Cannot open some Office files after upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10

Anonymous
2015-08-06T07:01:10+00:00

Hi everyone,

This is Bryan from the Office team.  We are extremely sorry to learn that some of you are running into an issue with Office after upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 where some of your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents are failing to open with various error messages, such as:

  • Word: “Word experienced an error trying to open the file”
  • Excel: “This file is corrupt and cannot be opened”
  • PowerPoint:
    • “The application was unable to start correctly"
    • “PowerPoint found a problem with <filename>"
    • “Sorry, PowerPoint can’t read <filename>"

[UPDATE - 8/25/2015]

On Monday, a fix went out to all Office 2013 Click-to-Run users that fixed the Protected View issue that was preventing some files from opening.  For those users, the Office applications would launch and even creating new documents worked fine; however, opening some files resulted in various error messages like above.  If you haven't already been prompted to install the August update, you can manually trigger by going into an Office application like Word, then select File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.

There are other known issues that could also cause similar error messages, but those are not related to the specific Protected View issue.  Teams are working hard to determine the root cause and resolve those issues.  For instance, if you are running Windows 10 and Office is running in Windows compatibility mode for a prior version, you likely will also experience issues.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused due to this issue!

Sincerely,

Bryan

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-10T19:58:42+00:00

    Bryan,

    I have been working with MS Tech for 3 days now to resolve a similar issue.  Maybe you can help me!

    After I upgraded to Win 10, I was unable to launch Access even though all my other Office 2013 pro plus apps were working fine. Access would say configuration in progress, then ask for a reboot, and this cycle continued over and over after re-starting.  A tech suggested I uninstall and re-install Office and I did, and it changed the error.  Now I get a message that say Access was unable to verify the license and I should try to repair it in control panel.  I did repair Office several times now, and nothing works! any suggestions?

    Thanks,

    Barbara

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-10T20:14:13+00:00

    I have the same problem, did you come up with a fix?

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-10T21:46:49+00:00

    I upgraded to Windows 10 twenty-four hours ago.

    I have Office 2010 - and today I have had a day full of problems with my business documents.

    Excel - I can open my Excel files and work on them,  but I cannot save them. When I try to save an Excel file, either by doing a fast-save, or File>save as,  Excel fails to respond - it just hangs until I have to finally have to restart. Then, when I restart Excel, the file I was working on and trying to save is missing - not just the changes, the file completely disappears!

    Word - I can open files and sometimes can edit them, sometimes can't. And, when I try to save a Word document, Word no longer notifies me that the file already exists and asks if I want to replace it.

    I have read through everything already on this thread - in my case, it is not because my document is "protected".

    I am sorry I updated to Windows 10, but am now concerned about uninstalling and going back to Windows 8.1. Are you planning a fix for this?

    Thanks.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-10T22:35:20+00:00

    Bryan --

    If I understand your post correctly, those of us afflicted with this new inability to open Word or Adobe files will have to wait until Microsoft finds a solution.  Is that correct?

    How will Microsoft deliver the solution?  And how long will that take?

    Problem: I cannot access my saved Word etc. files (or other files) on my laptop since I installed Windows 10!

    Regards,

    Richard Sacks

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-08-10T22:37:51+00:00

    I restored my computer to 8.1 and my Word and Excel files work fine. All the files that Win 10 couldn't find are now available to me. When I restored to the previous verison I got a message that I could upgrade to 10 in the future. I also get a little popup everyday telling me that my computer is eligble for a free upgrade to Win 10 so I'm going to wait until they have the problems with Office solved. FYI my verison of Office is 2013

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