cant open Excel file, help please

booneruk

Maybe try and open it in Google Sheets and see what that makes of it

pbartlett

This program will show you if it can recover the file - if so, you must buy the full version to save it:

Microsoft Excel Recovery Tool (recoverytoolbox.com)

IvanOpinion

Do you use any form of cloud storage (e.g. pcloud) that may provide you with historic versions that you can recover from?

getmore4less

booneruk said:

Maybe try and open it in Google Sheets and see what that makes of it

I was thinking along the lines of try  the various free office tools

happyhero

pbartlett said:

This program will show you if it can recover the file - if so, you must buy the full version to save it:

Microsoft Excel Recovery Tool (recoverytoolbox.com)

I've had some success but with a problem.

I've tried opening the file in various platforms, ie Word, Notes, and in Google, in so many others by now and I have tried the fixes but nothing worked. What seemed to work reasonably smoothly, were Excel fix programs online.

I went looking for free software as its only one file and so I didn't want to have to buy software only to find it wasn't that great in the end and couldn't recover the vital parts. Many of these programs say free but only allow you to use them to see a part of the file. This did seem to work, saying things like file recovered, as it showed the stuff that no other method had worked on, so I felt that the file was definitely fixable but usually after trying a few programs they would only show me an early portion of the file and not recent data, so I have no idea if they will reveal enough in the full version. Maybe there is one that will let me recover just one file for free.

So does anybody know of any freeware Excel repair software?

pbartlett

The software is 27 USD to buy, is that too expensive for you? I do not know of any free software but obviously Google might find some.

fifeken

Right click on the file in Windows Explorer.  There should be an option "Restore previous versions" that might get you somewhere, even if not exactly where you want to be.