Excel File Corrupted? 5 Recovery Methods That Actually Work

Problem Scenario

You try to open an Excel file and get an error message saying the file is corrupted or unreadable. All your important data seems lost.

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Solution Steps

  1. Try Open and Repair feature in Excel
  2. Open file in OpenOffice or Google Sheets
  3. Extract XML files from .xlsx (rename to .zip)
  4. Use Excel's AutoRecover feature
  5. Check previous versions in File History

Code Snippet

File > Open > Browse > Select file > Click dropdown arrow on Open button > Choose "Open and Repair"
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