them, I could still see most other Excel files in Recent and in my iPad Files (so everything else looked normal). Per suggestions I read, I removed Excel from my iPad (and even remember a prompt saying as long as i do not delete my MSFT account my data will be saved). But upon reinstalling Excel and logging back into my personal account - those old files I could see before removing Excel were now gone from Recent and from my iPad. But when I re-logged into my work account in Excel after reinstalling Excel, all of those work files came up.

Thanks for the detailed update. The message “Your organization has removed its data from this account (607)” is an important clue. That type of message is commonly related to Microsoft Intune/app protection policies, where a work organization can remove protected organizational data from managed Office apps.

Because your personal OneDrive restore timeline shows no activity except the test file, restoring the personal OneDrive may not bring the missing spreadsheets back. OneDrive Restore is meant to undo file/folder activity that actually occurred inside OneDrive within the last 30 days, such as deletion, corruption, or unwanted changes. If the files were stored locally on the iPad, in iCloud Drive, or affected by a managed-work-account policy, the personal OneDrive restore history would not necessarily show them.

I agree that checking with your work IT department is the right next step. I would specifically ask them to check whether any Intune selective wipe, mobile app management policy, Office app protection policy, sensitivity/classification policy, or data loss prevention rule was applied to Excel/OneDrive on your iPad around the time the files disappeared.

Thank you - yes I have it front of them now including that screenshot (attaching below) and noted that. I probably have no recourse because when I agree to have work apps on my personal devices stuff i have to agree to includes that potential I am pretty sure (and why some of my co-workers would not agree to it). And even if work did delete the files, would you know if those files are even recoverable? I have slowly accepted (with your ongoing support) that these files are gone. Years of data, analysis, personal models - retirement, budgets, financial planning….so is life I guess. IMG_4463.png

Thank you for the screenshot. I would not say there is absolutely no chance of recovery yet, but if those spreadsheets existed only inside Excel’s local app storage on the iPad and were treated as managed/work-protected data, they may not be recoverable from your side. The best remaining chance is through your work IT team. Microsoft notes that selective wipe requests are tracked in Intune, and completed wipe entries remain in the report for a limited time, so I would ask them to check this as soon as possible.