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Problem with old Excel files in Windows 10
Thread poster: Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
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Dutch to English
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Jan 29, 2020

I had Windows 7 on my old PC moved to a new laptop with Windows 10 and Office 365. I can open my old Excel files via a detour I found on the internet but not save them or copy and paste the contents into a new worksheet. These files are very important to me. Has anyone had this problem and found a solution?

 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
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:-) Jan 29, 2020

Tina Vonhof wrote:

I had Windows 7 on my old PC moved to a new laptop with Windows 10 and Office 365. I can open my old Excel files via a detour I found on the internet but not save them or copy and paste the contents into a new worksheet. These files are very important to me. Has anyone had this problem and found a solution?


Hi Tina,

Can't say that I have, but I could have a look if you want, assuming the contents isn't all too confidential.

Michael


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
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Danish to English
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Just how old are they? Jan 29, 2020

My oldest .xls files are from 2002, and I have no problem opening them in Office 365 on Windows 10.

If you have Office 365, you also have support, so if you can't solve the problem with online resources, you may want to contact Microsoft support.


Germaine
 
Hugh Thomson
Hugh Thomson
Spain
Spanish to English
Have you tried... Jan 29, 2020

to open them in the (free) Libre Office suite?

esperantisto
 
Tanguy Przybylski
Tanguy Przybylski  Identity Verified
Japan
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Use other software Jan 29, 2020

If you can't open your files,

The easiest way is to install a free program that is compatible like libreoffice or Polarisoffice (the free version) and to save them into xlsx format.
Then you should be able to open them without to much problem in the lastest MS office.

I recommand Polaris office because it is the most compatible with MS office thus you have less risk of font/size troubles.

Unless there are huge problem with the files themselves (files
... See more
If you can't open your files,

The easiest way is to install a free program that is compatible like libreoffice or Polarisoffice (the free version) and to save them into xlsx format.
Then you should be able to open them without to much problem in the lastest MS office.

I recommand Polaris office because it is the most compatible with MS office thus you have less risk of font/size troubles.

Unless there are huge problem with the files themselves (files corrupted but it is not likely since you can open them in a different way) this easy trick should do the job I think

Have a nice day

[Modifié le 2020-01-30 05:04 GMT]
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Tony M
Tony M
France
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Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER
One workaround I have found for some problem files... Jan 29, 2020

...is to upload and open them in e.g. Google docs, then save them from there in some other format, and download again; this has saved my bacon on a number of occasions, though admittedly, not with XLS.
Once I had to go DOCX > Google > ODT > [OpenOffice] > DOC > WordXP — and it worked very well! This was a DOCX file that refused to convert using the Office compatibility pack.


 
Giuliana Maltempo
Giuliana Maltempo
Argentina
Local time: 20:56
Member (2023)
English to Spanish
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Check Office support Jan 30, 2020

Tina Vonhof wrote:

I can open my old Excel files via a detour I found on the internet


What exactly do you mean by this?

Also, is this happening with your old files only? Can you edit and save new speadsheets?

By default, Office opens files transferred from other computer and downloaded from the internet as "read-only", meaning you cannot edit nor save them. Other possibility is that you Office has not been activated.

Check this link to Office's support page. Hope this helps


 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:56
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Sounds odd Jan 30, 2020

Tina Vonhof wrote:
I can open my old Excel files via a detour I found on the internet but not save them or copy and paste the contents into a new worksheet.

Sounds odd. I have files from the late 1990s that I can open without problems in the Excel that comes with Office 365.

What three-letter extension do these files have - is it .xls, or .xlm, or...?
How are you trying to open them? Double-click in Windows Explorer?
What happens when you try to open them?

Dan


 
esperantisto
esperantisto  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:56
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Yes, LO or AOO Jan 30, 2020

Hugh Thomson wrote:

to open them in the (free) Libre Office suite?


Yes, try LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice. Both feature very good support of XLS files. With LO, you can save files to XLSX as needed (but do not do it for ongoing work, work only in ODS). AOO, in my experience, is more stable when handling large files.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
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@Tina Jan 30, 2020

Tina Vonhof wrote:
I had [an] old PC, [and] moved to a new laptop with Windows 10 and Office 365. I can open my old Excel files via a detour I found on the internet but not save them or copy and paste the contents into a new worksheet.


I have no problem opening Excel files of all different types in Excel 365. But another way to get the data from such files is to go to the Data tab and select Get Data > From File, and select the old Excel file. This will import the data.


 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 17:56
Dutch to English
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TOPIC STARTER
@Giuliana Jan 31, 2020

Giuliana Maltempo wrote:

Tina Vonhof wrote:

I can open my old Excel files via a detour I found on the internet


What exactly do you mean by this?

Also, is this happening with your old files only? Can you edit and save new speadsheets?

By default, Office opens files transferred from other computer and downloaded from the internet as "read-only", meaning you cannot edit nor save them. Other possibility is that you Office has not been activated.

Check this link to Office's support page. Hope this helps


Thank you for your questions. They helped clarify what is happening.

1) I found several suggestions on the internet for opening an Excel file via several other steps in the program rather than opening it directly. Using one of these methods I was able to open the files but not do anything else with them.

2) I checked and it also happens with a newly created file.

3) By opening them directly the files are not 'read only', they are just a grey blank page. The menu bar does not work either. This happens even to files from a USB drive (i.e. not transferred to my new laptop).

Altogether this suggests that the problem is not with the files but with the program. I will go to support.


 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 17:56
Dutch to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Many thanks! Jan 31, 2020

Thank you all for your questions and suggestions. It's clear to me now that the problem is with the Excel program, not with the files. All other office programs are working except Excel - that doesn't make sense. I will contact support and i'll let you know what I find out. If all else fails, I could use one of the free programs, it's good to know that there is that option.

Thanks again,
Tina


 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 17:56
Dutch to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Mystery solved Feb 3, 2020

I discovered that with Windows 10 came a trial version of Office 365. A few days ago I received a notice that I would be paying for the full version automatically on Feb. 1, like it or not. That's when I began to suspect that the trial version did not include Excel and that turns out to be the case. As of today all my files are opening just fine.

I'm happy about that, of course, but bothered by the fact that Microsoft can just force you to buy a program that you never needed or wan
... See more
I discovered that with Windows 10 came a trial version of Office 365. A few days ago I received a notice that I would be paying for the full version automatically on Feb. 1, like it or not. That's when I began to suspect that the trial version did not include Excel and that turns out to be the case. As of today all my files are opening just fine.

I'm happy about that, of course, but bothered by the fact that Microsoft can just force you to buy a program that you never needed or wanted.
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Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:56
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Is that fair? Feb 3, 2020

Tina Vonhof wrote:
I'm happy about that, of course, but bothered by the fact that Microsoft can just force you to buy a program that you never needed or wanted.

Could you not have used the version of Excel included in your previous edition of Office, for which you no doubt still have the media?

Dan


 
esperantisto
esperantisto  Identity Verified
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Then… Feb 3, 2020

Tina Vonhof wrote:



I'm happy about that, of course, but bothered by the fact that Microsoft can just force…


Use free software and support the Free Software Foundation.


 
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Problem with old Excel files in Windows 10






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