How to Repair Corrupted Excel Files

 Excel is probably as important to most workers as dressing and eating. I use Excel a lot daily to do everything from managing finances to analyzing customer data. It is so powerful that it is hard to imagine life without Excel.

And that’s why it can be so terrible when you finish a damaged or corrupted Excel file! It all works and can be lost forever unless you are smart enough to make a backup.

Luckily, most corrupted Excel files can be recovered, you just have to try several different methods. If your Excel file is corrupt, there are some ways to fix it or at least to recover some data. Repair Corrupted Excel Files.

How to Fix and Repair Corrupted Excel Files

Method 1 – Run Repair

The first thing to try is to open it in Excel with the repair option. You can do this by clicking on File and then Open. In the Open dialog box, click once on the Excel file, and then click the small arrow next to the Open button.

Go ahead and click open and repair and you’ll get a message asking if you want to repair, which will retrieve as much data as possible, or if you just want to extract data, which will mimic formulas and values.

You can try repairing it first and see that it can recover the entire file, if not you can try extracting the data.

Method 2 – Save the file in a different format

If you can open the file successfully in Excel, you can try to save the file in various formats and then reopen them in Excel and try to save them as Excel workbooks.

Click on File and then click Save As. Choose SYLK (Symbolic Link) from the Save as type list and click Save. Then close the workbook.

Then click on the file and open again, but this time choose the SYLK file. To view the SYLK file, you may have to select all files from the type list files.

After the file opens, click on the file and then click Save As. Now you will choose Microsoft Excel Workbook and click Save. Note that saving in the SYLK format saves only the active worksheet. You must save each worksheet individually and repeat this process.

Apart from SLYK format, you can also save the file in HTML format. Once saved, open it again and try to save it as an Excel workbook. With the HTML format, you do not need to save each worksheet individually.

Method 3 – Change Recalculation Options

If you are having trouble opening the file, there are many other things you can try. First, try setting the recalculation option in Excel in the manual. You can do this by going to Tools, Options, and clicking the Calculations tab. In the Calculation section, go ahead and choose Manual.

If you are using Excel 2007 or later, the process is different. You need to click on the office button at the top left and then choose the Excel option.

Click the formula, then click Manual in the Calculation Options section.

Now try to open the corrupt excel file and see if it opens. Otherwise, read on!

Method 4 – Open in Word or WordPad

You can try to open a damaged Excel file in Microsoft Word or WordPad. To do this, you must first ensure that Microsoft Excel Converter is installed. You can download it from the Microsoft website.

Even if you can open the files, you will lose the chart sheet, dialog sheet, macro sheet, and all the cell formulas that will be lost. However, you should be able to see the data.

If you have macros, try opening the file in WordPad as Visual Basic code may appear in your module. You will need to search for “function” or “all”.

Method 5 – Link a corrupted file

In Excel, you can link one worksheet to another Excel workbook. You can try to use this method to extract data from a corrupt Excel workbook.

Click on the file then open and navigate to the folder that contains the corrupted file. Then click on cancel. Now go ahead and click on the file, then click on New and OK.

In cell A1, type = FileName! A1 and press Enter.

If all goes well, you should see the data in cell A1 of the damaged worksheet in cell A1 of your new workbook.

If yes, you can now drag the corner of the box and increase the selection to the number of rows and columns that are present in the corrupted workbook.

Method 6 – Use Excel Viewer

You can also try to download Microsoft Excel Viewer, which may be able to open the file for you. All of this lets you copy cells and paste them into a new workbook, but it’s better than nothing.

Method 7 – Use Later Versions of Excel

If a corrupted Excel file was created in Excel XP, Excel 2003, etc., try opening it in a later version such as Excel 2007 or Excel 2010.

As the versions grow, the ability of the program to recover the file also increases, so you may get lucky and be able to recover your file.

Method 8 – Delete Temporary Folders

At this point, we hope and pray, but it is worth it. You can delete the contents of the C: \ Windows \ Temp directory, and then restart your computer. Try opening the file again.

I hope you understand how to Repair Corrupted Excel Files after following the steps and If you still can’t open your Excel file, post a comment here and I’ll try to help! or you can call MS Office Customer Care they will help you.