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

Anonymous
2015-11-10T16:31:14+00:00

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.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2016-05-12T23:48:37+00:00

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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"

  1. 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)"
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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"

  1. 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"

  1. 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.
  2. 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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  1. Anonymous
    2016-09-21T00:50:00+00:00

    Sorry for the delay everyone, I have been out of the office for a little while and will be again shortly, but hopefully I should be able to help all of you.

    Firstly, a few of you have mentioned turning off File Block and protection as ways to get files to open. These features are there to protect you from opening files that come from non-trusted locations, such as the internet or in some cases email. If you disable File Block, be extra vigilant about where you open files from and ensure that you are only opening files from those that you trust as you are disabling Office's attempts to validate files are safe. Since many of you have reported this though, we will take a look and see if we changed something and accidentally made it too restrictive.

    For those of you seeing "File is corrupt" errors, unfortunately there isn't much we can do there. We are aware of one issue where some files from email attachments can incorrectly show the corruption message and are working to fix it (which may be what you are seeing Kelsey), but if a file truly is corrupt, it could be because of any number of reasons both inside and outside of Excel and short of looking at the XML itself, there isn't a good way to repair the contents if Excel isn't already giving you the option to repair.

    Stephen schannie and Nick784877 based on your responses, it sounds like you have most likely left the DDE option checked. Go to File -> Options -> Advanced -> General and uncheck the "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" and then restart Excel. If you have already done this, or if you do it and it doesn't help, please let me know and then we can troubleshoot further.

    Lastly, PaulPTP, dialogueltd ELIZABETH55555 and minndan8look out for a Private Message from our forum moderators asking for your email address. I will be in contact and we can do some more detailed troubleshooting.

    Thank you for your help and my sincere apologies for how long this is taking to get resolved.

    Micah

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-21T21:15:09+00:00

    My version of Office 365 was fine until last week, when I tried to open an email attachment in Excel. Now I can see the software "open" in the taskbar, but nothing actually opens. I've tried the repair options. I can't get to the File menu in Excel to try the DDE option. What else can I do?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-10-04T21:38:04+00:00

    The proposed solutions don't help my problem.

    I just purchased & installed Office 2016 a couple of weeks ago. It should be up to date.

    1. My version of Excel 2106 doesn't seem to any an DDE box in the file -> option -> advanced menu.
    2. The files from Office 2007, 2010, 2007 have worked just fine with earlier versions of office & can even be opened with 2003. But Excel 2007 refuses to open them, so "repair" is not an option.

    (I've been using excel for 20 years. This is a strange problem for me.)

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-04T21:39:20+00:00

    How do we access "Quick Repair"?

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