How to Fix 'The document is corrupt and cannot be opened' Error on Windows/Mac?

Published by Jacob Martin on December 6, 2013

Corruption word is the normal if you are using MS Excel file, this type of situation is very normal for the excel users. Corrupted file will display an error message when user tries to open the corrupted file. There is no doubt that MS Excel spreadsheet file is one important tool for any clerical job but when it gets corrupted then it also corrupt all the stored information and information get inaccessible.

Some common MS Excel File Errors are:

•  “Excel unable to read file”
•  “This file is not in a recognizable format.”
•  “Microsoft Excel has encountered a problem and needs to close.”
•  “Excel found unreadable content in (filename)”
•  “The file is corrupt and cannot be opened”
•  “abc.xls file cannot be accessed. The file may be read only.”
•  “File name is not valid.”

But the very common but harmful error is “The document is corrupt and cannot be opened. To try and repair it, use the Open and Repair command in the Open dialog (File menu) and select Extract Data when prompted.” This error can make complete file inaccessible or unreachable. To know about this error first know how its occurs; in MS Excel spread sheet file a function of startup folder is included called XLStart function. The XLStart folder is used to load the necessary files at the startup time. The files contained by this folder is add-ins, templates, and workbooks (*.xls). All the files placed in this folder are not in visible or hidden state and if it gets corrupted then all the stored files can also get corrupted. After corruption of this workbook user experience many types of problems in starting the application.

Causes and Solutions:

This error occurs when file is saved in XLStart folder and XLStart workbook gets corrupted due to any reason.

Other causes of MS Excel spread sheet Corruption is:

•  Virus or malware infection
•  unexpected power outage
•  Shutting down the computer without closing Excel file properly
•  Hardware and software malfunctioning
•  Operating system error

Solution:

To troubleshoot or fix the given errors, you need to locate and repair the problem file by applying the following steps:

• Find XLStart folder in Windows XP operating system , the default path is C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Xlstart
• Select all the files contained by it and move them to another folder.
• Open all the files one by one and after detecting the corrupted file move other files to its original location i.e. XLStart.
• Now open the corrupt file using ‘Open and Repair’ feature to repair it.

If you are unable to repair corrupted Excel file by applying MS Excel built-in file repair function, then try another trick to repair and recover your corrupted file. In this trick you have to save your MS Excel file in HTML format. To do this task open excel file and select ‘Save As’ option and after this select ‘Other Formats’ option and Select ‘Web Page’ from the drop down list.

Make sure that complete workbook is selected and after all click ‘Save’. A warning will appear like “loss of formatting in your Excel file is quite possible” Click ‘Yes‘ to verify this warning or ‘Help’ to know more about it. After the saving process, right click on the file and select ‘Open with>>Microsoft Office Excel’ option and after it go to ‘Save As’ and ‘Excel’ file format from the list. Change the name of file to avoid any uncertainty and click ‘Save’.

If the above given solutions or tricks are unable to repair and recover your corrupted MS Excel file then the corruption type is bigger and it is highly recommended that apply any third party Excel file repair tool to fix these types of problems. This tool is very efficient and effective that can able to fix any types of errors. This is also suitable for the normal user or that are not technically qualified.

If you don’t have more knowledge about computer system and its file or you are unable to apply the given manual process then repairing tool is the best solution for you because this tool provides very user friendly user interface to operate this so you can easily operate this tool without needing any user guide or technical knowledge.

Steps to Fix ‘The document is corrupt and cannot be opened’ Error File:

Step 1: Download the recovery software and after that hit on “OK” button to start the process.

Step 2: To recover the corrupt file, hit on “Select file” button. BY using the “Look in” you can search from particular logical drive.

Step 3: Select the corrupt file from the search list with the help of check box. After that hit on “Select all” and hit on “Start” button to begin the scanning process.

465 Total Views 2 Views Today