Office 365 iOS App Corrupted Excel File

Anonymous
2023-03-18T18:37:50+00:00

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me with 2 xlsx files that have been corrupted.

I use iCloud to store my documents, I finished working on the 2 files in question on my MacBook in the morning and then later in the day successfully viewed them (not modified) on my iPhone using the Office 365 app.

When I came to open the files again, they are unable to be opened on any device using either numbers or excel. I have tried on my iPhone, MacBook and a Windows 11 PC. The error message is:

"Excel cannot open the file 'ABCDEF.xlsx' because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file."

I have tried changing the file extension to xls. I've tried to open and repair the files using Excel on Windows however that hasn't worked either. I've used a couple of trial versions of recovery software and the preview shows the first sheet is there but the remaining sheets aren't which are vital to the spreadsheet.

Does anyone have any ideas or experience of this issue? I've noticed the timestamp of last saved has changed to the date and time I opened them on my phone. I'm not sure why Office365 resaved these files without me making changes or asking me.

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | iOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-04T14:38:00+00:00

    Same exact issue. I’ve noticed every xlsx file that contains an image gets corrupted when opening in the iOS app, whether you modify the file or not. Same thing happens with word docx files. Incredibly frustrating given this is supposed to be a flexible cloud app.

    Features like “open previous version” or “open and repair” shouldn’t be dependent upon using OneDrive. I am a Mac user and have my entire life in iCloud and I have zero issues with any other file types. Microsoft, if you really want an open ecosystem, please do better.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-12-04T20:03:19+00:00

    The question is whether any of the involved parties is currently trying to find a solution for this problem. It is quite possible the issue needs to be resolved by Microsoft and Apple working together. This sounds crazy I know but nobody is winning with this sort of problem going on and each party should be worried about the potential for some really important information to be corrupted. Microsoft, is your team on this?

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-06T22:23:06+00:00

    And a very big thank you as well!

    I had the crashing problem as well and I thought I have no chance. But then I found your comment and reinstalled the numbers app.

    So thank you to JonathanOO and you!

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