Cell Data Text are symbols making it unreadable to User

[SXT3410]

Hello, 

A user was shared an excel file and it would open but when reading the cell data they were symbols and anyone know why an excel file would open up, but the cell data is unreadable? 

Here is a screenshot.

This seem to be happening to only 1 person at the moment. Other users are accessing the file and data is readable. 

I wonder if this could be related to the user's Excel desktop application. The file is stored on a Modern SharePoint Doc Lib. We've tried direct share link and download a copy did not work for the user. Currently having them test with opening in the web browser if it corrects it. It still questions to why the file would open up with symbols in the cells versus letters. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[#2]

Hi SXT3410,

We have had a small number of users report a similar issue with the earliest report on 27/01/2023, however the issue only occurs when the document is opened with Excel Online... if opened via the Desktop app, the text displays as expected.

The pattern seems to be that all affected spreadsheets use Arial as the font.... which font does your spreadsheet use?

A similar issue from a few years ago mentions that it's unicode text and a reboot should fix it among other ideas, though I haven't received confirmation as yet - https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2358087-excel-is-producing-odd-characters-in-arial-on-excel-s...

[#3]

@marc_4621 

Have one user so far experiencing this issue with Excel Online. Can confirm they're seeing it with Arial font, and other fonts display correctly.

[#4]

@SXT3410 I have two staff reporting this also, both in Excel online, both Ariel font. 

[#5]

@SXT3410I have one user reporting it currently.  Using Calibri font.  Just started.  Another who had it before no long has the issue. 

[#6]

Thank you for sharing fix @marc_4621 I am experiencing this as well. Hovering over any other text font and it becomes readable. If I open in desktop app then it's working as well. We have a huge shared spreadsheet with dozens of pages and tens of thousands of entries all unreadable, only for me though!