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Written By
Simran Bhatia -
Approved By
Sonika Rawat -
Updated on
June 18th, 2025 -
Read Time
4 minutes
Get Best Solutions to Repair Corrupted Excel File for Free
Summary:- Sometimes it might happen that when you run an Excel worksheet, it doesn’t open and you receive a message from Microsoft stating that this file is corrupt and won’t open. Your crucial data and calculations vanish in just a moment. Do not worry at all, because, in this blog, I’ll be providing solutions to repair corrupted Excel file for free. This can be easily achieved with the help of free Excel Recovery Tool. But before trying the recovery tool, you should first try some manual approaches as well.
Methods to Fix Corrupted Excel File
Follow the below-discussed methods provided by Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice:
1. By using Microsoft Excel’s built-in function
The recent versions of Microsoft Excel have a built-in function that allows you to repair damaged files. Follow the steps to open a damaged file:
- First of all, select Open from the main menu.
- Then, open the pop-up menu by pressing the Open button in the lower right corner.
- Next, select Open and Repair from the drop-down menu.
After the completion of this process, Excel will open the spreadsheet containing the repaired data.
The repair algorithms in Microsoft Excel are updated regularly and it can fully or partially repair corrupted Excel file. However, sometimes this method doesn’t help, and Excel can’t repair a damaged .xlsx or .xls file.
2. Opening a file using OpenOffice
From Office 2007, Microsoft Office files share the same format with OpenOffice. That clearly means you can download and install the entire package from OpenOffice.org to try to use it to recover the file.
Note: A file being recovered by using OpenOffice must have an XLSX extension – the standard extension for Excel 2007 and newer files.
If the manual repair does not work properly, there are some recovery methods that will surely help you to repair broken Excel file.
Professional Solution to Repair Corrupted Excel File
To repair damaged Excel file, you need to use a professional tool. One such tool is SysInfoTools Excel Recovery Software. This software supports corrupt Excel files saved with both .xls as well as .xlsx extensions and recovers the maximum possible data from them. It also supports recovery from a single as well as multiple files simultaneously. It has multiple features which swiftly fix corrupted Excel file. I would recommend you to try the free demo version of this tool.
Simple Steps to Repair inaccessible Excel files
Follow the given below steps.
- After launching the Excel file recovery Tool, you have to choose the Select Single file to recover a single Excel (.xls or .xlsx) file. Click the Browse button.
- Select any corrupted or damaged Excel file from the system.
- After that, click on the Next button to proceed.
- This will give you an option to preview the Excel records in a grid form on the basis of the sheets. Hit the show preview button to preview the records.
- After the scanning of the sheet is complete, click on the OK button.
- You will see the preview of a particular sheet after the recovery of the Excel file. Click Next.
- Excel Recovery software offers two efficient features Recreate the Excel file and save the media within the Excel file. Click the browse button to save the recovered file.
- Choose the destination path from the system and click OK. Click on the Save button.
- Once the saving process is completed, close the application.
Read more: How to fix #div/0 in Excel
Bottom Lines
Above, I have discussed how you can repair corrupted Excel file. All the best possible solutions have been given in detail which includes the manual approach as well as the automated tool. Now, it’s up to you to select the right method. Hope it helps.
About The Author:
Simran Bhatia is a technical content writer engaged in writing clear, concise, and SEO-optimized content. With a background in computer science and a passion for writing, I thrive to deliver complex technical content in simple layman terms.
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