How to recover a corrupted Excel file

Mytour will guide you through the steps to recover and repair a corrupted Microsoft Excel file on both Windows and Mac computers.

Ensure you're using a Windows computer. The steps provided are specifically for repairing Excel files on the Windows version of Excel.

• If you're using a Mac, consider trying other methods mentioned in this article.

Open Excel. The application has a green frame icon with a white "X" inside.

Click on Open Other Workbooks (Open another workbook). This option is located next to the folder icon in the lower left corner of the window.

Click on Browse (Browse). This folder icon option is located in the middle of the page. The File Explorer window will open.

Select the Excel file. Go to the folder containing the corrupted Excel file and click to select the file.

Click on Open and Repair... (Open and Repair). This option is found at the bottom of the dropdown menu.

• If the Open and Repair... option is grayed out, ensure the Excel file is selected and try again. If it remains unavailable, it means the file cannot be repaired.

Click Repair (Repair) when the pop-up window appears. Windows will begin attempting to repair the file.

• If this option is not available, click Extract Data (Extract Data), then choose either Convert to Values (Convert to Values) or Recover Formulas (Recover Formulas). Any recoverable data will be restored.

Wait for the file to open. It may take several minutes if the Excel file is large.

• If the file does not open, go back and click Extract Data instead of Repair when prompted.

Save the file. Once the repaired file opens, press Ctrl+S, double-click on This PC, choose a save location, enter a new name for the file, and click Save.

• Make sure to choose a name different from the original corrupted Excel file.

You need to understand why the file type matters. Sometimes, Excel documents created on a computer or an older version of Excel may become unstable when used with a newer version. Similarly, Excel files can be saved in multiple formats. By changing the Excel file format to "xlsx" (or "xls" for older programs), you can resolve the issue.

Click on the View tab. This option is located at the top of the File Explorer window. A toolbar will appear just below it.

Check the "File name extensions" box. This option is located in the "Show/hide" section of the toolbar. Enabling this will display the file extensions at the end of the file names, including the Excel document.

Select the Excel file. Navigate to the folder containing the Excel document you want to recover, and click on the file to select it.

Click on the Home tab. This tab is located at the top left of the File Explorer window. A toolbar will appear below it.

Click on the Rename button. This option is located in the "Organize" section of the toolbar. Once you click Rename, the Excel file name will be highlighted.

Change the file type. Replace the extension at the end of the file name with xlsx and press ↵ Enter.

• For example, if the document name is "Spreadsheet1.docx", change it to "Spreadsheet1.xlsx".
• If the file extension was originally "xlsx", you could try changing it to "xls" or "html".

Click on Yes when prompted. This will confirm and change the file extension.

Try opening the file. Double-click the file to open it. If the file opens in Excel (or in a web browser if you chose the "html" extension), it means the file has been fully recovered.

• If you selected the "html" extension, you can convert the webpage to an Excel document by dragging the html file onto the Excel icon and saving it as a new "xlsx" file.
• If the file still won't open, follow the steps to recover a temporary version on Windows.

Bạn cần hiểu tại sao loại tập tin lại quan trọng. Thỉnh thoảng, tài liệu Excel tạo ra trên máy tính hoặc phiên bản Excel cũ có thể trở nên không ổn định khi bạn sử dụng trên phiên bản mới; tương tự, tài liệu Excel có thể được lưu dưới nhiều định dạng tập tin khác nhau. Bằng cách đổi định dạng tập tin Excel thành "xlsx" (hay "xls" với những chương trình cũ), bạn có thể khắc phục được vấn đề.

Mở Finder. Nhấp vào biểu tượng ứng dụng hình mặt người màu xanh dương nằm trong thanh Dock của máy tính Mac.

Chọn tập tin Excel. Đi đến thư mục chứa tài liệu Excel mà bạn muốn khôi phục, sau đó nhấp vào tập tin để chọn.

Nhấp vào File (Tập tin). Mục trình đơn này nằm ở góc trên bên trái màn hình máy tính Mac. Một trình đơn thả xuống sẽ hiện ra.

Nhấp vào Get Info (Lấy thông tin). Tùy chọn này nằm trong trình đơn thả xuống File. Một cửa sổ sẽ bật lên.

Expand the "Name & Extension" section if necessary. If you cannot see any file names or extensions under this section, click the triangle next to the "Name & Extension" header to reveal the file names and extensions.

Change the file type. Replace the extension at the end of the file name with xlsx, then press ⏎ Return.

• For example, if the document name is "Spreadsheet1.docx", change it to "Spreadsheet1.xlsx".
• If the file extension is already "xlsx", try changing it to "xls" or "html".

Click on Use .xlsx when prompted. This will confirm and change the file extension.

Try opening the file. Double-click the file to open it. If the file opens in Excel (or in a web browser if you selected the "html" extension), the file has been fully restored.

• If you selected the "html" extension, you can convert the webpage to an Excel document by dragging the html file onto the Excel icon and saving the opened document as a new "xlsx" file.
• If the file still won't open, try recovering the temporary file on a Mac.

Understand the limitations of the method. Like most Microsoft Office products, Excel automatically saves a recovery version of the file, meaning you can restore part of a corrupted Excel document. However, Excel does not always save these files at the right time, and you won't be able to recover the entire document this way.

Click on This PC. This computer icon is located at the top of the Start window. The This PC window will open.

Double-click on your computer's hard drive. This is usually the "OS (C:)" option under the "Devices and drives" section in the middle of the page.

Double-click on the user folder. This folder is labeled partially or fully with the username on the computer.

Double-click on the "AppData" folder. Look for this folder in the "A" section near the top of the window.

• If you can't find the folder, click on the View tab and check the "Hidden items" box in the "Show/hide" section to make the "AppData" folder visible.

Select the Excel file. Look for the Excel file with the same name as the corrupted Excel document, and then click to select it.

• If no files are visible in this folder, the recovery version of the Excel document has not been saved.

Change the file extension of the Excel file. To do this:

• Click on View
• Check the "File name extensions" box.
• Click on Home
• Click Rename
• Change the extension from .tmp to .xlsx
• Press ↵ Enter.
• Click Yes when prompted.

Open the Excel file. Double-click to open the Excel file that you just renamed.

Save the file. Once the recovered file opens, press Ctrl+S, double-click This PC, select a save location, enter a new file name, and then click Save.

• You must choose a different name than the previous corrupted Excel file.

Understand the limitations of this method. Like most Microsoft Office products, Excel automatically saves a recovery version of the file, meaning you can restore part of a corrupted Excel document. However, Excel does not always save these files at the right time, and you may not be able to fully recover the document this way.

Click on Go (Go to). This menu option is located at the top of the screen. A dropdown menu will appear.

• If you don’t see the Go menu, first open Finder or click on the desktop screen to make the options appear.

Hold down the ⌥ Option key. After that, the Library folder will appear in the Go dropdown menu.

Click on Library in the Go dropdown menu. The hidden Library folder will appear.

Open the "Containers" folder. Double-click the "Containers" folder located in the "C" section of the Library folder.

Search for the Microsoft Excel folder. Type com.microsoft.Excel and press ⏎ Return.

Click on the Containers tab next to the "Search:" header near the top of the Finder window.

Open the "Preferences" folder. Scroll down if you cannot find this folder.

Open the "AutoRecovery" folder. A list of automatically saved versions of your Excel file will appear.

Locate the temporary version of the Excel file. The temporary version will contain part or all of the file name in the title.

• If you cannot find a temporary version, it means the document was not backed up.

Click on the File menu in the top left corner of your Mac screen. A dropdown menu will appear.

Select Open With. This option is near the top of the File dropdown menu. A secondary menu will pop up.

Click on Excel in the popup menu. The temporary version of the Excel document will open in Excel.

• The temporary version may not include recent changes made to the original Excel document.

Save the document. Press ⌘ Command+S, then enter the file name, choose the save location from the "Where" menu, and click Save.

• Windows computers usually attempt to automatically fix Excel spreadsheets when you open a file.
• If you cannot open the file, try booting your computer in safe mode. If the issue persists, it may be due to a corrupt file or virus.
• You can use paid data recovery software to restore corrupted Excel files. Stellar Phoenix Excel Repair is a notable program, available for both Windows and Mac computers.

• Not all Excel files are recoverable. Some Excel files may be beyond recovery.