10 New Tricks To Fix Excel Corruption In 2021

Summary:

This blog is primarily aimed to provide the best fixes to repair corrupt Excel file. Besides this, it also gives an overview of the tricks to identify xls/xlsx file corruption and ways to avoid instances of Excel Corruption In 2021.

Best Option To Repair Corrupt Excel File In 2021

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But again the problem is the same which one is reliable or with whom you should go…?

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Using the Free trial version of Excel Repair & Recovery tool you can only see the preview of all your recoverable items. This ascertains the software’s effectiveness. After getting the complete surety you can purchase this tool and save your repaired Excel files.

Quick Tricks To Identify xls/.xlsx file Corruption In 2021

Following are some identification marks to remove your clouds of doubt, whether the Excel workbook is corrupted or having some other issue.

Case 1#

You won’t be able to open your Excel file and the following errors will start appearing on your screen.

Case 2#

You will be able to open Excel file, but along with that ether you get the garbage value or your data goes completely missing. In such circumstances, you may get the following error and issue.

Top Methods To Repair Corrupt Excel File In 2021

All the listed solutions are well applicable in both the cases I have mentioned above.

So let’s dive in….!

Make easy restoration from the temp folder
Disable “Protected View”
Install Visual Basic Component
Check and Modify “Component Services” settings
Check and Change the file extension
Move Excel File to a New Folder
Disable “Add-Ins”
Restore to the previous version
Use built-in “Open & Repair” utility

Method 1# Restore Corrupted Excel File From Temp Folder

Do you know the temp folder is a very useful option for Excel? Mainly, when you need to get back your crucial data from the corrupted Excel file. You can make an easy search in the temp folder.

Microsoft has a feature of AutoRecovery that allows its users to automatically save their Excel files as temp files.

So, if your Excel, Word, or PowerPoint file is got corrupted or damaged somehow then you can approach this temp folder option.

1. First of all, you need to find out the location of the temp folder location in your PC. As the location of this temp folder is different in the different Windows versions.

For Windows 8/10 users:
C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

For Windows 7 users:
C:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

2. Once you reach the temp folder location. Search for the file that starts with the “~” or “$” sign and ends with the “.TMP” extension.

3. Just Copy these temp files and then save them to some other location after changing their extension.TMP to XLSX/.XLS.

Method 2# Disable “Protected View”

Note:

Disabling the “Protected View” option wills put a hazardous impact on your PC as this exposes your computer to security threats.

If after disabling the protected view option you are able to access your Excel file. Then save your file with some different name and after that enable the “Protected View” option.

1. Open your Excel file first and then hit the File > Options tab.

2. Make tap on the “Trust Center” > “Trust Center Settings”

3. Go to the “Protected View” option and uncheck all the checkboxes present over there. Hit the “OK” button.

4. Open your affected Excel file.

If this won’t fix Excel workbook corruption issue then move on to the next method.

Method 3# Install Visual Basic Component

Most of the time it is seen that installation of the ‘Visual Basic’ component repair corrupt Excel files.

Here are the steps that you need to follow:

Go to the Control Panel > Programs and choose Microsoft Office 2010.
Tap the Change button and then hit the Add or Remove Programs.
After that hit the ‘plus’ sign present next to the Office Shared Features.
Choose the Visual Basic for Applications and then make a right-click over it. Hit the Run option from My Computer and then tap the Continue button.
After finishing up all these processes make a reboot to your PC.

Now check whether the corruption issue has been sorted out or not.

Method 4# Check And Modify “Component Services” Settings

Note: Making changes in the “Component Services” settings also do modifications in the System registry. So be careful while performing this method, as a few mistakes can make you suffer a lot.

Following are the steps that you need to perform:

1. Go to your system’s “Start” menu.

2. In the search box type “Component Services” or “dcomcnfg” and hit the “OK” button.

3. Make a right-click over the Component Services and choose the “Run as Administrator” option.

4. After that follow this path: “Component Services” > “Computers” > “My Computer”

5. Now make a right-click on the “My Computer” option and then from the drop-down menu choose the “Properties”

6. From the “Default Authentication Level” choose the “Default Properties” and tap the connect option. Now from the “Default Impersonation Level” choose the “Identity” option.

7. Hit the “Apply” and then “OK” button.

Method 5# Check And Change The File Extension

Chances are also that the current version of the MS Office application is maybe not supporting your excel file extension.

So to fix corrupt .xlsx file you need to change the file extension to .xls. Just follow down the below-given steps to do so:

1. Copy your problem with having an Excel file on the root location of the drive, not within any folder. Like, I am saving it on the “F:” drive.

2. Now go to the command prompt and run it as an Administrator.

3. Here you have to enter the address of your drive where you have copied your corrupted Excel file. eg: type F: and press Enter.

4. Type the following command:

Ren Book10.xlsx NewExt.xls

In this command, Book10.xlsx is your damaged excel file with the older file extension. Whereas, NewExt.xls is a copy of the affected file with new file extension .xls.

5. Try opening the file to check whether the issue has been resolved or not.

If not then, move onto the next solution.

Method 6# Move Excel File To A New Folder

Sometimes simple changes make a greater impact. Just like the same you have to move your Excel file to some new location.

As it is found that by simply shifting the excel file to a new folder your issue can be resolved up to some extent.

Method 7# Disable “Add-Ins”

Most of the time it is seen that excel file corruption error messages actually come due to the conflicting COM Add-Ins.

So it’s better to disable this add-in for avoiding up such annoying Excel corruption error messages.

1. Open your Excel application and then from your Excel ribbon choose the File > Options.

2. Tap to the Add-Ins tab from the left sidebar. Choose the “COM Add-Ins” within the “Manage”. After that tap the “Go” option.

3. Uncheck all the checkboxes and hit the “Ok” button.

4. Now open the problem of having an Excel file.

If this fixes the problem, then definitely one or more Add-In is the root cause behind this Excel file corruption.

5. Now enable the add-ins one by one to find out which the main problem causing the add-in. after that try to reopen the affected Excel file.

Repeat the same procedure for the rest of your add-ins. If after enabling any particular add-ins problem regenerates then keep that particular add-in disabled to fix the issue.

Method 8# Use Built-In “Open & Repair” Utility

Another alternative solution is to repair corrupt Excel file by using the built-in utility.

1. create a new excel file and then open it.

2. Now tap the File > Open tab.

3. Browse for your corrupt Excel file.

4. Choose the corrupt Excel file and then tap the “Open” dropdown. After that choose the “Open and Repair” button.

5. Hit the “Repair” button.

6. After the repair process, it’s time to recover corrupt Excel file data. so for this, you need to choose the “Extract Data” button.

Note:

Extract data option only recovers Excel files data without its formatting.

Method 9# Restore Corrupted Excel File From The Previous Version

Do you know you can revert back any file to its previous version? By doing this you can very easily recover xls/xlsx file. So, you must try this option once.

Let’s know how it is to be done.

1. Browse your problem having Excel file.

2. Make a right-click on the Excel file and choose the “Properties” option.

3. It’s time to approach the previous versions of your Excel file. Choose the latest version and tap the “restore” button.

If still the problem persists and you are unable to access your Excel file then instantly approach the software solution. As it is the most reliable and fastest way for corrupt excel file recovery.

How To Avoid Instances Of Excel File Corruption In 2021?

There are such preventive measures present using which one can easily avoid Excel workbook corruption in 2021.

Here are the following points which you always need to implement.

Frequent creation of recovery files.
Regular monitoring of the hard drives.
Taking care when shutting down the system.
Using updated anti-virus can help you in keeping your excel files safe from corruption.
Choosing the automatic option for saving backup copies of Excel files.

If your Excel file is already get corrupted and you are unable to use it then at that time you can use the following tricks:

Try to save your Excel file in HTML format.
You can try opening your Excel file using MS Word or MS Excel Viewer.
Disable Macros in Excel.
Make use of the External Link Formulas in the separate Worksheets.

Conclusion:

Through this article, I have covered both scenarios one is where you are quite sure that your Excel file is got corrupted. Whereas, in other instances, you are not sure about the Excel file corruption.

Here, we have also shared many fixes to fix xls/xlsx file corruption issue.

Apart from this, we have also recommended the best recovery software to recover lost/deleted/corrupted Excel files.

We hope that have found all this shared information quite helpful…!

Priyanka Sahu

Priyanka is an entrepreneur & content marketing expert. She writes tech blogs and has expertise in MS Office, Excel, and other tech subjects. Her distinctive art of presenting tech information in the easy-to-understand language is very impressive. When not writing, she loves unplanned travels.