Top 4 Ways to Repair Corrupted Excel Files
Corrupted Excel File is a mayhem message for any excel user. After putting all the hard work if the file is corrupted then it will create panic for the user. So, how do you deal with these corrupted files? In this article, we will provide you some of the techniques to deal with corrupted files. Read the entire article to learn about repairing corrupted excel files.
#1 Repair the Workbook Manually
Once the excel file is corrupted and if you try to reopen it, excel by default starts the file recovery mode, tries to reopen the file along with repairing the workbook.
If you are not able to open the excel file because it is corrupted, we can repair the workbook through a manual process.
Follow the below steps to repair the corrupted excel workbook manually.
Step 1: Open one blank workbook. Click on the FILE tab.
Step 2: Now click on the OPEN optionand choose “Browse” option.
Step 3: From this Browse window locate the file which is corrupted.
Step 4: In the same window click on the dropdown list of “OPEN” and choose “Open and Repair”
Step 5: Now excel shows the below message box.
In the above window, we can see two options.
- Repair if you want to recover as much of your work as possible. So to select this option you need to click on the “Repair” option.
- Extract Data if Excel was previously unable to repair the workbook. So to select this option you need to click on the “Extract Data” option.
Now if the excel was able to repair the workbook successfully then we will get the below information message.
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Now in the newly opened workbook, you can see the status of the workbook as “Repaired”
#2 Recover Data from Opened Workbook
If you have not been able to save the latest work from the workbook then you can recover the last saved version data from the corrupted workbook.
Click on the FILE tab and choose an OPEN option from another workbook.
Now select the excel workbook that you want to repair.
Click on Yes to reopen the workbook.
Now from this file, you can recover the data until the time it last auto recovered.
#3 Setting Calculation to Manual
Recover Data from Corrupted Workbook By Setting Calculation to Manual
If you are not able to repair the corrupted excel workbook then you can recover the data by setting the calculation mode to manual. Follow the below steps to recover data from a corrupted workbook that was not repaired.
Step 1: Open blank workbook.
Step 2: In the blank workbook click on FILE >>> Options.
Step 3: In the Excel Options window go to “Formulas”. Under Calculation options choose the workbook calculation to “Manual”.
Step 4: After this click on Ok. Now go to file and open the corrupted excel file to recover the data from the corrupted file.
#4 Create Backup Copy of Workbook Automatically
Having the backup copy all the workbooks is gold to have, isn’t it???
We can instruct the excel workbook to create a backup copy of all the workbooks we work with automatically. Follow the below steps to apply this setting change.
Step 1: Open any of the workbooks.
Step 2: Click on Save As in excel button or press the F12 key.
Step 3: In the Save As window click on the drop-down list of the “Tools” option and select “General Options”.
Step 4: This will open up the “General Options” window and in the below window check the box “Always create backup”.
In the above window, you can also choose the passwords to “Open” and “Modify”. So if anybody opens other than you then they must enter the password to open and modify the workbook.
Things to Remember
- If you have struggled with corrupted files and not able to recover then you can use third-party software which can repair your excel workbook instantly.
- Always create a backup copy of anticipated corrupting files.
- To have auto-recovery files at various stages of the workbook, set the auto-recovery timing.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Excel Repair. Here we discuss how to repair corrupted excel files with 4 ways – 1) Repair Manually 2) Recover Data from Opened Workbook 3) Setting Calculation to Manual 4) Create Backup Copy. You can learn more about excel from the following articles –
- AutoRecover in Excel
- Enable Macros in Excel
- Track Changes in Excel
- XML in Excel
- Last Day of the Month in Excel
- 35+ Courses
- 120+ Hours
- Full Lifetime Access
- Certificate of Completion
