Blast Audit keeps your documents and snips inside the workbook. Each snip is tied to a cell on a specific sheet. Excel gives every sheet an internal ID that changes when you copy the sheet, and that is why some sheet operations keep your snips and others lose them.
What keeps your snips and what loses them
| What you do in Excel | What happens to the snips |
|---|---|
| Rename a sheet | They follow the sheet. |
| Move a sheet to another position in the same workbook | They follow the sheet. |
| Insert or delete rows or columns elsewhere on the sheet | Each snip follows its cell. |
| Delete the row or column that holds a snipped cell | That snip is deleted. |
| Copy a sheet (in the same workbook or another one) | The copy keeps the values and the cell colours, but not the snips. The snips stay on the original sheet. |
| Move a sheet to another workbook | The snips are removed from the original workbook. The other workbook does not have the documents, so the moved sheet has no working links. |
| Delete a sheet | Its snips are deleted. |
If a sheet disappears but another sheet with exactly the same name exists, Blast Audit reattaches the snips to that sheet.
Keep your links when you reorganise a file
- Work inside the workbook that holds the documents. Move sheets within that workbook, not to another one.
- Before deleting a sheet or moving it to another workbook, save a copy of the file.
Copying the whole file (Save As, or copying the .xlsx in File Explorer or to another folder) keeps its documents and snips: they are stored inside the .xlsx, and the copy carries them along.
Get snips back
- Right after deleting a snip in the viewer, use Undo last delete in the viewer's ⋯ menu, or press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac) while the pane has focus.
- Snips you deleted in the viewer go to the Snip recycle bin (viewer ⋯ menu). Choose Current document or Whole workbook, then Restore.
- If you saved a copy of the file before the change, reopen that copy.
- The Snip recycle bin does not restore snips removed because their sheet was deleted: they never go to the bin. Use Excel's Undo right away to bring the sheet back, or keep a copy of the workbook before deleting sheets.
"Failed to fetch PDF data"
This message means Blast Audit could not read a document stored inside the workbook. The cause is a document part that cannot be read inside the file. Copying the workbook does not cause it.
- Close and reopen the workbook, then open the document again.
- If it still fails, open the copy of the file you had before the change and check whether the document opens there.
- If no copy works, import the document again from its original file. There is no repair tool: contact support with the file name and the exact message.
If it still fails
Contact support with:
- What you did just before the snips or documents went missing (renamed, copied or moved a sheet, copied the file, opened it from another folder).
- The exact message, as a screenshot.
- Your Excel: Windows, Mac or web, and where the file is stored.
Do not send the workbook unless support asks for it.