Ways to Fix the “Failed to Parse the Corrupted Excel File” Error

Summary: While parsing an Excel file, you may experience the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error. It usually occurs if the Excel file is corrupt. This blog covers some easy fixes to fix this Excel error. It also mentions an advanced Excel repair tool that can help fix the issue by repairing the corrupted file.

You may encounter the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error when parsing (extracting or converting) the data in an Excel file. This error usually occurs if the Excel file is corrupted – either completely or partially (some of its objects, like formulas, macros, and values are corrupt). However, there are various other reasons that may lead to this Excel error. Let’s know the possible causes behind the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error and how to fix it.

Causes of the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” Error

This error could occur due to any of the following causes:

• Damaged or corrupted macros
• Excel document is closed suddenly
• Issues with Excel application installation
• Virus or malware attack
• Hardware failure
• Bad sectors on the hard drive

Ways to Fix the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” Error

Here are some possible ways to fix this error and recover the Excel file.

Method 1: Try to Save the File in a Different Format

Sometimes, the error can occur if the file format is not compatible with your Excel version. You can try saving the file to a different format. To do this, follow the below steps:

• Open the Excel file.
• Click on the File option and then select Save As.
• Click on Browse option and then click Save as Type.

• Select the desired Excel file format and click Save.

Method 2: Revert to the Previously Saved Version of the Excel File

You can try reverting to the previously saved version of the Excel file. Here’s how:

• Open your Excel application.
• Navigate to File > Info > Manage Workbook.

• Click Recover unsaved workbooks.

• Click on the Restore option you see at the top of the file.

Method 3: Set the Calculation Option to Manual

When the calculation mode is set to automatic, Excel automatically recalculates all the formulas in the file even if you make a minor change. It can take time to load the file and stop you from parsing data in your Excel file. You can change the calculation option to manual so that Excel only recalculates when you explicitly tell the application to do it. Here are the steps:

• Open your Excel application.
• Navigate to File and then click Options.
• In Excel Options, select Formulas.
• Under Workbook Calculation, select Manual and click OK.

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Method 4: Use Open and Repair Utility

You can try repairing the corrupted Excel file with Excel’s inbuilt tool – Open and Repair . To use the tool, follow the steps cited below:

• In Excel, go to the File tab and then click Open.
• Click Browse to select the corrupted file.
• The Open dialog box will appear. Click on the corrupted file.
• Click on the arrow next to the Open button and then click Open and Repair.
• You will see a dialog box with three buttons Repair, Extract Data, and Cancel.

• Click on the Repair button to recover as much of your work as possible.
• After repair, a message will appear (as shown in the below figure).

• Click Close.

What If None of the Above Methods Works?

The above methods may fail to work if the Excel file is severely damaged. In such a case, we recommend using an efficient Excel repair tool , such as Stellar Repair for Excel. It can quickly repair corrupted Excel (.XLS/.XLSX) files. It can recover all the objects from the file, including charts, tables, formulas, etc. You can download the free trial version of the tool to preview the recoverable data.

Conclusion

Above, we have discussed some tried and tested methods to fix the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error. If the Excel file is severely damaged or corrupted, you can try repairing it using a third-party Excel repair software, like Stellar Repair for Excel . It can repair multiple Excel files without affecting the original formatting. The tool is compatible with all Excel versions.

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