Excel Worksheet and backups suddenly get Unreadable Content Message

Anonymous

I have a 400 line Excel 2007 single worksheet spreadsheet.

Each row has a Comment inserted in one of the cells. The Comment has been formatted as follows: "Size" has been adjusted, "Colors and Lines" has been adjusted by choosing "Color", "Fill Effects", "Picture", "Select Picture" and a .jpg file from a certain folder is selected.

The result is that when I hover over this cell in any given row, the .jpg file that was placed in the Comment appears. There are other simple text comments in several other cells in the worksheet.

This all was working fine for me for several months, and I was making backups just to be safe.

Suddenly, I started getting "Excel found unreadable content in..." and it offered me to "recover the contents of this workbook". When I choose to recover, I get my entire worksheet back without any comments (ones with .jpgs and ones without), and I am told "Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content".

I also get a chance to view the "log file" and this is its contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

**-** <recoveryLog xmlns="**http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main**">

<logFileName>error053200_01.xml</logFileName>

<summary>Errors were detected in file 'C:\Users\Bruce Kay\Desktop\Documents\DOCUMENTS ON iPhone\All Casino Chip Collection.xlsx'</summary>

**-** <removedParts summary="Following is a list of removed parts:">

<removedPart>Removed Part: /xl/drawings/vmlDrawing1.vml part. (Drawing shape)</removedPart>

</removedParts>

</recoveryLog>

The same thing happens with all of my backups of this sheet, and those were backups of working versions of this sheet.

This is all unbelievably frustrating.

Does anyone think this was due to an automatic update by Microsoft?

Do you have any suggestions for recovery?

Thanks

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55 answers

Anonymous

2012-08-01T20:15:17+00:00

Am recieving the same error message when trying to open a workbook with pictures and sames pasted in certain cells. The issue persists even when opening a backup version of the file from a date I am %100 certain the file was fine.

Am I really going to just put up with completely redoing a workbook every month or so? This is the second workbook this has happened too, both are being used in similar ways.

Any more recent progress on this issues?

-Brad

Below is error details...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

**-** <recoveryLog xmlns="**http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main**">

<logFileName>error045960_01.xml</logFileName>

<summary>Errors were detected in file 'G:\Brad\WIP\SPID 2402 NORTHFIELD CHUCK.xlsx'</summary>

**-** <repairedRecords summary="Following is a list of repairs:">

<repairedRecord>Repaired Records: Drawing from /xl/drawings/drawing1.xml part (Drawing shape)</repairedRecord>

</repairedRecords>

</recoveryLog>
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Anonymous

2011-09-20T12:43:58+00:00

I have the same, and found a workaround.

It appears to be caused by deleting a picture comment. It deletes it fine, saves and closes excel correctly, but on re-opening, the error appears.

I'm on Windows XP, Office 2007. I was able to get the original document back from before the so called "repair", from a backup tape. If I backsaved it to the old Excel format (Excel 97-2003) I don't experience the error again.

That wont help if you're using functions from Excel 2007 onwards, and you can't get the original file back, but saved me!

Andy.
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Anonymous

2011-08-23T15:28:52+00:00

I faced same problem today as well.

Had pictures in the comment field

Now Excel 2010 tells me

"Excel found unreadable content .... "

Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content

Removed Part: /xl/drawings/vmlDrawing1.vml part. (Drawing shape)"

The pictures are gone !!!

Have you found a fix other than recreating the sheet.

Thanks

Ashiq
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Anonymous

2011-04-27T23:38:49+00:00

i am getting exactly the same problem

: /xl/drawings/vmlDrawing1.vml part is removed.

created a huge spreadsheet and its now corrupt

should send microsoft the bill for the hours spent on it.

Frustrating is an understatement.

recreate the sheet is not a solution...confidence in microsoft software hugely dented again.
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Anonymous

2010-07-30T18:27:29+00:00

I have a similar problem. I have a web application that allows users to save docs to a NAS server. The users can save 2007 docs and spreadsheets, but when they try to open them from the application they get the same error you show above. It happens to all spreadsheets regardless of what the spreadsheet contains.
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