Overview: Users may occasionally encounter missing sheets or sheets that appear lightly shaded within a binder in Active Workpapers.
This can occur when the underlying data or sheets have not been uploaded correctly to the Active platform. As a result, other users accessing the same binder may see certain sheets as missing or grayed out.
Tip: Please seek assistance from your IT team where possible when following this help article.
Step 1: Looking for the file with the Missing Sheets
To resolve this, start by checking the Audit Log. Open the affected binder, click the Settings (cog icon) in the top right corner, and select Audit Log.
From there, identify the user who last worked on the missing sheets.
Ask that staff member to open their Excel, click on File > Open, and search under Recents by the binder name to see if the binder appears twice with different file paths, as shown below:
Notice from the screenshot how the same binder was opened from Active Collaboration (which is from the Active platform). This version of the binder that contained little information or have missing sheets.
However, there may be another version stored on their OneDrive that does contains all of the sheets they were previously working on. (see the file path in the screenshot above and the screenshot below how a copy of the file sits in the User's personal Onedrive)
If you find two versions of the binder with different paths, try opening the one with the OneDrive path and check if it contains your missing sheets. If it does, save that file to your desktop.
Sometimes users may inadvertently save the binder locally in a different location. You can use the same method to find that locally saved file.
Other times, check the locations specified in File > Options > Save screen in Excel.
You can also open File Explorer and manually search these locations highlighted in the screenshot above to find a copy of the binder containing the missing sheets.
Similarly, for Mac users, check the AutoRecover folder for a copy of the binder. See the help article below:
Recover files in Office for Mac
If the missing sheets still can't be found, go back to the audit log and check whether any other user worked on the binder previously. If so, repeat the steps above with that user.
In some rare cases you will also be able to find a previous version of the Sharepoint file in our Active SharePoint (if it was uploaded correctly in the past by one of the users). Here are the steps to check that and how to restore to a previous sharepoint version held by the active platform:
How to restore to a previous SharePoint version of a binder
Step 2: Uploading your File to Active
Once you have opened the file that contains all of the sheets, check your work in this excel file to ensure it includes all of your recent data, then save it to your desktop (File > Save As). Thereafter, follow the steps below to upload it to Active as a new version.
Return to your Binder in the Active Platform.
Click Settings & Tools in the top right menu of your binder.
Select Excel Binder Profile.
Click Upload New Version.
Select your file from your desktop that contains all of the sheet after clicking Upload File.
Click Save New Version.
Scroll down and click Save and Close.
Then reopen the binder from the Active platform to confirm all sheets are present.
Best Practice Recommendations to Prevent This Issue
Always ensure AutoSave is enabled in Excel (top left corner) when working with binders opened from the Active platform
Please Ignore any OneDrive messages at the top of your Excel. (Sometimes if connection is lost to the Active platform, Excel can suggest that you save your work to OneDrive.) Instead try clicking save at the top left of excel and see if it saves your changes to Active, otherwise save the file to your desktop and upload it to Active using the step 2 outlined above
Ensure you’re on the latest version of Excel and your setup meets our System Requirements
Ensure you are not using any conflicting Add-ins in Excel, check and routinely disable any add-ins you do not need in Excel
Keep the Active Workpapers Taskpane open at all times. It checks for save issues every five minutes and will prompt you to save if work hasn’t been saved to the Active platform. The add-in can also detect if work is saved outside Active (e.g. in OneDrive) and warn/guide users accordingly.
Maintain a stable internet connection and avoid saving binders locally. If needed, use the Export Binder feature under Binder Settings to save a copy of your work.