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

Anonymous

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.

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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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204 additional answers

Anonymous

2018-10-22T16:51:38+00:00

Hi I am still experiencing problem 1 discuss on this page. My workbook is still not opening any excel file. I am using Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013. How can I fix this issue?
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Anonymous

2018-10-22T17:11:53+00:00

Good luck. I've had the same problem for about 3 years. MSFT has either told me to get into registers and make changes or suggested options that don't work.
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Anonymous

2018-10-22T17:21:20+00:00

Microsoft support reinstalled Office 365 on my machine. It Solved the problem (without explaining why it happened in the first place). I no longer have this problem.
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Anonymous

2018-11-04T21:59:35+00:00

None of your solutions solved my problem. I am using Office 365 and cannot find a way to RE-install Office 365 on my laptop. My problem is:

I open Excel (or Word, or Powerpoint, or Access, etc.) I try to open a blank file or an existing file or a recent file. I can also try accessing online help from within Excel which also triggers the problem. It is important to note that there is no menu band at this point. There is no "File" option, nor even a menu. Only 3 choices exist: open a template (blank document included), open a recent file or "open other documents". Any of those choice causes Excel to die. If I open a file either by starting Excel then opening the file or by double-clicking the file then Excel starts to open the file, reaches 100% loading the file then Excel dies and Excel no longer shows up in the task manager. Once again, this happens with ALL Office applications. Not just Excel.

This started to happen after the last update. I'm on a Windows 10 64bit machine and supposed to have Office 365 (2016). Not that I can confirm the Office version. Nor is the Office 365 "My Account", "My Devices" or "My Services and Subscriptions" even the slightest bit of help when trying to find a way to re-install my entire Office 365 suite.

Quick repair and Online Repair doesn't work. Trying to re-associate the file type does not work. Unblocking is not an option. No error appears. I should have Office 64bit. This 32bit exception is what I see. I'd like to uninstall and re-install from my Office 365 account homepage but can't find out how that's done.

This is the exception in the Administrative Events log:

Log Name:      Application

Source:        Application Error

Date:          11/4/2018 6:16:18 PM

Event ID:      1000

Task Category: (100)

Level:         Error

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Computer:      Lenovo-PC

Description:

Faulting application name: excel.exe, version: 16.0.10228.20080, time stamp: 0x5b2aa2dc

Faulting module name: mso20win32client.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5b2985d2

Exception code: 0x0110e58f

Fault offset: 0x0016f9c2

Faulting process id: 0x27b8

Faulting application start time: 0x01d474944f07035b

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\excel.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office16\mso20win32client.dll

Report Id: 928903bd-5758-4351-a08c-798760dcaaab

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

<System>

    <Provider Name="Application Error" />

    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>

    <Level>2</Level>

    <Task>100</Task>

    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-11-04T23:16:18.635109600Z" />

    <EventRecordID>3376</EventRecordID>

    <Channel>Application</Channel>

    <Computer>Lenovo-PC</Computer>

    <Security />

</System>

<EventData>

    <Data>excel.exe</Data>

    <Data>16.0.10228.20080</Data>

    <Data>5b2aa2dc</Data>

    <Data>mso20win32client.dll</Data>

    <Data>0.0.0.0</Data>

    <Data>5b2985d2</Data>

    <Data>0110e58f</Data>

    <Data>0016f9c2</Data>

    <Data>27b8</Data>

    <Data>01d474944f07035b</Data>

    <Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\excel.exe</Data>

    <Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office16\mso20win32client.dll</Data>

    <Data>928903bd-5758-4351-a08c-798760dcaaab</Data>

    <Data>

    </Data>

    <Data>

    </Data>

</EventData>

</Event>
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