Excel cannot open the file because the file format is not valid verify

Despite the increasing challenges from competitors like Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel remains the most used spreadsheet app. It’s the app of choice in most workplace settings. What’s more, it includes numerous tools that help streamline and ease workflows.

Excel, like every other Microsoft app, occasionally runs into issues. Most of these are mere annoyances and can be solved with one or two program or system reboots. However, the “Excel cannot open the file because the file format or extension is not valid” issue has proved to be more bothersome for several users.

If you encounter this message when you try to open a file in Excel (or an Excel file), this guide will be helpful. We explain the possible reasons why the error can occur and three solutions that could work for you.

Excel Cannot Open the File Because the File Format or File Extension Is not Valid

When any user encounters this error in Excel, it’s usually due to one of two reasons:

• The file is corrupted.
• The file extension isn’t supported.

A corrupted file is unlikely to be opened by the parent program. Even if it successfully opens, it’s likely to have multiple errors such as missing data or unreadable portions. Excel and several other programs go the extra mile and simply don’t open corrupted files. It’s up to the user to try and fix the file corruption first or use another document with uncorrupted data.

Sometimes, the corruption is caused by malware that infiltrated the system. This can happen if your system isn’t fully protected when working with Spreadsheets on the web. Unrelated internet activity can cause this as well. After all, some malware types are known to be distributed as macros that can attach to Office documents.

It is better to be prepared for anything. Auslogics Anti-Malware will protect you against online and offline threats, as your main or supplementary antivirus. It’s unobtrusive, lightweight, fast, and frequently updated.

Sometimes, this error could be due to incompatible or unsupported file formats. Versions of Excel since 2007 use Office Open XML as the primary file format but are backward-compatible with the earlier versions of Excel files. A glance at the file extension will tell you straight away whether the program can open that file.

If the file you’re attempting to open is in one of these formats, it won’t open because it’s been corrupted. That’s because the file extension is compatible with Excel:

Excel Workbook. xlsx

Excel Macro-enabled Workbook. xlsm

Excel Binary Workbook. xlsb

Excel Macro-enabled Template. xltm

Excel Add-in. xlam

Spreadsheet. xls

Excel Template. xlt

Excel Macro. xlm

In addition, documents in these non-Excel file extensions can be opened by the program, though functionality might be reduced in some fashion:

XML. Spreadsheet 2003 or XML formatted files. xml

Lotus Spreadsheets. prn

Tab delimited/Unicode text files. txt

Comma-separated values files. csv

Data Interchange Format files. dif

Symbolic Link Format text files. slk

dBase Data Files. dbf

OpenOffice Files. ods

XML Paper Specification Files. xps

Portable Document Format files. pdf

Note that this isn’t an exhaustive list. Excel can open files with other extensions, including html.

How to Fix the “Excel Cannot Open the File Because the File Format or File Extension Is not Valid” Issue on Windows 10

Sometimes, when opening a file in Excel, the program displays this error message instead:

Microsoft Excel

Excel cannot open the file [File Name] because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.

If you encounter this error in any version of Excel since Excel 2007, three options are open to you:

1. Check the file extension and change it if needed.
2. Repair the file with Excel’s inbuilt repair tool.
3. Change group permissions for the file.

Let’s explain each option in more detail.

Solution 1. Check the File Extension

If you’re unable to open the file, it could be due to an unsupported file extension. To be frank, this is very rare nowadays since most spreadsheets use a format Excel can open. However, if you’re trying to open the document on a pre-2007 Excel program, you can have issues with certain files.

There are two scenarios here:

1. The Excel file is not opening in a legacy version of the program.
2. The file is not opening in Excel because of an unsupported format.

In both instances, the solution is the same. Open any Excel file (or just launch the program and open a blank spreadsheet) and click the File tab. Next, click Open > Browse and locate the file you’re trying to open.

Now, look under the file name field and change the file extension. If you’re trying to open an xlsx document in a legacy Excel version, change the extension to xls. If you’re trying to open a document in an unsupported or less common file format, change the extension to xlsx or xls.

Save the change and then try opening the file again. If everything is done right, the file should open now.

Solution 2. Repair the File

When you get the “Excel cannot open the file because the file format or file extension is not valid” error, it’s likely because the spreadsheet is corrupt. If you manage to open the file anyway, there might be multiple errors and we’re sure you don’t want that. It is better to try repairing the file first and that is exactly what we’re going to do.

1. Open a blank spreadsheet in Excel.
2. Select the File tab and click Open.
3. Hit the Browse button and choose the problematic file.
4. In the file selection window, click the Open drop-down menu and select Open and Repair.

Excel will attempt to repair the file and then open it.

Solution 3. Change Group Permissions

In rare instances, the “Excel cannot open the file because the file format or file extension is not valid” error happened because the file has special permissions. Removing this permission will allow your Excel program to open it without issues.

Here are the steps to try:

1. Navigate to the location of the problematic file.
2. Right-click the file and select Properties.
3. When the Properties dialog box opens, switch to the Security tab.
4. In the Security tab, click the Edit button to change permissions got for the file.
5. A new Permissions dialog box will open. Locate and click the Add button.
6. Another dialog box will open labeled “Select Users or Groups”. In this box, click the Advanced button.
7. Click the Find Now button.
8. Select Everyone under the search results and then click OK.
9. Click the OK button again to return to the Permissions dialog box. You’ll notice that the Everyone group has been added to the list under “Groups or user names”.
10. Select Everyone in the “Groups or user names” section.
11. Under Permissions for Everyone, tick Allow for all the options.
12. Click Apply and then OK to confirm and save your changes.

After this, the file will no longer be restricted and you should be able to open it in Excel.

Summary: 

This post cover easy troubleshooting tricks to fix xls file format is not valid error.

In short and precise way I can tell you that “file format is not valid” error can easily be fixed by trying easy fixes like: changing Excel file extension, or using Excel inbuilt repair tool (open and repair) etc..

But if you are getting invalid file format error because of the corruption issue then you must try the professional’s recommended Excel repair software.

Read the complete post to catch detailed information about all these fixes…!

Best Software To Fix Excel File Format Is Not Valid Error:

The most probable reason behind the occurrence of this invalid file format error is that your Excel file is somehow got corrupted.

So to troubleshoot this corruption issue you must try the professional’s recommended MS Excel Repair Tool. This is a special tool specifically designed to repair any sort of issues, corrupted, damaged, and errors in the excel files so that one can easily continue to work in that file.

It can easily restore all corrupt Excel files and also recover everything which includes cell comments, charts, worksheet properties, and other related data.

* Free version of the product only previews recoverable data.

The corrupted Excel file can be restored to a new blank Excel file. It has the ability to recover the complete data from the file and restore them even without modifying original formatting.

Steps to Utilize MS Excel Repair Tool:

To figure out XLS file format is not valid error here are some best manual fixes given. Using this not only you can rectify Excel file format error messages but also regain access to your workbook.

1# Best Software To Fix Excel File Format Is Not Valid Error
2# Change Excel File Extension
3# Use Open And Repair Inbuilt Utility
4# Revert Back To Previous Versions Of Excel File
5# Restore Unsaved Excel File Using AutoRecover

Method 1# Change Excel File Extension

Firstly you need to change the file extension of your Excel sheet. Sometimes, the problem occurs due to the unsupported file extension of your Excel file.

Solution 1#

• Open your Excel application and then tap the “File” tab.
• Hit the “Export” option from the list of menus and select the “Change File Type” option.
• Change files extension to some other file format that is well supported by Excel.
• After that click on the “Save As” option to check whether your Excel file is opening or not.

Solution 2#

• Go to My Computer > browse Tools > Folder Options > File Types.

• Make sure that the ‘XLSX’ extension is included there or not.
• If not then rename this file and change ‘.xlsx’ to ‘.xls’.

Method 2# Use Open And Repair Inbuilt Utility

If the above-given workaround won’t help you to fix invalid xls file format error, then make use of the inbuilt Open and Repair utility. 

• Open the Excel workbook > go to File > Open option.

• Choose the file which you want to open but don’t make double-click on it.
• After that go to the ‘Open’ dialog box > select ‘Open and Repair‘ option from there. This process will fix minor corruption issues that occurred in the Excel file due to which you are getting .xls file format is not valid error.

• Now check the error is fixed or not.

Well in some cases it is found this inbuilt utility fails to repair the severely damaged file or errors so it might happen that still the error is not fixed.  Then, in this case, you need to make use of Excel repair tool to fix the error automatically and recover data.

Method 3# Revert Back To Previous Versions Of Excel File

Using this method you can take your excel file to that version when you are not receiving any invalid xls file format error. Here are the steps that you need to follow:

Step 1. Make a right-click over the Excel file in which you are getting this file format is not valid error. After that from the pop-up menu choose the “Properties” option.

Step 2.

Open your “Previous Version” tab for listing out the entire previously saved Excel file version.

Step 3.

Select the recent version and then tap the “Restore” button for the spreadsheets recovery.

Method 4# Restore Unsaved Excel File Using AutoRecover

If due to this .xls file format is not valid error you have losted up your Excel file data then don’t get tensed. As there are few easy fixes available through which you can recover lost data in Excel.

This method is applicable only when the Excel autosave feature is turned on. It is a very helpful feature to recover unsaved Excel files.

• Open your Excel application and tap to File > Info tab.
• Just next to the Manage Versions, you will see the complete list of Excel file autosaved versions.

• Open the Excel file and at the top of the screen you will see a warning message regarding “recovered unsaved Excel file”. On which you have to tap “Restore”.

• Save your Excel file with some new names and keep the extension .xlsx.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Question)

Conclusion:

Hope in this article you get the complete answer to your query related to the “.XLS file format is invalid” error. Here we have tried our best to provide a reliable solution to fix the error. If the manual solution won’t work to fix xls file format is not valid error then go with the software solution.

Good Luck!!!  

• Is this an excel file that is being edited by multiple people running different versions of Excel or by someone using Apache OpenOffice/LibreOffice?

  
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• Is the file local or on the network? If the file is on the network try copying it locally and opening the file. If you can open it locally it may be a user permissions or network issue.

  
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• Also, what version of Excel are you trying to open the file with?

  
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• 

  remove the «&» ?

  
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• I see this most often when a file has been transferred around a lot and gets corrupted due to bad sectors on hard drives, bad thumb drives, etc…  

  Occasionally, I find a repair utility that will….kind of….fix it.  You tend to lose all formatting and usually the user would have to spend more time redoing that file than simply starting from scratch.  If on a file server, shadow copies(previous versions) are a god send.  

  If it happens completely randomly, does it happen more often to the same group of people?  Perhaps an update malfunctioned?  Reinstall Office?  

  There could be so many reasons this could happen, but all the above is where I’d start.  

  
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• You can’t use any of the following characters in a file name: / ? : * » > < |

  I think the & should be ok.

  
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• 

  We see this most often with emailed Excel files — especially forwards of forwards.

  
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• 

  Change the extension to .xls

  
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• 

  remove the file from your temp folder or microsoft appdata sometimes that’s causing the problem

  
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• 

  The obvious answers are that you’re trying to open the file with a pre-o2K7 version of office without the file format compatibility pack installed or that your file association isn’t set correctly but your statement that this happens «every now and then» seems to suggest that you usually have no trouble opening up XSLX files. I will assume that this is the case. 

  In my experience the likely answer is afeitguy’s or David9459’s suggestions, particularly when using removable media or file shares on poorly performing servers (read: fragmented or very busy disks) to transfer/email the file between people. As an example just last week I had this exact same issue with one of my users where they were copying the XLSX file to a removable drive and finding that, although the original worked, the removable drive version gave this same eror message. I found it strange that I didn’t get a ‘corrupt file’ error or something similar instead but nobody ever said Microsoft errors had to make sense («Error! Success.» anyone?).

  CHKDSK /F /R on the removable drive and a new copy fixed the issue in that case and allowed the transfer.

  Te ampersand (&) on the file name is fine. If this isn’t a network, removable or recieved file I’d CHKDSK the  drive anyway and then remove the temp file if one exists (as Jonathan suggests). 

  Good luck.

  
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• It happens often, and to several excel files. Which compatibility pack should I search for? Please post a link if possible. The computer has Office Pro 2010 Plus

  
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• It should not need a compatibility pack, then.  Excel 2007 and later should be able to open an .xlsx file just fine.  

  
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• Is the file on the network or local disk?

  
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• Files on local and network locations are affected

  
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• Once you get that message are you ever able to open the file again? Is this only happening to you or other users also?

  
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• mbluedke we are able to use the File > Open command or the «Open» button from the Excel toolbar to open files 98 or 99 percent of the time. Mostly unable to double-click on an Excel file and open them. That’s when the error messages start popping-up. I’ve attached another screen shot of the messages.

  attach_file
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  Excel_error2.jpg
  87.4 KB
  
  

  
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• Joe,

  Sounds like it may be an issue with file associations. Do you have other programs that will open excel type documents?

  
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• Try opening it in openoffice. If it opens in there, then resave it as a new file.
  
  You will probably lose some formatting, but I’ve done this several times.
  
  Paul

  
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• Have you looked at the Event Logs in the server and workstation to see if there are any network related issues?

  
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• I did a Microsoft Office repair. I also disabled the Preview and Details pane in Windows, Excel and a third location that I can’t remember (this appears to have been the solution). Thanks for your comments.

  
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• Is this an excel file that is being edited by multiple people running different versions of Excel or by someone using Apache OpenOffice/LibreOffice?

  «Is this an excel file that is being edited by multiple people» disabling sharing fixed an Excel problem on another user’s computer. Thanks for your helpful post.

  
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• 

  In your system virus attack that virus Name is cryptolocker malware virus so remove this virus

  then your all files works properylly,  

      From 

             Ravindra Sharma 

  
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• 

  how can I remove malwave virus

  
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• 

  hi

  I have save all my excel files in usb. now some excel file can not open and it has a message as

  Excel cannot open the file ‘A.xlsx’ because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.

  can you please help me how to open this file
  Thanks

  
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• 

  Hi,

  In addition the above replies. Please try this, it works fine for me.

  Right Click file>Properties>go to Security Tab>Click Continue>Find your Group or User names if it is not there Add>search the domain name>OK>Highlight the domain name>Check full control on the permissions>Apply>Ok>Ok ;). Hope it helped you.

  
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• 

  I have had this problem with a great number of my MS Office files showing corruption but I have been able to open all of them quite normally using a different program … in my case I used Open Office and was able to access my files. It will even save again in .ods OR .xls format after opening and editing.

  I hope it works for you.

  
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• 

  Dear Spiceworks Community, 

  Some of you have made some valid points, but none of them are the correct one. I know this because one of my client’s has the same issue and right clicked the desktop to create a brand new, empty, clean XLSX file. It still does not open through double click. This leads me to believe there is an issue with the file association command that is performing the file open through excel. I tried changing the file association to another program, then changing it back, but this did not work either. I tried scanning with Malware Bytes and Safety.Live.com’s MSCERT scanner. Neither found a single issue. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Office, this did not work either. Any other thoughts? 

  Regards,

  Jonathan

  
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• 

  %uFEFFExcel cannot open the file %u2018A.xlsx%u2019 because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.

  
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• 

  I have the same issue..I’m on Office Mac Excel vs 14.4.7.

  No sharing of the file. its a file I»m creating on exporting as tab delimited to .xlsx. I have no strange characters in the filename nor in the name of my HD.

  Excel does not open .xlsx files ever.

  If I change the extension to .xls..then it’s fine..but up on saving those files I get a dialog:

  

  
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• This is an old thread.  You should start a new thread, you’ll get more views and possibly more help.

  
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• 

  Have a tried enabling compatibility mode?  Coupling this with maybe changing the file extension should allow you to open it at least.  You may have to copy the information into a new document for formatting, though.  As for me, I went to a backup of the file which ended up being the easiest and fastest option :).

  
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• TooSpicy wrote:

  Have a tried enabling compatibility mode?  Coupling this with maybe changing the file extension should allow you to open it at least.  You may have to copy the information into a new document for formatting, though.  As for me, I went to a backup of the file which ended up being the easiest and fastest option :).

  I’m not sure if you realize that the last post that was really relevant to this thread was 2 years ago.

  
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• 

  HI. I have this problem, 
  Eecel cannot oepn the file because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matchs the format of the file. 

  
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• 

  marked as solved but that is not the case.

  
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• 

  
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• 

  hi

  I have save all my excel files in usb. now some excel file can not open and it has a message as

  Excel cannot open the file ‘A.xlsx’ because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.

  can you please help me how to open this file
  Thanks

  
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• This article is related to MS Excel file extension error and has advanced solutions to fix this error: 

  Opens a new windowhttps://goo.gl/C9i3kW Opens a new window

  
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