Complete loss of Excel Workbook

Hello Frank Granziera,

Thank you for setting out what you have already ruled out.

Losing a workbook you have relied on for years is a horrible feeling, particularly when there is no obvious explanation for where it went.

Here what you can try to fix this issue:

• Open File Explorer, right click the folder that used to contain the workbook, and select Restore previous versions. If it sat at the top level of a drive, right click the drive itself instead. Choose a version of the folder dated before the file disappeared, then use Restore to. This recovers content that is already gone from the Recycle Bin, and it works independently of OneDrive.
• Search by extension rather than by name, since the file name in Windows may differ from what you remember. In File Explorer, search This PC for .xls and sort by Date modified. Turn on Hidden items on the View menu first, and include any second drive or external drive the workbook may have lived on.
• If you have another computer signed in to the same Microsoft account, open Excel there and look at the recent list. That list synchronizes across devices, so an older machine can still show the full path of the workbook, which tells you exactly where it used to be.
• Check whether security software quarantined it. Open your antivirus, look at the quarantine or protection history, and restore anything matching. A file that is quarantined disappears from its folder and from the Recycle Bin at the same time, which fits what you are describing.

One point on the missing shortcut. A shortcut breaking does not prove the file was deleted, and a moved file also produces exactly this result. That is why the extension search above is worth doing carefully.

Please let me know what the Previous Versions tab shows, since that result tells us whether a local copy still exists.

Feel free reply back to this post and update me on this issue, I'll be happy to help.

I have followed all the recommended steps but there is no finding the workbook