I recently upgraded to Excel 2016. I use the Office Personal 365 subscription. My files now won't open. They show as corrupt. It tries to open in "protected" mode, but it stops working before anything happens. I didn't have issues before upgrading. Hopefully this is an easy fix, but I can't seem to find a solution online. Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

Bert, I'm sorry that the Quick Repair didn't work for you. Here is a more detailed reply addressing all of the different permutations of issues I have seen. Hopefully something in the list will help you. If not, please let me know. Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone for providing information and helping us to identify all of the different problems. Unfortunately, there is no one single cause to files not opening correctly when double clicked and there are even a few different experiences that often get grouped together as "The file didn't open". Specifically, we see the following behaviors most often: After double clicking a file to open it, Excel opens with a grey background, but the file never opens. Additionally, a message about "There was a problem sending the command to the program" may appear. Double clicking a file doesn't even open Excel, and/or the icons on the Desktop and in File Explorer don't appear to be associated with Excel. Double clicking the file opens Excel, but an error appears saying the file is corrupted or opens in Protected View, preventing edits. Here are the proposed solutions/workarounds for each of the above problems: Potential solutions to Problem 1 "App opens, but file doesn't" Ensure that the DDE option is unchecked. The option can be found in File -> Options -> Advanced -> "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" Disable all third party apps that interact with Excel. We have found some occurrences of third party add-in or applications that intercept commands from Windows to Excel, preventing Excel from opening the file. Specifically, we have seen security, encryption and two-factor authentication add-in prevent files from opening. Add-ins can be disabled by unchecking all boxes in File > Options > Add-ins > COM Add-ins (in dropdown at bottom of screen) > Go… > Uncheck all boxes > Click OK. Unfortunately, there is no way to manage Third Party applications that interact with Excel, so you would need to find those manually in Task Manager Processes and stop any that you think could interfere (CTRL+ALT+DELETE > Task Manager > Processes). Unhide windows. If all of the windows on a workbook are hidden, it will appear that the file didn’t open. You can unhide windows by clicking the "Unhide" button in the Window section of the View tab in the ribbon. Update registry entries for DDE. It is possible that through installation of add-ins, upgrades or other means, the registry values that control DDE can be changed. We recommend using Quick Repair or Full Repair to restore registry values, rather than changing them manually. You can access repair from Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Right click Microsoft Office 365 [or whichever version you have installed] > Change > Quick Repair. As a workaround, you can open the Excel app and then try and open the file again (either from within the app or by double clicking on the file again). This will bypass most of the problems associated with DDE, allowing you to open files. Potential solutions to Problem 2 "Excel files aren't associated with the Excel application" Run a Quick Repair. The most likely cause here is a Windows upgrade, Office upgrade or installation of a different document management suite caused the Office files to no longer be associated with the Office applications on your computer. You can access repair from Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Right click Microsoft Office 365 [or whichever version you have installed] > Change > Quick Repair. Potential solutions to Problem 3 "Corruption message or Protected View Message" When opening the file, let Excel repair the corruption. This happens automatically when Excel detects the file is corrupted. It attempts to repair as much as possible. The file opens in Protected View. If it is from an untrusted location (email attachments and web locations are generally considered untrusted), then this is expected behavior and was designed that way to protect from accidently opening files that contain malicious content. Lastly, if you are experiencing the first problem and none of the solutions resolve the issue, please let me know and I can work with you individually to determine what is happening and hopefully find a resolution. Thanks, Micah

Hi Micah, like many others on this post I cannot open Excel files when double clicking from Windows Explorer; I can open them from within Excel. If this helps - I was running Windows 7 with Office 2013 (box version). I upgraded to Windows 10 (in-situ) and all was fine. I then upgraded to Office 2016 subscription service. The Office upgrade did not remove Office 2013 so I had both versions. The first thing I noticed was that the file icons in Explorer were blank - my initial assumption was that Windows couldn't determine the program file association given two versions of Office on the computer. Double clicking on the file in Explorer started Excel 2016 but did not open the file. I then removed Office 2013 via control panel. The icons are still blank and double clicking doesn't work. I have a metered connection so I don't automatically get updates. The last updates were at the end of April. Cheers, Brett

RE: Excel not opening files: Not the same, but curious... When I double click an Excel file, the Excel program opens a new blank program screen and does not open the file. I have to either use the "open file" route from within Excel or drag n' drop the file into the open program. BTW, this was the behavior until I recently tried the "repair" fix some said worked for them in this thread. Now when I click on an Excel file, the Excel program opens and I get the error statement: "there is a problem sending the command to the program". Hmmm... ?

My situation is very similar, upgraded using Office 365 and got rid of Office 2013.. When I click on a spreadsheet or a shortcut to one it opens a (save as) explorer window like it wants to save the file instead of open it... I can however open excel 2016 and drag an excel spreadsheet into it and it will open. Just dont consider that acceptable... I've tried all the other options thru Trust Center and still I have this problem. Could use some help for sure

Also can't open Excel files in Excel 2016 that were created with Excel 2007. Says "file extension is not correct or file may be corrupted" . How do I solve this problem?

Excel files won't open since I've upgraded to Excel 2016 (says they are corrupt)

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Bert, I'm sorry that the Quick Repair didn't work for you. Here is a more detailed reply addressing all of the different permutations of issues I have seen. Hopefully something in the list will help you. If not, please let me know.

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone for providing information and helping us to identify all of the different problems. Unfortunately, there is no one single cause to files not opening correctly when double clicked and there are even a few different experiences that often get grouped together as "The file didn't open". Specifically, we see the following behaviors most often:

After double clicking a file to open it, Excel opens with a grey background, but the file never opens. Additionally, a message about "There was a problem sending the command to the program" may appear.
Double clicking a file doesn't even open Excel, and/or the icons on the Desktop and in File Explorer don't appear to be associated with Excel.
Double clicking the file opens Excel, but an error appears saying the file is corrupted or opens in Protected View, preventing edits.

Here are the proposed solutions/workarounds for each of the above problems:

Potential solutions to Problem 1 "App opens, but file doesn't"

Ensure that the DDE option is unchecked. The option can be found in File -> Options -> Advanced -> "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)"
Disable all third party apps that interact with Excel. We have found some occurrences of third party add-in or applications that intercept commands from Windows to Excel, preventing Excel from opening the file. Specifically, we have seen security, encryption and two-factor authentication add-in prevent files from opening. Add-ins can be disabled by unchecking all boxes in File > Options > Add-ins > COM Add-ins (in dropdown at bottom of screen) > Go… > Uncheck all boxes > Click OK. Unfortunately, there is no way to manage Third Party applications that interact with Excel, so you would need to find those manually in Task Manager Processes and stop any that you think could interfere (CTRL+ALT+DELETE > Task Manager > Processes).
Unhide windows. If all of the windows on a workbook are hidden, it will appear that the file didn’t open. You can unhide windows by clicking the "Unhide" button in the Window section of the View tab in the ribbon.
Update registry entries for DDE. It is possible that through installation of add-ins, upgrades or other means, the registry values that control DDE can be changed. We recommend using Quick Repair or Full Repair to restore registry values, rather than changing them manually. You can access repair from Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Right click Microsoft Office 365 [or whichever version you have installed] > Change > Quick Repair.
As a workaround, you can open the Excel app and then try and open the file again (either from within the app or by double clicking on the file again). This will bypass most of the problems associated with DDE, allowing you to open files.

Potential solutions to Problem 2 "Excel files aren't associated with the Excel application"

Run a Quick Repair. The most likely cause here is a Windows upgrade, Office upgrade or installation of a different document management suite caused the Office files to no longer be associated with the Office applications on your computer. You can access repair from Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Right click Microsoft Office 365 [or whichever version you have installed] > Change > Quick Repair.

Potential solutions to Problem 3 "Corruption message or Protected View Message"

When opening the file, let Excel repair the corruption. This happens automatically when Excel detects the file is corrupted. It attempts to repair as much as possible.
The file opens in Protected View. If it is from an untrusted location (email attachments and web locations are generally considered untrusted), then this is expected behavior and was designed that way to protect from accidently opening files that contain malicious content.

Lastly, if you are experiencing the first problem and none of the solutions resolve the issue, please let me know and I can work with you individually to determine what is happening and hopefully find a resolution.

Thanks,

Micah

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Excel files won't open since I've upgraded to Excel 2016 (says they are corrupt)

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