If you have ever had problems with an XLS file, you have surely encountered errors like this more than once: “Excel cannot open the file because the format or extension of the file is not valid. Check if the file has not been corrupted or if the extension of the file matches the format of the file”.
Yes, it can be very unpleasant, and we can find ourselves with a mess that we may not know how to solve. In this article we are going to explain to you with a few simple steps how to solve this problem, so you no longer have to worry about this error, you will know how to solve it in two by three every time you get a warning like that. However, before getting into the matter, do you know what an XLR file is and how to open one?
How can you fix this problem from your PC?
First we need to change the extension of the Excel file. Next we are going to explain how to do it in a very simple way, and the truth is that doing this is not that difficult.
You just have to locate the file and with the right click select the copy option, go to any place where you can have your file and with the same procedure copy it there, only this time you must select the paste option.
Now you must rename your file, any other name you prefer but at the end of the name you must add “.xls” as an extension.
Another solution to the problem would be to open the Excel file in safe mode. Sometimes it works to open files with this type of corruption if they are opened in safe mode. To do this you must first press the Windows key followed by the letter R (Windows + R). In this way the search engine will appear.
You must write: excel /safe. And then click OK. And voila, this way you will be able to run the Microsoft Office Excel application in safe mode. On the other hand, you can take the opportunity and learn how to protect or set an Excel file to read-only status.
How to open Excel file with Google Docs?
If you haven’t tried it yet, we recommend you give it a try. It seems that for many people Google Docs has been a real relief and has gotten many people who have had this problem out of trouble, so if by chance the two possible solutions that we gave you previously for some reason have not worked for you, Google Docs is your third choice. However, you can learn how to import Excel files and sheets to Google Docs step by step.
We have given you three simple steps to solve the file error with a message that tells us that they are not valid and do not allow us to move forward, we hope they have been useful, however if not, if we still have the problem other options within our reach, so let’s not give up everything so soon.
One way is to open the Excel file using the Open and Repair function. What are we talking about? How do we do this? Don’t worry, although I told you that they are advanced solutions, they are not complicated at all, you just have to do the following:
Start the Office Excel app
Then you must either go to the File menu or the Microsoft Office button and click Open. In the Open dialog box that will appear, search for and select the file in question, the one that is giving us problems. Then finally click the down arrow on the Open button, then click Open and Repair again.
You can also recover Excel files from the previous version. Right-click on your inaccessible file, then go to “properties” option and select it.
You must open the tab that will appear with the name “Previous version”. After this you will see a list of all previously stored versions of this file. Finally choose the correct version and click on “restore” in this way the selected version will be recovered.
At this point you should have already solved the problem, but if you still can’t, your last option might be to use free data recovery software, for example EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free.
This is the most secure and reliable file recovery tool, it is also very easy to use, with just a few simple steps you can quickly recover deleted Excel files. You can also learn how to recover an unsaved Excel file or document.
