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ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor · Sharing, safety and accessibility · Intermediate

Configure desktop recovery and understand hosted autosave differences in ONLYOFFICE

Configure desktop recovery and understand hosted autosave differences.

Documentation reviewed; native checks remain manual · Editorial standards

Quick answer

Enable desktop Autorecover under File > Advanced Settings > Editing and saving, then continue saving important work explicitly. Autorecover is crash-recovery assistance, not a backup system. The online editor’s Autosave setting is a different feature and depends on the hosted editing environment.

Know what you are testing

This guide targets the English ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors 10.0.0 interface. The 10.0 release rebuilt the start window. A 2023 official recovery article describes Recent files > Recover files, but that historical path is not certified here as the current 10.0 recovery interface. Use the recovery controls actually offered by your installed build after a real unexpected shutdown.

Prepare a disposable local XLSX named Recovery-practice.xlsx. In A1 enter Checkpoint and in B1 enter “Saved version 1.” The task below checks an explicit save and reopen. It deliberately does not crash the program or demonstrate that an unsaved edit can always be recovered.

Enable recovery and establish a saved checkpoint

  1. Open File > Advanced Settings and locate Editing and saving.
  2. Check Autorecover and choose Apply. The official desktop FAQ says it is enabled by default, but inspect your own setting rather than assuming it has never changed.
  3. Save the workbook using the Save icon or Ctrl+S. If it is a new file, complete the normal filename and location choice.
  4. Change B1 to “Saved version 2” and save again.
  5. Close the workbook normally and reopen the saved local file. Verify that B1 contains “Saved version 2.”

This demonstrates that your explicit save reached the file you reopened. It does not prove crash recovery, a recovery interval, or retention of older versions. Keep the filename and location visible so that reopening a similarly named copy does not create a false impression of lost edits.

Understand the unsaved-change boundary

The older official recovery explanation says that normal closing prompts you to save or discard unsaved changes and removes the recovery files. Consequently, choosing to discard edits is not a safe way to test crash recovery. Do not assume that Autorecover is an undo archive you can revisit after every normal close.

If you want a reversible checkpoint, save a separate workbook copy before a major edit and give it a clear name. Keep ordinary backups appropriate to your storage system. Recovery copies, an explicit save and a backup solve different problems: unexpected closure, retaining the current file, and surviving loss or unwanted changes over time.

No adjustable recovery interval or recovery-folder selector is established by the current sources used here. Do not follow instructions for another office suite’s “save every N minutes” control or edit application recovery folders experimentally.

After a real unexpected shutdown

If your actual installation presents recovered files, open the relevant candidate and inspect meaningful cells and formulas. Compare it with the last explicitly saved file; the newest-looking filename alone does not establish that it contains the wanted edits. Save recovered work manually, preferably to a distinct filename until you have checked it. The official recovery article explicitly requires saving to retain the recovered changes.

If nothing is offered, preserve the original saved file and consult current support for your build. Do not repeatedly force-close the editor in an attempt to manufacture a recovery entry, and do not promise that a missing recovery copy can be reconstructed.

Keep hosted saving separate

Advanced Settings identifies Autosave as an online feature and Autorecover as a desktop feature. A workbook opened through a connected cloud may use the online editor inside the desktop application. Server storage, co-editing mode, permissions and provider integration then matter too.

For a permitted cloud practice file, an explicit marker edit followed by closing and reopening the same server file is a useful persistence check. It still does not prove version-history retention or a provider’s backup guarantee. See connecting Desktop Editors to a supported cloud to distinguish the local application from the hosted editor before diagnosing saving behavior.

Sources and verification

Official documentation snapshots retrieved on 20 October 2026 support the procedures above. The worked checks are independently reasoned expectations, not a report of native application testing. Save/reopen, rendering and platform behavior remain checks for the stated installation.