FileFix

"Excel found unreadable content".

Excel showed "Excel found unreadable content in 'file.xlsx'. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook?" because it could not parse part of the workbook package. Upload that .xlsx and see limited watermarked worksheet pages from a rebuilt copy. A one-time $14 USD — and only if the repair works.

Drop a broken Excel workbook here — the free preview shows what's recoverable before you pay.

XLSX

Files up to 2 GB.

Free preview — pay only if you download ($14 USD)

Your files auto-delete — delete them sooner anytime

No person looks at your file as part of repair

Uploading your file.

Keep this tab open while the file transfers. Large files can take longer.

Starting upload...

Recovering what we can.

  1. Upload received
  2. Repair in progress
  3. Result ready

Analyzing your file...

Here's what we recovered.

Review the watermarked preview before checkout.

Repair your file

Choose a supported file to see what can be repaired before checkout.

You preview before you pay. If the download is materially worse than the preview you approved, we'll refund you.

Your files auto-delete — delete them sooner anytime

No person looks at your file as part of repair

Try another file

Good news — your file isn't damaged. No charge.

There's nothing to repair. If it still looks broken, the issue may be the player, codec, or viewer on your device rather than the file itself.

We couldn't recover this one.

The file is too damaged to rebuild, so there is nothing to preview and no charge.

Unrepaired files are kept encrypted for up to 30 days, then deleted.

FileFix can't fix that kind of file yet.

Right now we repair video, audio, document, and image files (MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, AVI, TS, MTS, M2TS, MPG, MPEG, VOB, 3GP, WebM, FLV, M4A, WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, AIFF, XLSX, DOCX, PPTX, ODT, ZIP, RAR, PDF, AI, HEIC, and HEIF). We're adding support for more formats over time.

We store just your email and the file type — never the file itself. One message, when it's ready. No spam.

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Why this happens

The "Excel found unreadable content" dialog means Excel recognized an .xlsx workbook but found a package member or XML structure it could not read consistently. The problem can be in a worksheet, the shared-string table, a relationship, or the ZIP records around those parts.

Choosing Excel's own recovery prompt may produce a usable file, but it can also remove the part it could not parse. Work from a copy and inspect any recovery log Excel provides. If Excel still cannot open the workbook, FileFix uses a different path: it scans surviving ZIP members, repairs worksheet and shared-string XML, rewrites the package, and validates the rebuilt workbook.

The free preview shows limited watermarked worksheet pages from that rebuilt .xlsx; it does not imply that a missing worksheet, formula, style, or embedded object was recreated.

Upload your workbook

What we can and can't recover

We can usually fix

  • Files that show "Excel found unreadable content"
  • Files Excel calls an invalid format or extension
  • Workbooks cut off mid-save or mid-transfer
  • Files that show the right size but won't open

We can't fix

  • Password-protected/encrypted workbooks
  • Genuinely empty (0-byte) files
  • Deleted or formatted files (that's data recovery, a different job)
  • The old binary .xls format (this repair is for .xlsx)

How it works

  1. Upload Drop the file in. It uploads over an encrypted connection. The repair runs automatically — no person looks at your file.
  2. Free watermarked preview You see watermarked pages of the recovered worksheets.
  3. Pay & download If the preview shows what you need, unlock the repaired Excel file for a one-time $14 USD.

You see watermarked pages from your rebuilt workbook before you decide anything — so you never guess.

See what's recoverable.

Free watermarked page preview · private & auto-deleted

Upload your workbook

Repair guides

Questions