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
    2016-12-18T16:29:27+00:00

    I have the same problem.  If I select the file and "open with" internet explorer it works just fine.  I just can't open directly by double clicking.  I hope this gets fixed soon...

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-12-27T18:52:36+00:00

    I have the same issue on a coworkers PC here at my work.  He had MS Office 2013 and we upgraded to MS Office 2016 thru MS Office 365 Business.  It was working when I did the upgrade last week and so I remove the 2013.  Now Excel is the only program that will not allow you to double click on a file to open.  It just brings up a blank screen in Excel.  Now I can have excel open and open the file that way and it will bring it up.  I have gone thru all different troubleshooting and nothing has seemed to work.  Word and Outlook work just fine...It is just Excel that is giving the same issue as others here have mentioned.

    Any help to resolve this would be great!!!

    Thank you!

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-01-05T12:22:10+00:00

    Hi all,

    I am one of the engineers on the Excel team currently investigating this issue.

    Firstly, I would like to apologize for not being able to provide better information about how to resolve this problem, we are still currently investigating it and having some trouble identifying exactly what is happening because we haven't been able to recreate this behavior in any of our test environments.

    Which brings me to my ask: If anyone is still encountering blank Excel windows when opening Excel files (by double clicking them in File Explorer or on their Desktop), please reply and let me know. I will work with the forum moderators to send you an email and then I will work with you personally to investigate and troubleshoot. Hopefully we will be able to resolve the issue via email or a Skype conversation, but if not, then we will use the troubleshooting information to ship an update to Excel.

    Again, if you are currently experiencing this issue, please reply one more time to this thread and I will follow up with you via email.

    Thank you,

    Micah

    Hi Micah,

    Actually we have Excel files created in 2010 v

    when trying to open them in Excel 2016 v still showing loading on bottom bar but nothing is happening !!

    unchecked all Trust center thing but still not fixed, it's really frustrating our users ! we can't upgrade our office application due to this bug

    Any solution please let me know

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-01-12T04:41:17+00:00

    I am having the issue where I cannot double click a file and open it after updating to Excel 2016.  I can open the program and then open the file from within Excel.  Please help me resolve this.

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