"This workbook cannot be opened or repaired by Microsoft Excel" — next steps.
Excel showed "This workbook cannot be opened or repaired by Microsoft Excel because it is corrupt," which means its own repair path has already given up. FileFix uses a different rebuild — scanning surviving members and writing a fresh workbook — and shows the validated sheets and rows first. A one-time $14 — and only if the repair works.
Free preview — pay only if you download ($14)
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 a few minutes.
Starting upload...
Recovering what we can.
Analyzing your file...
Here's what we recovered.
Review the recovery summary before checkout.
Your files auto-delete — delete them sooner anytime
No person looks at your file as part of repair
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.
Try another fileGood 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.
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, AIFF, XLSX, DOCX, PPTX, ODT, ZIP, PDF, AI, HEIC, and HEIF). We're adding support for more formats over time.
Something went wrong.
The request could not be completed.
Try repairing your file
FileFix can often repair this kind of damage if the file is recoverable.
Why this happens
This message is Excel's final verdict: it recognized the file as a workbook, attempted its built-in Open and Repair, and could not produce a document it would open. It does not identify which member is damaged or prove that every sheet is unrecoverable.
The cause is usually a damaged ZIP index or a worksheet and shared-string XML that Excel's parser rejects. Because Excel's repair works within its own strict rules, a package it declines can still hold readable members that a more tolerant rebuild can extract.
FileFix reads the local ZIP records directly, recovers worksheet and shared-string XML where possible, writes a new .xlsx, and validates it with an independent workbook reader. The summary shows the sheet names and row counts that survived, so you see the outcome before paying.
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 Recovery Summary You see exactly what we recovered — sheet names, row counts, and a small sample.
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Pay & Download 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.
See what's recoverable.
Free recovery summary · private & auto-deleted
Browse by problem
Questions
Yes, when the failure is in parts Excel refuses to read rather than truly absent data. FileFix uses a more tolerant rebuild and only offers checkout when it can produce and validate a repaired workbook.
Excel enforces strict package rules and stops when a member breaks them. A separate engine can salvage readable members and rebuild a valid container, though it cannot restore parts that were genuinely lost.
Only the sheets whose XML can be recovered are included; unrecoverable sheets are left out rather than faked. The free summary lists the sheets present in the validated output so the difference is visible first.