Excel 2016 (Protected Mode) Crashing When Opening Files From Email

Anonymous
2015-09-29T23:14:57+00:00

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

  • Receive an Excel file in email (both GMail and (desktop) Outlook 2016 (using a live.com account, not a GMail one) have been tested);
  • Double click on it to open it. (Excel 2016 is already open);
  • The file opens in Excel with that irritating little "Oooooh, very dangerous! Could be scary monsters inside!" message which, I'll admit, is potentially useful for files from outside the organisation which is the only reason that I leave it on. Of course, there's no point if it doesn't actually work.

Then one of two things happens. Either

  • You go to click the Enable Editing button and Excel completely hangs on you; or
  • You get the "Excel (Protected Mode) {breathless pause...} Has! Stopped! Working! Pretending to check for a solution that has never once been found in my lifetime, please waste your time waiting" dialog.

There is nothing wrong with the file itself. I have tried with two different files, both have a problem. In both cases if instead of opening them from the Email application I save them to a trusted location I can open them without problem. But opening them directly from either browser or Outlook completely crashes Excel 2016 in a way that it didn't with Excel 2010.

Anyone else?

PS: If anyone from Microsoft responds to this post, looking into this specific question, I'll be more than happy to listen. If instead they copy and paste a script about restarting Windows in Safe Mode I may just need to throw a shoe at something.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2015-11-10T23:39:54+00:00

I just heard back from a displaylink tech support person.  Apparently they are aware of the issue.  He had me do a work around that has fixed the issue for me.

  1. Open a blank excel document.
  2. Go to file

3.  Go to options

  1. Go to advanced
  2. Under Display
  3. Check the box...Disable graphics hardware acceleration.

7.  Click apply.

This has fixed my issue until there is a driver update.

Thanks...Matt

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Anonymous
2016-02-24T04:16:51+00:00

Updated to displaylink driver 7.9m5 dated 2/23/2016 and problem was resolved for me.

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88 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-10-18T10:05:02+00:00

    I had the same issue on many pcs, mostly tablets with usb attached displays: after updating the DisplayLink drivers with the latest version available the problem had been solved.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-20T09:50:32+00:00

    I just tried this - I still can't open my file.  This is a file I used regularly last week.  But in case my last save was an issue I have now tried 3 other versions, two downloaded from SharePoint and one that a colleague shared with me via thumb drive.  My colleague is able to open all 3 of these files but Excel just hangs up for me when I try to open.

    I have added the C: drive location to my Trusted Locations.  I downloaded the SharePoint files to that folder.  But as soon as I click the Enable Content button Excel hangs every time on every different version of this file.   

    Definitely not memory here either - I have a 6 week old Lenovo X1 Yoga i7 2.60 GHz with 16 GB RAM

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-09T17:03:49+00:00

    Hi Mary,

    To troubleshoot the issue with Excel 2016, please do the following:

    1. Open Excel.
    2. Go to Files > Options.
    3. Click Trust Center > Trust Center Settings.
    4. Select Protected View.
    5. Put a check mark on Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments > OK.
    6. Click OK to save the changes.

    You may also visit this article on how to Repair an Office application.

    Let us know how it goes.

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