Excel file cannot be opened - what to do?

If an Excel file can no longer be opened, it is mostly due to the file itself. We will show you how to solve the problem.

Repair and open Excel file

1. Start Excel, click on "File" in the top left and select the "Open" category.
2. Select the file in the corresponding path, but do not click the "Open" button.
3. There is a small arrow to the right of the button. Click the arrow and select the "Open and Repair" option.
4. You will now be asked whether you want to "repair" the file or just "extract the data". Try "Repair" first. If that doesn't work, choose "Extract Data" to save as much as possible.

Excel file does not open - that helps

• If the file is on a USB stick or other external medium, copy the file to your desktop and open it from there.
• If the Excel file was edited with two different versions of Excel, the problem may lie in the file extension. Change this from XLS to XLSX or vice versa.
• If Excel crashes or hangs when opening the file, this is usually due to an add-in. To disable the add-ins, start Excel in Safe Mode.
• If all of this doesn't help, download the free Excel Viewer. In some cases, the files can still be opened here and the content can be saved.