subject: What To Do When An Excel File Does Not Open [print this page] Various issues are faced by MS Excel users, while opening an Excel file. In some cases, an Excel file may refuse to open, which may happens due to corruption issues. When an Excel file gets corrupted, you may not be able to access any data (including hyperlinks, formulas, charts, etc) that was previously stored in that file. This may generate disastrous data loss scenarios. The best way to overcome such situations is to restore the data from an updated backup file. However, if the backup is not available, or is corrupt, then you need to use a high-quality excel repairapplication to retrieve your data from the corrupted Excel file.
To understand the scenario better, let us take a scenario -,Think of a situations where you attempt to open an Excel file, but instead you receive an error message similar to the following:
"Excel found unreadable content in xyz.xls. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes."
Further, when you click 'Yes', a report comes out that states that all the worksheet properties, drawing parts, print options, formulas, etc are removed from the Excel file. Sometimes, you might even get a blank spreadsheet. At this point, you need to find out the reason behind the problem and solution for the same.
Cause:
The main reason due to which the above mentioned error message appears is the corruption of Excel file. The reason behind corruption could be virus infection, improper system shutdown, power outage, application malfunction, etc.
Resolution:
Excel file corruption may create catastrophic situations if the data stored in the Excel file is of utmost importance. In these situations, you will require a powerful excel repair software to retrieve your data from the corrupted Excel file. These are reliable applications, which employ high-end scanning mechanisms to repair excel file systematically. Also, the interactive graphical user interface of these tools enable you to understand them easily even when you are not technical savvy.
