"Excel Cannot Open This File: Damaged or Modified"

[speraino]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I have been working on an Excel spreadsheet all day, saving frequently. I last saved and closed the file at 3:25 pm, and then went to re-open it at 3:30 pm, when I received this error message: "Excel cannot open this file. The file might have been damaged or modified from its original format."

I saved the file as .xlsx, and there would be no reason for it to be "damaged" or "modified." I have tried several solutions recommended on help forums, including opening the file in Mac Numbers and uploading to Google documents. Neither worked.

This is a serious amount of work to lose! Please help me!

 

[John McGhie]

Restart your Mac and try again.

Chances are, you have not lost anything: the problem is likely to be that
your computer went to sleep and the File Server has not cleared the edit
locks on the network copy so your computer can't open the file.

Never allow a computer to go to sleep with a file open on another computer,
or you get to live in "interesting times".

Hope this helps

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
I have been working on an Excel spreadsheet all day, saving frequently. I
last saved and closed the file at 3:25 pm, and then went to re-open it at 3:30
pm, when I received this error message: "Excel cannot open this file. The file
might have been damaged or modified from its original format."

I saved the file as .xlsx, and there would be no reason for it to be "damaged"
or "modified." I have tried several solutions recommended on help forums,
including opening the file in Mac Numbers and uploading to Google documents.
Neither worked.

This is a serious amount of work to lose! Please help me!

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[XinXin]

If it doesn't work after trying what John suggested, feel free to send me a copy of your workbook ([email protected]). I will try recover it.

Thanks,
XinXin Liu
Test Lead, Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft

 

[rthrock29]

XinXin Liu ,

I followed the above intrusctions and my excel file still won't open. Can i send you my file to have you repair it please? Thanks

 

[Jsavage]

Amend the extension

I've encountered this same problem. The solution was much simpler than you would think.

1. Create a second copy of the file.

2. On the new copy, amend the extension on the filename to xls. The file icon will change.

3. Open the new file.

Support techs always want to give some elaborate solution to the simplest problems. Proper steps to troubleshooting are to start small and work you way up until resolved.

 

[tech3]

Thanks JSavage....It worked. You are a god send!!

 

[CJT]

Amend the extension

I've encountered this same problem. The solution was much simpler than you would think.

1. Create a second copy of the file.

2. On the new copy, amend the extension on the filename to xls. The file icon will change.

3. Open the new file.

Support techs always want to give some elaborate solution to the simplest problems. Proper steps to troubleshooting are to start small and work you way up until resolved.

After hours of trying to figure out the problem (First I got this message "Microsoft Excel cannot save AutoRecover info to *drive info*" and all my open excel files were frozen... I force quit Excel. Most files recovered nicely except one, which is when I got the message "file might have been damaged or modified...." copying the file, and changing the extension from .xlsb (not sure how it got that extension) to .xls worked like a charm. Life saved.