Cannot open a saved Excel file

G

Guest

I am unable to open three of my Excel worksheets. When I try to open them, I
get the message: "Excel cannot access "filename". The document may be
read-only or encrypted." The documents are not marked read-only and I have
never encrypted any of my Excel documents. I cannot use the repair function
because I cannot open the file. I have been working with and updating these
files periodically for the past year or two. I have other Excel files that
are fine. Please tell me there is a way to recover these files! It would be
very difficult to re-create them.
 
G

Guest

I too am having this problem but if I reboot my computer I can get into them
again a time or 2 them it starts over again
 
G

Guest

I'm also having this issue. I can't open any files (excel, word). I have
re-installed the software and this has not helped. It looks like this is a
problem with no solution. If you've found something, can you share it?
 
G

Guest

Encounter this error today. The filename is change to numbers and without any
extension. Anyone have any solution or the file is gone already? Unable to
copy or move the file.
 
J

Jan Karel Pieterse

Hi Ben,
Encounter this error today. The filename is change to numbers and without any
extension. Anyone have any solution or the file is gone already? Unable to
copy or move the file.
Click to expand...

The file with the numbers is your saved file. Rename that to a normal
FileName.xls and your new file is back.

When Excel saves, it first creates a file with a random number as its name. Then
removes the existing file and finally renames the numbered file.

Excel somehow was unable to rename that file during its saving process. One
possible cause may be your virus software, which may have been scanning the file
whilst Excel was trying to rename it.

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com
 
G

Guest

What if you don't have a file name with all numbers? I don't think there is
a way to rename the file (that is unable to be opened)? So are you
suggesting that the virus software be terminated while in Excel?
 
G

Guest

I believe that I am having the same issue - it just started last week. I
save files on a network server - I haven't encountered this issue (yet?) on
my local HDD - and I am the only one in the office having this problem. It
is affecting files I use every month as well as some files that I haven't
touched in months. I thought my virus scanning software was the issue (I'm
running McAfee v 11). I shut it off and thought I had rid myself of the
problem but today I had the issue again. I have a number of files that are
difficult to impossible to recreate so I am desperate to find an answer ---
 
J

Jan Karel Pieterse

Hi Jp,
I thought my virus scanning software was the issue (I'm
running McAfee v 11). I shut it off and thought I had rid myself of the
problem but today I had the issue again. I have a number of files that are
difficult to impossible to recreate so I am desperate to find an answer ---
Click to expand...

The scanner wasn't switched back on without you knowing it?

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com
 
G

Guest

Hi Jan -
McAfee is on my local machine, so I should have complete control over it,
although software seems to be getting more insistent these days. I turned
off the virus scanning and set it to come back on when the machine is
restarted. This also disables the spyware and script scanning features but
not "System Guard" which should only warn me if there are changes to programs
being requested. I'm not 100% sure my issue is with McAfee - I just happened
to start seeing this issue after the latest update. I'm not sure how it
would be able to affect older files that I haven't touched in months and
tried opening while the "new" McAfee was disabled. I really appreciate any
thoughts you might have on this.

Thanks
 
J

Jan Karel Pieterse

Hi Jp,
I'm not 100% sure my issue is with McAfee - I just happened
to start seeing this issue after the latest update. I'm not sure how it
would be able to affect older files that I haven't touched in months and
tried opening while the "new" McAfee was disabled. I really appreciate any
thoughts you might have on this.
Click to expand...

This might be a network problem as well. Try copying the offending files to a
folder on your local drive, see if that fixes it.

If it does, I'm afraid I cannot be of much help in fixing the network problem.
But at least you'll know where to start looking.

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com
 
G

Guest

Hi Jan -

Although I can't move/copy/attach to an email the offending files (I get a
message that states "Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or
write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.") , I have copied
the original files to my local drive and have been able to use them there.
It seems odd that I am the only one in the office having issues with the
network but I will follow that lead. Thanks again for your assistance.
 
G

Guest

Hi Jan:

I thought I would share this in case someone else encounters it -
Apparently it is an issue with our server (running Windows 2003)- there have
been instances where all authorizations on a file or files have been removed.
Our administrator went in and re-established the authorizations to access
the files and that seems to do the trick --
 
J

Jan Karel Pieterse

Hi Jp,
I thought I would share this in case someone else encounters it -
Apparently it is an issue with our server (running Windows 2003)- there have
been instances where all authorizations on a file or files have been removed.
Our administrator went in and re-established the authorizations to access
the files and that seems to do the trick --
Click to expand...

Thanks for letting us know!

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com
 

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