Forum Discussion
Excel cannot be open the file 'filename.xlsx' because the file format or file extension is not valid
Hi All,
I have a excel.xlsx file saved in my system which has been corrupted .I atleast need to recover the data stores .It is a file of 124 KB and has around 35 worksheets in the workbook .I have tried all possible ways to recover and repair the file .i even tried to extract the data using 3rd party application like stellar,ease of use recover application of excel still i have no luck . The below error message im getting whenever i try to open the file.I even tried to open it through other applications like wordpress,google sheets and so on but nothing works .
Thanks and regards ,
Muthuraman
60 Replies
Muthu69 Hi. If you have tried all possible methods to repair your Excel file but none of them work, then maybe your Excel file is not corrupted, but you just don’t have permission to open it on your system. If you don’t have permission to open the Excel file, it will display the error "Excel cannot open the file because the file format or file extension is not valid." I have tested this on my Windows 10. You can use the following steps to grant everyone on this computer permission to open the Excel file.
- Right-click the Excel file that cannot be opened and select Properties.
- After the file’s Properties dialog opens, select the Security tab, and then click the Edit button.
- After the file’s Permissions dialog opens, click the Add button.
- When the Select Users or Groups dialog opens, click the Advanced button. When the next dialog opens, click Find Now so all users and groups will show up in the search results list at the bottom of the dialog. Select the Everyone group from the list, and then click OK. Click OK again.
- When you return to the Permissions dialog, you will see the Everyone group has been added to the group or user list. Select the Everyone group, check all checkboxes under Allow, and then click Apply.
That’s it. Now check if you can open the Excel file without any problems. If you want an illustrated guide, refer to this page: https://www.isumsoft.com/office/excel-cannot-open-the-file-because-extension-is-not-valid.html#way2
Please tell me if this helps. Good luck!
The permissions method worked for me in December of 2022!
Good to know. But, it's weird since I am the author of the document.
- Hi
I have done this but still it says
excel can not open file because file format or extension is not valid
The excel file shows a big X over the file devindaoson1991--sorry didn't work.
This error message is encountered in the following scenarios:
- The file is not compatible with the Excel-version
- The file has become corrupt or damaged
I copied and pasted the file to my desktop, right-click and changed '.xlsx' to '.xls'. Boom!! I got my file back.
Try to open your corrupt file in safe mode. Press Windows+R and write excel.exe /safe and click OK. Good Luck- This saved my life thank u
I would like to try your solution for fixing the corrupt file by changing the extension, but I cannot find where to click to access it. How do I change it? Once I save the file to the desktop, right click, what do I do next?
In File Explorer, I clicked on view tab at the top and selected the option to show extensions. Then I renamed the extension to xls. Unfortuatenly, when the document opened, it was blank - thankfully it was a copy. Now I just need a different solution. I do appreciate your trying to help!
how do you right click andchange to XLS? this doesn't work for me - there is nowhere to change the xlsx toxls?!?!?victoriyaluna
- Hello,
Can you attach the file for me to figure how to solve this for you?Abiola1 can you help me to repair my file please?
- Same I am also having problem
can you please help me to open the attached file
