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I worked on .csv format file and I made some different sheets. I Saved my .CSV file and close my file. Right now when I open my file, I just can see one sheet. All of my sheets is disappeared. Is there any way to recovery other sheets?

Negin Zarbakhsh
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  • When you save to CSV format, you **only** save the current worksheet. All others are lost. You *may* have a backup copy on One Drive or as a temporary file depending on the version and machine configuration. –  May 22 '17 at 14:15
  • .csv files don't support multiple sheets, you need to save it as a .xls or .xlsx file format in order for it to keep the multiple sheets. Also, because you saved and closed the file, there won't be a backup because it was not closed unexepectedly (it didn't crash). It's possible you may have other software on your computer or network that could possibly have a backup, but if this is a personal computer on a home network you're probably out of luck. – tigeravatar May 22 '17 at 14:15

3 Answers3

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No, CSV files do not support sheets. Excel will only save the active worksheet when saved to .csv format. This has to do with how csv files are merely "flat files" where .xls/.xlsx formats are not.

Like some of the comments have mentioned - it may exist in some temporary file, but your work is most likely lost.

Kevin
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If your file is in Drop Box or any other similar cloud based, you might be able to get the other tabs that you had worked on. I did the same mistake while compiling my tax returns, had the transactions in the main tab and created the next tag for Out of Pocket expenses and didn't realise it was a csv until I finished and saved and closed Though there were many versions of the CSV in the drop box, as my second tab was significantly smaller, I was able to find the version with a much much smaller size.

I hope the user should not be allowed to create a second tab for a CSV file or at least have a warning.

Dharman
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Geetha Murugesan
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This thing is an a nightmare! Now knowing I started off with a CSV file on a Dropbox directory, I kept adding many worksheets to that file. So I worked on that file for 15 days on the evenings, I usually leave the file open, only let my laptop hibernate. One day I wanted to work on the file day time at my office, so I saved and closed the file the evening before. When I arrived and opened it at my office, I was shocked to discover only one worksheet, he one I least wanted to retain was available on the file. A little bit of research on how to recover files from Dropbox, I found a way to recover almost all of the missing worksheet. Here are the procedures.

Step 1. Open the dropbox director => hover over the file=> right click => then click on "view history". The entire history of that file appears, with dates and time. Recovering the missing worksheets a trial and error procedure. Step 2. Hover over a file in the history list (e.g. starting from the earliest and progressing to the latest version version), and you will see "restore" to the right hand side corner. Click restore. Now go to the Dropbox directory and open the restored file, check its content, and move it to a separate and permanent excel file.
Step 3. Repeat the procedure for most versions until you recover all missing worksheets.

Ayele Ulfata Gelan
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