Get rid of "The file is corrupt and cannot be opened" in Excel

Quick tip: learn how to access a corrupt xls. file in Excel

Usually when upgrading you expect nothing but improvements. So it can be really disappointing when after moving to Excel 2010 you have no chance to access your .xls file created in the application version 2003 and earlier. You understand what I'm talking about if you ever encountered "The file is corrupt and cannot be opened" error in Excel 2010 and later. Still think you can't open it? Actually you can!
Excel message: The file is corrupt and cannot be opened in Excel 2010

How to open a corrupt xls. file in Excel 2010 - 365

Try the following steps to see how your precious .xls data appear in Excel 2010 and later:

  1. Open Excel.
  2. Click on File -> Options.
  3. Select Trust Center and press the Trust center settings button.
    Excel: Trust center settings
  4. Pick Protected view.
    Trust center - Protected view
  5. Uncheck all the options under Protected View and confirm by pressing OK.
  6. Restart Excel and try to open the broken Excel documents.

Note. For safety reasons, you should save your document with new Office format like .xlsx. You can do it this way: File > Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center settings -> Protected View.
Check all the options again under Protected View, click OK and restart Excel.

This will set the security options back. Sure, you don't want to open any file unsafely.

That's it. Hope it will work for you and your documents :).

Thanks and see you!

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390 comments

  1. Uninstall TuneUp Utilities and this message could go away.

  2. Thanks man, it's working now.

  3. Thanks mate!

  4. Hi all

    I have save all my excel files in usb. now my excel file can not open and it has a message as

    Excel cannot open the file 'A.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.

    can you please help me how to open this file
    Thanks

  5. guys coming in after august 2013... mostly you are affected by cryptolocker... and this solution is not for such files...

  6. it doesn't work for me. gee....

  7. I tried all the things but it didn't work.
    But after trying this i am able to open my attached excel sheet from Outlook 2010.

    Thank you very much!!!

  8. Saved my bacon, thought I'd lost a whole load of work but this technique enabled me to open the corrupt xlsx file. Thanks!

  9. really u r a genius

  10. Thank you so much!!!!!!!

  11. spot on, thank you!

  12. It worked thanks

  13. Genius! Such an unhelpful (and wrong) message from Excel after downloading a .xlsx file from Google Docs. Fixed by simply unticking these boxes. Thank you.

  14. Thank you so much. Its works properly.

  15. Hailliluahhhhh!!! No thanks to microsoft troubleshoots

  16. WONDERFULL It works!! Thanks

  17. Thank you so much, it works!!!!!

  18. Thank you. is works!

  19. Thank you so much............

  20. THANK YOU

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