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How to fix corrupted Excel cells in 4 quick steps

4 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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4 solutions to fix corrupted Excel cells

Microsoft Excelis one of the best and commonly used tools to analyse data. This office program is crucial for the day to day work of millions of people around the world. Nevertheless,several errorscan sometimes slow down processes and decrease the efficiency of users.

One of the possible annoying situations, while working inMicrosoft Excel, is when one or more cells of the workbook arecorrupted. If you face this trouble, do not worry: — this article provides you with a solution for this problem.

QUICK FIX: Move the File

Before starting any procedure to recover your workbook, it can be better carrying out two attempts to check if the file is reallycorrupted.

How can I fix corrupted Excel cells?

Solution 1 – Automatic procedure

If the file or workbook is reallycorrupted, you can start trusting firstMicrosoft Excel’s automatic procedure. SometimesMicrosoft Excelcan detect acorruptedcell or workbook, when the file is open.

In this case, the software activates automatically aFile Recovery Mode.The latter will make an attempt to solve a potential problem, without any user intervention.

Solution 2 – Manual procedure

In other cases,Excelis not able to detect the problem, especially if this regards just few cells or if the software version is not the most advanced. If so, you can act to solve the problem. Here, in few steps how you can fix the problem manually.

STEP 1 –Select theFile, click on it and, then,Open

STEP 2 –Select the location and folder that contains the workbook that iscorrupted

STEP 3 –In theOpen box, pick thecorruptedworkbook

STEP 4 –Select the little downward-facingarrow next to the Open buttonand a menu will appear.STEP 5 –Click onthe Open and Repair option. If this option seems to be impossible to open, do not worry, just check that you have selected theExcelfile.

STEP 6 –Click on Repairif you wish to recover most of the workbook data.

Pay attention that you could not have the Repair option. If this is the case, click onExtract Dataand pickConvert to Values or Recover Formulasto extract values and formulas from the workbook. In this way, no matter what, you will keep your data.

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Solution 3 – Recover your data

You may need torecover your datawhile thecorruptedworkbook is open. Besides extracting the data, you could go with another procedure in order to recover as much data as you can. Doing that, thecorruptedcells will not damage the entire work.

The software should have saved automatically from time to time your work inExcel. Normally, you should have saved as well from time to time your work (Never forget to do so). So, you can take advantage of it, switching back to the last saved version.

STEP 1 –Click onFileandOpen

STEP 2 –Click two times the workbook you keep open inExcel

STEP 3 –SelectYesto open again the workbook.

The workbook should open without any changes that could have caused the corruption of your cells or of the entire workbook.

Solution 4 – Copy the file in WordPad

If none of the previous solutions worked, there is another option to try to save the data: open the workbook inWordPad. The latter will transform theExcelinto text, so no formulas will be recovered.

Nevertheless, WordPad will keep the macros. Wordpad is preferable toMicrosoft Word. In fact, if you convert the file in Word, you could find limitation to your data recovering process.

Conclusion

The cell or workbook corruption problem can ruin your day. We hoped this article have solved your problem. Let us know if this was useful by leaving a comment in the space below.

RELATED GUIDES YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT:

How to fix corrupted Excel cells in 4 quick steps#

4 solutions to fix corrupted Excel cells#

QUICK FIX: Move the File#

How can I fix corrupted Excel cells?#

Solution 1 – Automatic procedure#

Solution 2 – Manual procedure#

Solution 3 – Recover your data#

Solution 4 – Copy the file in WordPad#

Conclusion#