FileFix

"We found a problem with some content in 'file.xlsx'" — what to do.

Excel showed "We found a problem with some content in 'file.xlsx'. Do you want us to try to recover as much as we can?" because it detected an inconsistency in the workbook package. Upload the .xlsx to see the sheets, row counts, and a masked cell sample recovered from a rebuilt copy. A one-time $14 — and only if the repair works.

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

Files up to 2 GB.

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

Your files auto-delete within 48 hours

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 a few minutes.

Starting upload...

Recovering what we can.

Analyzing your file...

Here's what we recovered.

Review the watermarked preview before checkout. Previews are capped at 90 seconds.

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.

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. You can try another file.

FileFix can't fix that kind of file yet.

Right now we repair video, audio, and document files (MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, AVI, TS, MTS, M2TS, MPG, MPEG, VOB, 3GP, WebM, M4A, WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, AIFF, XLSX, DOCX, ZIP, and PDF). 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.

Something went wrong.

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Why this happens

This prompt appears when Excel opens the package but finds a worksheet, shared-string, or relationship part that does not match what it expects. Excel offers to strip out what it cannot read, which can produce a working file — or one that silently drops the content you needed.

Run Excel's recovery on a copy and check its repair log and your key sheets before trusting the result. If the recovery removes important data or Excel still cannot open the workbook, the damaged parts need a different rebuild rather than another removal pass.

FileFix scans the surviving ZIP members, applies fault-tolerant recovery to worksheet and shared-string XML, and writes a fresh .xlsx that it validates with an independent reader. The free summary lists the sheets and rows the rebuilt workbook actually contains, so you can compare it against what Excel offered to keep.

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.
  2. We rebuild it. The repair runs automatically — no person looks at your file.
  3. Read the summary, then decide. You see exactly what we recovered — sheet names, row counts, and a small sample. If the summary shows what you need, unlock the repaired Excel file for a one-time $14.

You see a recovery summary built from your actual file before you decide anything — so you never guess.

Upload your workbook

Free recovery summary · files auto-delete within 48 hours

Upload your workbook

Questions

Should I let Excel recover as much as it can?

Try it on a copy and review the repair log Excel produces. Save any result under a new name and confirm your important sheets survived; if the recovery drops what you needed, upload the untouched file for a separate rebuild.

Why does Excel's recovery sometimes remove data I needed?

Excel discards package parts it cannot parse rather than repairing them. A different engine may recover some of those parts, which is why the FileFix summary reports what its own rebuilt workbook contains.

Does opening the file in Excel first make repair harder?

Working from the original untouched .xlsx gives the engine the most to recover. If Excel has already saved a stripped-down version, keep the original copy and upload that instead.