Workbook autosave, part of V10.2 release, is an awesome life-saving feature. In case you wonder how it work, here are some of my observations:
- How it works? When you open an existing workbook, it creates .twbr file automatically and saves to the folder where workbook is or saves at My Repository/Workbooks folder if it is new workbook (filename is workbook name_12345(some numbers).twbr or book1_45678.twbr for new workbook)
- How often it saves? Tableau official document says every a few minutes. My observation is less than one minute
- Can you open the .twbr by Desktop? Yes. If Desktop crashes, when you open Desktop again, you will see a popup with last recovery file, you can decide to delete it or open it. Actually you can open the autosave .twbr file anytime by yourself if you want.
- Does the recovery work perfectly every time? It works. Although it happened to me once that I did not see the recovery after Desktop crashes. So my advice is still to save your work from time to time.
- Desktop user can turn off this feature as optional: Help - Settings and Performance - Enable Autosave
