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Excel for iPad auto-save does not seem to work

Anonymous
2025-01-19T15:34:02+00:00

Hi there

I received an email on Outlook for iPad that contained an Excel sheet. I opened the Excel sheet in Excel for iPad and modified it. Excel says that auto-save is enabled and that the file has been saved “to my iPad”. However, I cannot find the file in “Recents” (neither in Excel nor on the iPad Files app), and I cannot find the file on my iPad (using the Files app), my iCloud Drive or my OneDrive account. The problem recurs every time I open that file from the email and work on it.

My (unconfirmed) guess is the following: When I open the email on Outlook for Mac (no iPad), then the file is stored in some Temp Outlook folder. Perhaps Outlook for iPad does the same thing, but I cannot access those temp folders on my iPad?

Can somebody please advise?

Many thanks

Wolfram

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | Other | iOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-01-21T12:48:24+00:00

    Hello, Wolfram

    Welcome to Microsoft Community.   

    I realize that you have encountered a problem that when you open the Excel file which is an attachment in an email in Outlook, the auto-save feature for it doesn't work. I understand how you feel. 

    I think your guess is very reasonable. The Excel file in the email might indeed be stored in some temporary Outlook folder. Even though it says “Auto Save Enabled”, the file will probably be automatically saved to this temporary folder on “Your iPad”.

    When you open the Excel file from email next time, you can try to manually save it to OneDrive. 

    • Click on the three dots in the top-right corner and select “Upload File” or “Save a Copy” to save the file to OneDrive.
    • Then see if the file appears in “Recent” and whether the auto-save function works when you edit the Excel file saved in OneDrive.

    Please understand that our initial response may not always solve the problem immediately. Feel free to post back if you need further assistance. 

    Best wishes, 

    Lucia Wu - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-01-22T19:48:26+00:00

    Thanks a lot, Lucia! This does indeed solve the issue but is not very “nice”. One needs to always remember this, and if one forgets the edited file vanishes in the “ether” without any warning.

    I believe this can be considered a bug in the current Outlook/Excel for iPad apps, and it would be great if Microsoft could fix that in an upcoming version.

    Best

    Wolfram

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