Forum Discussion
Excel crashes when opening a specific (complex) .xlsb file (and all previous versions of it too)
There are several possible reasons why Excel crashes when opening an .xlsb file, such as corrupted cache, outdated software, incompatible add-ins, conditional formatting, antivirus interference, or system issues.
Some of the solutions that you can try, perhaps you have already tried a few, here with the order:
- Restart your computer and try opening the file again.
- Run Excel as administrator and see if it can open the file.
- Install the latest software update for Excel and Windows.
- Clear Microsoft Excel cache by deleting all files in %appdata%\Microsoft\Excel folder.
- Remove conditional formatting from your file by using Format Painter on a blank cell and applying it to the entire worksheet.
- Close unused applications that may be using up memory or resources.
- Disable your antivirus temporarily and check if it affects Excel’s performance.
- Update your system drivers and BIOS to ensure compatibility and stability.
If none of these solutions work, you may have a corrupted .xlsb file that needs to be repaired.
You can try saving the file in an old format (.xls) on a different computer that can open it, then re-saving it as .xlsb. This may fix some of the corruption issues.
You can also use a third-party tool to repair your .xlsb file, such as Stellar Repair for Excel or Kernel for Excel Repair. These tools can scan your file and recover data from damaged worksheets. Have not used these tools myself, but are recommended by some, so without guarantee.
I hope this helps you resolve your issue.
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
Its been my experience that Office 64 bit has serious defects, and back in 2011 or so they published on their developer website no intention of fixing the known issue causing your file to automatically close. It has to to with VISUAL BASIC. They released office with a 32 bit VB in it, despite being 64 bit office. Bug #1. They also have an unwanted Book1.xlsx that the save process will automatically create, and it is unneeded and causes the error. The VB code gets saved correctly in the xlsm file, then it adds the unwanted hidden file in error. This goes way back to Office 1998, then they thought having one file hidden that would contain all your macros was a good idea. They still have snippets of code in office that they cannot fix or locate that is trying to still save this hidden file. This is then causing your machine to open the xlsm file today, and it acts like there is an error in the file. There are no errors with your file. Just OPEN EXCEL first, a blank workbook, then click FILE OPEN and browse to your file, then in the dialogue where it sayd OPEN inthe lower right, click the tiny down errors, and use Open and Repair. It will open the file file and get rid of the unwanted file that windows adds as a brazen defect of windows .
This sounds interesting and could be the problem with my .xlsb file. It is around 12MB with 80 worksheets and 250 macros.
After some saves, when reopening it crashes with no message. Then opening after crashing it does repair and seems to work okay. I always now keep saving after every minor change so that if I have a crash I can go back to previous saved version that doesn't crash. It does mean I end up with hundreds of saved versions! Very annoying!
I have to constantly check after I save a version if it will open without crashing. I was thinking it could be a memory issue as sometimes (rarely) when saving Excel says something about Out of Memory. However I can't find any reason for why sometimes it gets corrupted and crashes without any error message.
Duwat13 Definitely good idea need to try it and check for unneeded files. Good suggestion. From my side I can include that Microsoft never fixing real bugs because peoples and teams not work so long in this fake company. Guys which create it or know something they are gone from m$oft and they don't have any documentation. In the times of Windows 3.1 I wrote in Visual Basic for Atari Falcon completely replicate Word with exact the same GUI in 2 weeks, so can imagine what kind of mess they have in m$oft to make any positive actions and fix this problem (as many other) asap? Impossible, amateur company and programmers, that's all about any software from m$ created for it's own operating system windows. I am just thinking why 365 for Apple Mac OS X do not have such a problems, with the same files I never detect there is bugs. M$oft is like a covid, this is the first virus in the World not any thing else.
I am also using very large EXCEL files, with a lot of VBA code, many named ranges, and it contains many intended links to other EXCEL files.
For several years my EXCEL file crashed up to 10 times a day for no particular reason at random moments and sometimes it could no longer be opened.I have been able to solve it by following 2 measures (one work-around and one true solution😞
- Workaround: I created a VBA script that is started upon opening of the EXCEL file and that I configured to run when I press Ctrl-R (which stands for 'Archive' to me) which I do regularly while working in EXCEL. Basically, this VBA script does two things:
- it copies the EXCEL file to a separate file with date/time postfix in separate directory (in my case to the .\BK\ subdirectory), so that I can always revert to any previous instance of the document
- it saves the currently open EXCEL under the original name
- True solution: At a certain moment I was completely fed up with the situation and I decided to gradually remove parts of my document's content, VBA, and external links.
It appeared that referring to a Named Range in an external EXCEL file was the sole root cause of my instabilities. After having replaced them by cell-based range references, all my instabilities were solved at once!
In my case, after having implemented my 'true solution' I have now been able to work without serious stability issues for about 4 years.
As instabilities for other users can have different root causes, my true solution (2.) might not help you, but this suggestion might help others.
My work-around (1.) can be a helpful feature for everyone who does (or does not) experience any stability issues with EXCEL.
Hopefully, EXCEL users can benefit from these experiences.
- Workaround: I created a VBA script that is started upon opening of the EXCEL file and that I configured to run when I press Ctrl-R (which stands for 'Archive' to me) which I do regularly while working in EXCEL. Basically, this VBA script does two things:
