Windows 10: Excel file suddenly deleted itself, tried everything to no avail

I have an Excel file which I regularly use to track data but one day I opened it and all of a sudden it said that it's unavailable. I checked the original location and saw that the file just literally vanished. The file wasn't corrupt or anything. Itliterally doesn't exist anymore.


I fear this may be the work of malware which Avast Free Antivirus overlooked.


What do I do? Now I'm paranoid if the same thing is going to happen to my other precious files.


Is it even possible for files to delete itself on its own accord?

:)

 

Excel itself set password to file

Sorry, but Excel doesn't just password protect itself. It takes active confirmation steps to accomplish this. Not saying the file isn't password protected, just saying someone "had" to setup a password.

And yes, I'm currently using Office 365.

 

Excel itself set password to file

No.

Please post a screenshot of Excel asking for a password for that file.
- The cause must be either that the user set the password or there is a very, very strange form of file corruption taking place.
- I have heard of scripts for scanning computers to list password-protected files. Perhaps running one of these would confirm / reject the notion that a real password has been set???
- Is there any VBA in that Excel file? Any reference to .Protect in it [such as ActiveWorkbook.Protect]?

Denis

 

Cannot delete files in Temp

I have that same problem. But the file I want to delete contains viruses too. I tried everything you said but nothing works. Could you please send me the secure deleter you wrote?