Forum Discussion
Excel crashes when opening a specific (complex) .xlsb file (and all previous versions of it too)
JasposHello,
maybe this help is not too much but look at it:
I tried it several times in a situation like the one below and it works.
- My Excel is a very complex form of VBA, functions and automation in every area even for several external files (also files accessed with autogenerated name related to data in sheets which isn't possible as M$oft said - yes it is possible)
- I have such a habit to check after saving whether the file continues to open (Microsoft software in most cases is very defective and unprofessional compared to Apple)
- one day I open the main file and what do I see - crash without warning, totally nothing helped, neither cache nor reinstallation completely nothing. The file seemed to be damaged
- Another habit is always making a backup before opening the file for further work (usually adding next version number)
- renaming the corrupted file to another file - I open and it works! Excel has not crashed. I just change file name!
- back to the exact previous name - Excel crash! Vvery professional amateur problems in m$ but predictable
- rename the corrupted file again - I open and it works, no crash
- just to be sure, I return to the previous version of the name, again crash, when I duplicate this file and it already has the note "- Copy" ... copy also crash
- I delete the copy because there is no point
- I rename the original file to anything else - the result - it opens, no crash! exactly as before...
- after opening it saves via Save As... under the name I use in automation (the same one which I found out my file is damaged!). I close everything including Excel
- I open the newly saved file with the option Save as... - and it works! no crash 🙂
Very strange but after all this the newly saved file is smaller by about 25% in bytes. Everything in it is okay, VBA works and, the file looks like recovered.
The question is what kind of garbage Excel professional programmers include to saving for themselves, and probably their teams of programmers don't even know what kind of mess they are making, how to fix it, so they ignore it.
I have noticed this many times whether in Word, PowerPoint and especially Excel re-writing a document clears or deletes some information (in Excel its really a lot!). I don't know what kind but in this particular situation it helps more than 3 times with different files.
This is an age-old problem of Windows, a very amateurish and failed system written by amateurs. They just copy ideas without knowing how to do it right. It's just a shame that such a very successful - the only (!) - M$oft product started from Lotus, today Excel has such defects and problems. This type of situation never happened on the version for Mac OS X Excel 365 and to buy for not much money. Does the benefit of Apple's brilliant, extremely stable and secure system help?
Regards,
and I believe it help someone 🙂
Orghal Today I had a very similar problem. A complex Excel powerquery file (no VBA though) suddenly freezing Excel every time I open it (Windows 11 + Office 365). Strange enough, the same file would open fine on another PC (with very similar setup Wni11 / Office 365).
And COPYING the file did also the trick ! Note that just changing the name of the file was not enough.
If not reading that post I would have never tried it.
So thanks a lot but so puzzled by such MS quirk!
- Hi,
no problem. I still fight with this bug and one more thing I read here - hidden file. Need to check what is it because in my opinion m$oft never fix any bugs. Any one who is called programmer and coming from this fake company should be kicked out and redirected to selling fishes in any simple market.
There is additional trick which I use last 2 months and cannot understand but it helps.
My code at all in one automation has already 2700 code lines (paragraphs count, real pages code it is more than 6k). Every time before I go to close this workbook after never mind what I do, change or update - even if it's just functions or sheets graphic form changes, and not VBA, anything. I always opening editor with largest module (around 1k lines). Select all -> Cut (Control+X) -> Close module -> open it again -> paste source as it was before with removing last 2 empty lines always appeared at the end (maybe m$oft still don't know how to make proper copy-paste action). Then I saving workbook file and closing it. Reopen and there is no problem, simple test click any button and no errors about disabled macros or not existing sources.
This operation do not provide to crash and unidentified disappearance of source codes not known where from the document. That's why also all the time I copying all sources (Modules) to separated Notepad and save as backup.
Sometimes Excel is screaming when you run any code from buttons, actions etc. which sounds like "macros disabled or not exists". What help here? very simple... of course if you can see any modules in Editor just take largest one and re-copy-paste sources as it is without any changes (only those two empty additional lines to remove). In my situations it always works 99.99%. Maybe once for 100 situations excel crash just like before so I re-copy all from notepad and workoook back to work. Don't know why, how and what kind of idiot in m$oft create it. Must be total amateur and perfectly not skilled dumb. Every thing 100% what m$oft touch is always destroyed without any exceptions.
Sad, no one from this amateurs and managers read this forums and will never take into consideration our experience and very long experiments on how to prevent problems. This should help locate the problem and fix it. After all, they must still have somewhere the source codes of their software and someone can check it. Just a child 12-15 years old is enough, because he will already have more experience in coding than a m$oft employee.
Regards to all - Hello,
Unfortunately, the problem is starting to occur more and more often. In recent days, I have lost many files and automations in completely unexplained situations. When this huge giant Microsoft BUG takes place there is no way to work even with older files - it's almost as if an infection worse than Covid called Windows has spread all over the disk and all the files. Trying to reinstall Office doesn't help anymore either, a huge amount of work is lost and M$oft does nothing about it. This is amateurism unworthy of any professional.
I am trying to push in the company (huge company 300k+ employee) the necessity of a full switch to Mac OS X and a completely new direction with software including the development of my own - which is not so difficult at all. It took me literally 4 weeks alone to write a replica (full) of an older Microsoft Word in object-oriented Basic (the way m$ first creates its software), along with recreating the entire interface.
M$oft is ruining the best program ever created since Lotus and here the gate is closing. Analysts and programmers like me can't waste time solving problems with the sorry idiots at this primitive little company.
Patience is over and not at least in my department has already withdrawn all licenses for m$oft products replacement of hardware is also beginning for professional fully stable and highly reliable macbook pro. Of course, hundreds of times faster than anything running on Windows, which we can already see in the differences on, for example, the edition of Office 365 on Mac OS X, but this is just for testing. I hope that the transformation will not take us long and it will be like Google - Windows to the trash.
I wonder how long it might take me to create a fully usable replica of the ordinary Excel LTSC 2021, I suspect no more than 5 weeks as long as I want to reproduce all the functions better and faster working and, above all, without unexpected crashes without any explanation - if they occur - for user. No disappearance of applications and watching the desktop where only the hands fall down.
