"We found a problem with some content in 'file.xlsx'".
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 limited watermarked worksheet pages from a rebuilt copy. A one-time $14 USD — and only if the repair works.
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.
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Starting upload...
Recovering what we can.
- Upload received
- Repair in progress
- 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.
Simulated checkout — no payment is processed.
Optional — we'll email your private download link.
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
We couldn't recover this one.
The file is too damaged to rebuild, so there is nothing to preview and no charge.
What stopped you continuing? One tap tells us why.
Try a deep repair
The repair engine can try a longer pass on the file you already uploaded.
Machine-only processing; no human views files; nothing is sent to an outside AI.
Have another clip from the same device?
A healthy video recorded on the same device — ideally the same settings — gives the repair engine a template to rebuild from. It can unlock repairs that fail on their own.
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.
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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.
The dialog itself is a fork: clicking Yes tells Excel to remove whatever it could not parse and open the rest, which can be exactly right — or can quietly cost you the sheet you needed. That is why the log Excel offers afterwards matters, and why keeping the untouched original file safe before you click anything gives you a second path if Excel's version comes back incomplete.
Before any repair, check the recovery avenues you may already have: a version history in OneDrive or SharePoint, an earlier copy in sent mail, or the source system that exported the workbook in the first place. A clean earlier copy is better than any rebuild, because repair can only work with bytes that still exist in the damaged file.
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 preview shows limited watermarked worksheet pages from the rebuilt workbook. Inspect the downloaded workbook to 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
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Upload Drop the file in. It uploads over an encrypted connection. The repair runs automatically — no person looks at your file.
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Free watermarked preview You see watermarked pages of the recovered worksheets.
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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
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Questions
Not by itself. The message means part of the workbook package failed Excel's checks — the rest is often intact. A rebuild may recover readable worksheet content. The free preview shows limited watermarked worksheet pages from that rebuilt workbook.
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.
The removal happened in the copy Excel saved, not in your original file. If you still have the untouched .xlsx, upload that one — a separate rebuild works from everything still inside the package, not from what Excel chose to keep.
Excel discards package parts it cannot parse rather than repairing them. A different engine may recover some of those parts. FileFix's preview shows limited watermarked worksheet pages from its own rebuilt workbook.
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.