Excel Cannot Open The File Because The File Format Or File Extension Is Not Valid

As the error itself states, you might encounter the “Excel cannot open the file because the file format or file extension is not valid” due to an incorrect or unsupported file format or extension. When you run into this problem, you possibly can not open or edit your recordsdata.

As MS Excel is usually utilized by college students and professionals, Excel failing to open a file could be fairly problematic. If you’ve discovered your self in the same scenario, enable this text to information you across the problem. In this text, now we have included the doable causes for this error message with viable options, so keep studying!

What is the “Excel Cannot Open the File Because the File Format or File Extension is Not Valid” Issue?

How to Fix the “Excel Cannot Open the File Because the File Format or File Extension is Not Valid” Issue?

Although the problem may cause fairly the panic, the workarounds are literally fairly easy! The options embrace altering the file compatibility to repairing corrupt Excel recordsdata. For one another points we’ve introduced within the part above, we’ve talked about viable options on this part.

Switch Workbook Format

The newer variations of Excel not help recordsdata that had been created within the older Excel variations. If you encountered this message when attempting to open an older Excel file, you would want to alter the format of your Excel program.

You can simply change the file format out of your model of the Excel utility itself. Follow together with these steps to change the supported workbook format on the Excel program:

1. Launch MS Excel.
2. From the sidebar, choose Options. If you don’t see it, choose More > Options.
   
3. Click Save from the panel to your left.
   
4. Under the Save workbooks part, choose the drop-down menu next to Save recordsdata on this format.
5. Choose your file format from the checklist of choices.
   
6. Click OK.

Change Permission Settings

You will need to have entry to sure permissions earlier than accessing any file in your device. Similarly, Excel might be displaying this error since you wouldn’t have sufficient permission to entry the file. In this case, you’ll have to change the permission settings from the file properties.

Here are the steps you possibly can comply with to alter the permission settings in accessing the problematic Excel file:

1. Open file explorer.
2. Right-click on the problematic file and choose Properties.
   
3. Head to the Security tab.
4. Click on the Edit button.
   
5. Select Add.
   
6. On the brand new window, click on on Advanced.
   
7. Select Find Now in your left.
   
8. From the choices, click on Everyone.
   
9. Check all packing containers beneath Allow within the Permissions for Everyone part.
10. Select Apply > OK.

Repair Excel File

Your final resort to repair this problem will probably be to restore your Excel file if neither of the options introduced above works for you. This resolution is relevant if you happen to’re coping with an Excel file that has gone corrupt. When a file goes corrupt, the Excel program won’t have sufficient assets to learn after which open your file. This will set off this system to show the talked about error message.

To restore your Excel file, you should use the Open and Repair characteristic provided by MS Excel itself. Excel will attempt to restore your file so you possibly can open your file as standard. If you want to carry out a restore, comply with these steps:

1. Open the Excel utility.
2. From the sidebar, choose Open.
   
3. Click Browse.
   
4. From your device, navigate to the placement of your file and choose it.
5. Drop the menu down next to Open within the bottom-right nook of the window.
6. Select Open and restore.
   
7. Select Repair within the dialog field.

Even after you carry out the restore, Excel may fail to restore your file. In instances similar to this, you can nonetheless recuperate the content material of your spreadsheet. To recuperate your information, comply with the identical steps aside from the final step, and choose Extract Data from the dialog field. This will recuperate the info that’s current in your Excel file.