Cannot save, edit, open files in Microsoft Excel

[benthewraith]

I'm getting tons of issues opening, saving, and editing files in Microsoft Excel. My checkbook is basically unrecoverable.

Files saved give errors that they are read only or the same name as a read only file, despite not being read only.

Opening

Finance_Spreadsheet.xls cannot be accessed.

The file may be read only or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or the server the document is stored on may not be responding.

Opening 2:

Excel cannot open this file.

The file might have been damaged or modified from its original format.

Saving:

 

[r.j.s]

Have you tried a restart?

 

[benthewraith]

Have you tried a restart?

Just did. Didn't help any.

 

[Gregg2]

Safari Shortcuts

Just a minute, wrong thread!
Ok, ignore that topic line.

Try replacing the Excel plist file.

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist

Move it to your Desktop
Restart Excel

 

[Mugwumper]

So what have you tried? ;^)

Just did. Didn't help any.

Can you re-install Excel?

Do you have a backup copy (maybe from a few days ago) that you can try?

Do you have NeoOffice or OpenOffice (free to download, if you don't), and
see if either of them will open the file? Or Numbers?

Can you make a copy of the file and then try to open that? Can you open
the copy with TextEdit to see if it's even readable?

How big is the file? That is, how many rows?

When I've had large files, I have often broken them into a year's worth of
transactions - that seems to keep things manageable. Plus, I can go back to
last year's as a backup if something bad happened.

Also, I've never kept my stuff in /Users/(name)/Documents or whatever -
yeah, I know that's heresy . . . ;^) I've always created a /Financial folder
at the same level as /Users.

Let us know what other things you've tried. Also, what changed recently
that might have caused this? Or what have you been doing that might
have stepped on this file?

Hope this helps . . .

 

[benthewraith]

Can you re-install Excel?

I could.

Do you have a backup copy (maybe from a few days ago) that you can try?

Yes, doesn't work.

Do you have NeoOffice or OpenOffice (free to download, if you don't), and
see if either of them will open the file? Or Numbers?

They will open in Numbers.

Can you make a copy of the file and then try to open that? Can you open
the copy with TextEdit to see if it's even readable?

I can make copies of them. Opening them up in TextEdit shows them blank.

How big is the file? That is, how many rows?

150-200 rows. The excel worksheet only covered expenses for this year.

When I've had large files, I have often broken them into a year's worth of
transactions - that seems to keep things manageable. Plus, I can go back to
last year's as a backup if something bad happened.

That's what I do.

Also, I've never kept my stuff in /Users/(name)/Documents or whatever -
yeah, I know that's heresy . . . ;^) I've always created a /Financial folder
at the same level as /Users.

I have a financial folder in Documents.

Let us know what other things you've tried. Also, what changed recently
that might have caused this? Or what have you been doing that might
have stepped on this file?

Hope this helps . . .

I had to do a complete reinstall of OS X after a bad 10.6.3 update.

Just a minute, wrong thread!
Ok, ignore that topic line.

Try replacing the Excel plist file.

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist

Move it to your Desktop
Restart Excel

This also did not work.

 

[Gregg2]

Open the file in Numbers.
Open a blank Excel file.

Cmd-A in Numbers, Copy.
Paste in Excel file. Save.

Worth a try...
You'll probably lose some formatting.

 

[benthewraith]

Open the file in Numbers.
Open a blank Excel file.

Cmd-A in Numbers, Copy.
Paste in Excel file. Save.

Worth a try...
You'll probably lose some formatting.

I did that. Any file in Excel is coming back with the error when saving.

Hell, I typed in yo in A1 hit save and gave it the name yo and it came back with the error.

 

[r.j.s]

I did that. Any file in Excel is coming back with the error when saving.

Hell, I typed in yo in A1 hit save and gave it the name yo and it came back with the error.

Something in Excel is corrupt ... You might have to reinstall Office.

 

[nadyne]

You don't say which version of Excel you're using. The first thing to do is to check to see if you're up-to-date with your updates. Excel 2008 is currently at 12.2.4, and Excel 2004 is currently at 11.5.8. Go to Help -> Check for updates to get the latest and greatest.

It sounds like you've been using Excel for some time, and that this just happened. Any idea if you've done anything between the last time you were able to save successfully and today?

Other than updating and trying to re-trace your steps to figure out what might have caused this, this is probably your next step:

Something in Excel is corrupt ... You might have to reinstall Office.

And if that doesn't work, then I'd give tech support a call. You get two free calls to tech support with your purchase of either Office 2008 or Office 2004. Alternately, you could see if the folks in the Excel:Mac forums have any ideas.

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[benthewraith]

You don't say which version of Excel you're using. The first thing to do is to check to see if you're up-to-date with your updates. Excel 2008 is currently at 12.2.4, and Excel 2004 is currently at 11.5.8. Go to Help -> Check for updates to get the latest and greatest.

It's at the latest and greatest.

It sounds like you've been using Excel for some time, and that this just happened. Any idea if you've done anything between the last time you were able to save successfully and today?

Enabled FileVault, which I'm fairly certain was where the issue lies.

Discovered today that if I move the files off the Filevaulted user, the file opens just fine. So I'm guessing it has something to do with FileVault and Excel. Haven't checked to see if Powerpoint was having these problems, however Word doesn't.