How to open corrupt Excel XLS and XLSX files?

Read time 7 minutes

File corruption can unexpectedly manifest on your computer screen at any moment, affecting any file or document stored on your PC.

The same holds true for Microsoft Office files and documents. Trying to comprehend why a file became corrupt or damaged can be exasperating, demanding valuable time and effort to resolve.

Corruption problems with Microsoft Excel XLS and XLSX files are no different. Microsoft Excel, a prominent component of Office Suite, is utilized by both individual users and businesses to store and manage data.

But it becomes not less than a mess when one encounters a sudden error or issue of Excel workbook corruption or damage.

For businesses, Excel sheets contain critical information about customers, while for regular users, they hold personally important data. Regardless of your user category, the information stored within Microsoft Excel files is always of paramount importance.

Thus, scenes of Microsoft Excel XLS and XLSX file corruption leave users of all categories empty-handed with all the Excel file data at high risk of loss.

In this article, we will provide you with methods to open corrupt Excel XLS and XLSX files, assisting you in resolving corruption issues and recovering access to crucial data.

How to save workbook backup automatically?

Backups are undeniably crucial, serving as a lifeline during challenging situations. However, there are instances when we might forget to create backups, which can be risky. Hence, in this section, we will outline a step-by-step process for automatically backing up a workbook.

1. Start by clicking the File option
2. From the File menu, select the Save as option.
3. Now, click on the Computer option.
4. Select the Browser option to add the file.
5. As the new Save as window opens, look for the Tools option.
6. Once located Tools, click on it and select General options from its drop-down menu.
7. Now you will see a small General Options dialogue box; check the box next to the option “Always create backup.”
8. Once done, click on OK.

Implementing this procedure will enable your program to automatically create backups of your workbook. This proactive approach ensures that you can readily retrieve your data in scenarios such as accidental deletion, loss, or corruption.

Despite the widespread popularity of the entire Office suite, each individual application within it lacks a robust solution for handling file or document corruption and damage. Nevertheless, we can explore using Microsoft Excel itself to tackle the issue of corruption in Excel files.

Follow the below steps to try to fix the corruption issue using Microsoft Excels’ built-in feature:

1. Open Microsoft Excel 2016.
2. Click on Open Other Workbooks – at the bottom left of the screen.
   
3. Click Browse to select the corrupt Excel XLS or XLSX file.
   
4. The File Open window will pop on-screen now; select the corrupt Excel file, click on the drop-down button – Open, and select Open and Repair.
   
5. To start the software, click on the Repair button and wait until completion.
   
   Note: TMicrosoft Excel’s built-in capability allows the application to address errors and problems to a certain extent. If this built-in feature doesn’t resolve the issue, you can attempt to extract the workbook data by clicking on the “Extract Data” button.

Expert research suggests that the inclusion of unreliable add-ins within Microsoft Office can lead to a range of errors and other types of malfunctions. The optimal resolution for rectifying such corruption in Excel files is to remove the add-ins causing issues with Excel files not being accessed. For this, here are the steps:

• Go to the File menu and tap on Options.
• Navigate to the Add-ins tab and from here, select the add-ins you want to remove and click the “Actions” button on the bottom panel.

Alternatively, you can uninstall Excel’s add-ins directly from the “Manage Add-ins” option.

Excel files are susceptible to corruption following attack by malicious software or viruses. The issue of Excel file not opening can be easily fixed via quick antivirus scans.

To implement this fix, you can just select the Excel file, right-click, and choose to scan it with any reliable antivirus application. Even if you don’t have any anti-malware tool installed, you can still scan the file with Microsoft Defender, which is the inbuilt security application in Windows.

Once the scan has been completed, you can launch MS Excel and try loading the corrupt file.

This solution is the most basic but quite an effective one. When all the above solutions fail, it is now time to repair your full MS Suite. For this, you need to:

• Go to the Control Panel and tap on Features.
• Look for MS Office Suite in the list of programs and select it. Tap on Change.
• Select the Quick Repair option and tap on Repair.
• When the repair process is finished, restart your PC and check your file.

With all the above fixes, the resolution of XLS and XLSX file corruption or damage in Microsoft Excel is not guaranteed, as it depends on the extent of the file’s corruption and the severity of the damage it has sustained.

In situations like the one described above and similar cases, we recommend considering the use of the use of Kernel for Excel repair tool. This software stands as one of the most effective third-party solutions for addressing Excel file corruption and damage issues. It is capable of swiftly resolving various types of Excel errors and corruption problems to recover lost data. Moreover, this tool allows you to repair multiple Excel files simultaneously, regardless of their file extensions.

This tool provides support for all the versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It enables you to deal with queries like how to repair corrupt Excel 2013 files, how to recover corrupt Excel 2010, how to repair corrupt Excel 2019 workbook, etc.

Below, you’ll find a concise guide detailing the steps for successfully opening corrupted Excel XLS and XLSX files. This straightforward process can be broken down into two stages: repair and recovery.

1. Open Kernel for Excel Repair.
2. Browse and select the corrupt Excel file and click Repair.
   
   Note: Upon clicking on the Repair button, the tool will start the file scan followed by file repair; thus, the total time taken will depend on the Excel file size.
3. Wait for the scan and repair process to complete.
   
   Note: To select a different Excel file or halt the process, click on the Stop button.
4. Tool’s UI will refresh and display full Excel file data.
   Check Excel file data before proceeding to the next step and click Save.
   
5. Select a file saving path by clicking on the Select Path button and click Save.
   
6. Wait for the process to complete.
   
7. Done; navigate manually to the selected path or click on the link given – as shown below.
   

Wrap up

Having antivirus software installed on your system, utilizing fast hardware for expedited file transfers, maintaining an active firewall, ensuring power backup, and implementing other precautionary measures can significantly reduce the risk of Excel files or documents becoming corrupted or damaged. However, in the unfortunate event that Excel files do become corrupted despite these precautions, Kernel for Excel Repair stands as an ideal solution to address inaccessible and corrupt Excel file issues.