By Achilles Hill | Last Updated
Do you open EXCEL on the prompt of this file is not in a recognizable format? This message often indicates that the file is corrupt. There are many possible reasons for the system to display such failure messages.
For example, file corruption may be caused by software version conflict; macro virus infection causing file corruption; MS Office crash causing file corruption; improper termination of file causing its corruption and improper system shutdown causing file corruption, etc. So how should we fix "This file is not a recognizable format" in MS Excel? No need to worry, there are 4 ways to solve this problem.
Step 1: Open a new workbook and click on File > Options on the ribbon.
Step 2: Click on the Formulas option in the left window, and under the Calculation options in the right window, change the calculation method of the workbook to Manual (Recalculate workbook before saving). Click OK to save the change.
Step 3: In your workbook click on File > Open, then Browse the file that was corrupted. Select the excel file you need to fix, and choose the option Open and Repair in the drop-down Menu.
Step 4: In the MS Excel pop-up window, click on Repair to recover data from the selected workbook.
I hope this method will help you to solve the MS Excel error that this file is not in a recognizable format. If it doesn't work, please try the next fix.
Sometimes Excel files can't be opened due to a conflict with add-ins. We can try to open the workbook in safe mode and then disable the add-ins.
Step 1: Use the WIN+R keys to open the Run dialog box, type Excel /safe, and click OK to open Excel safe mode.
Step 2: Click on File > Options in the ribbon. In the left window, click on the Add-ins option; in the right window slide to the bottom, click on the Go option next to Manage.
Step 3: Uncheck all add-ins option and click OK to save changes.
Step 4: Close all Office programs and restart excel.
MOC is commonly referred to as the Microsoft Open XML Converter. We can use the MOC.exe file to convert the workbook and then open it in Excel to fix the error that this file is not in a recognizable format in MS Excel.
Step 1: Right-click on any .xls/.xlsx files on your PC. In the drop-down options select Open with and then click on choose another app.
Step 2: You can see that some operating systems consider the file format to be compatible with the app, do not select any apps from the list, click on Look for another app on this PC.
Step 3: Locate to this path "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeVersion". You can see a file name MOC.exe, select it and click OK.
iSunshare Excel Repair Genius is a multifunctional Microsoft Excel repair and recovery tool that works to repair corrupted/damaged .xlsx files without any content modification. This Excel repair tool will not only get rid of troublesome error messages for you, but also allow you to re-access excel sheets that were previously unopenable or unreadable.
Step 1: Download and install Excel Repair Genius on your PC.
Step 2: In the main screen of the software, hit the "Open" button. Find the location where the corrupted .xlsx file is stored, select the corrupted .xlsx file, and click the Open button to add it.
Step 3: Click the "Restore" button in the bottom right corner.
Step 4: Then wait for the progress bar to finish loading.
Step 5: When an alert window pops up that the file is restored, it means your corrupted excel file has been recovered, click OK to close the pop-up window.
Step 6: If you want to view the repaired Excel file, you first need to save it. Click the "Save" option under the progress bar and select a desired place to store the repaired .xlsx file.
Step 7: Hit the Yes button to view, check and modify your excel file.
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