How to Repair Corrupt Excel 2013 Files?
Summary: This post outlines how you can identify corruption in an Excel file. Once you have identified corruption, use the built-in ‘Open and Repair’ utility or an Excel repair software to repair corrupt Excel 2013 files. Also, you can try restoring the file data by following the workarounds, as discussed in this post.
Also read: [Resolved] Excel 2016 Won’t Open XLS Files
Sometimes, when trying to access an Excel file it won’t open or throws errors. This usually happens due to corruption in the file. Although Microsoft doesn’t offer a manual on MS Excel file corruption, understanding it is not that difficult. However, there are ways to repair and recover corrupted Excel workbook.

Identifying Corruption in an Excel 2013 File
Sometimes, you may receive a message suggesting corruption in a workbook. But there can be times, when you might not even know it has turned corrupt. This can be bad because corruption might worsen if not treated on time, leading to potential data loss.
Thus, keep your eyes open for the following tell-tale signs of Excel corruption:

- Errors on File Open – More often than not, if a workbook is corrupted, any attempts to open or access the file will result in errors or warnings such as:
- “Excel cannot open the file <filename>”, because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.
- “The workbook cannot be opened or repaired by Microsoft Excel because it is corrupt”.
- Sudden AutoRecover Warning – The AutoRecover feature of Microsoft Excel acts as a fail-safe. It saves copies of all open Excel files at a fixed interval that the user can define. The files can be recovered if Excel closes unexpectedly.
So, if you come across AutoRecover warning message “An unexpected error has occurred. Autorecover has been disabled for this session of excel“, it’s a sign that something has gone wrong.

Your immediate step on seeing any such warning should be to save the workbook. However, a corrupted workbook that’s already loaded in the RAM (opened) cannot be saved intact. When you try to save it, the Office will try to auto-repair the workbook that may cause unprecedented effects like the disappearance of some information.
- Unexpected Excel Crash – The most evident sign that there is some problem with the workbook is an unexpected termination of Excel with the message “Microsoft Excel has stopped working…” A sudden Excel crash could occur due to corruption or any other reason such as bugs or problems with VBA code or improper patching of your Office version.
You might be interested in reading: How to Fix Excel Crash Issue?
Repairing Corrupt Excel 2013 Files
Following are some ways that can be used to repair Excel 2013 workbook and recover data from it:
1. Restore from Backup
It goes without saying that if you have the most recent backup of your Excel file, you can easily restore the file from the backup. But if the backup isn’t available or it isn’t updated, try the next workaround.
Note: Before performing the following workarounds make sure to back up your Excel file.
2. Repair Excel File with Open and Repair Utility
When Excel detects a corrupted workbook, it automatically starts ‘File Recovery mode’ and attempts to repair the corrupt Excel 2013 workbook. If this mode doesn’t start, using the built-in ‘Open and Repair’ utility may help fix the corrupted workbook. Here’s how:
- Open Microsoft Excel 2013.
- Click File -> Open.

Figure 1 – Open the Corrupted Excel Workbook
- Browse and select the corrupted workbook.

Figure 2 – Browse and Select Corrupt Excel File
- Click the arrow next to the Open button in the open dialog box, and then click Open and Repair.

Figure 3 – Run the Open and Repair Utility
- Choose Repair to fix corruption in the corrupted workbook.

Figure 4 – Repair or Extract Data
If you’re unable to repair the workbook, try recovering data by clicking Extract Data. If this doesn’t work, try recovering data by using the following workarounds.
TIP: If the ‘Open and Repair’ method fails to repair a corrupted Excel workbook, use a professional Excel file repair tool to repair XLS/XLSX files in just few simple steps with precision and maintaining data integrity.
3. Restore ‘Autorecovered’ Excel File
Excel comes with a built-in ‘Auto-recovery’ feature that automatically saves unsaved spreadsheets.
Note: The Excel AutoRecover feature works only for those workbooks that have been saved at least once.
You can try the auto-recovered feature to recover your Excel file data. To do so, follow these steps:
- Open your Microsoft Excel 2013 application.
- Click the File tab from the main menu, and then click Options.

Figure 5 – Select Options in Excel 2013
- In the Excel Options dialog box, select Save and copy the AutoRecover file location under ‘Save workbooks’.

Figure 6 – Check Location of Autorecovered Excel File
- Browse the AutoRecover file location and you will be able to see autosaved versions of the Excel file.
Note: By default the ‘AutoRecover’ feature is set to ‘Save AutoRecover information every 10 minutes’. You can change the interval and make it less or more than the default time as per your needs.
4. Office Document Recovery
The Document Recovery task pane automatically opens when you launch Excel after a sudden crash so you can get your file back. Click the arrow next to the recovered file in the Document Recovery task pane, and choose Open or Save As.
Note: This option might not be available if the workbook has been severely corrupted.
Repair Corrupt Excel 2013 File by Using Excel Repair Software
If you fail to repair and recover Excel file by using manual workarounds, Excel repair software from Stellar® can be of great help. It helps scan the damaged XLS/XLSX file. If the file is corrupt, the software repairs it and previews all the components stored in the file. You can then save all the recoverable contents to a blank new Excel workbook.
Read this: How to repair corrupt Excel file using Stellar Repair for Excel?
The Excel file repair software from Stellar® can fix all types of Excel file corruption errors and restore your data. It is compatible with MS Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, and lower versions. Also, it can help you repair single or multiple XLS/XLSX files simultaneously.
Final Words
So the next time you encounter a dreaded Excel corruption warning, don’t be tempted to try out the fixes right-away. First, take care to not get confused by odd warnings; the reason behind the corruption might not be what it looks like. Second, know what the repair process might do to the workbook; the resultant file might not contain some of the data. Third, use the workarounds discussed in this post to fix the issue.
If nothing works, use Stellar Repair for Excel software to repair corrupt Excel 2013 files and get back your data in its original state.
I had lost all hope after failing to repair my excel spreadsheet for the 4th time.
Since my workbook contained extremely crucial data, I gave my final try to Stellar Repair for Excel , and it showed me the content of my spreadsheet, so I bought it and repaired my file successfully.
Thanks Jyoti for helping me repair my file!
Dear Ron,
Thank you so much for leaving the comment. It’s good to know, our Excel repair software worked for you.
Keep Reading!
Hello,
MS Excel is working fine; suddenly it was showing the auto recovery message “An unexpected error has occurred. AutoRecover has been disabled for this season of the Excel. ” I clicked on OK button and my file was showing the corruption error message. Now, I can’t open my file. Help plz!
Hello Dejan,
Copy the file from one location to another location and try to open it. If it is not opening then, download the demo version Stellar Repair for Excel software and repair your corrupt Excel file.
Good Luck!
Amazing, you saved me.
I am very thankful to you for sharing this article. You made my day and saved my 2-month work. I am using MS Excel from school time and never faced this kind of problem before. Excel tried to open my file, and after few seconds, it closed automatically. With other, excel files it was working properly.
I got my all excel files on my laptop corrupted and now I am not able to open any. Tried all options, also tried downloading third party softwares, but it is also showing “file is severely damaged cannot be repaired”
Please help!
Hi Nitesh,
Send you corrupted file to our support team at support@stellarinfo.com.
Good Luck!
Hello,
I sent my file to forum contributor and waiting for one week, but, didn’t get a response. I already tried the four methods before reading this blog. Stellar excel repair software repair my file successfully.
Jyoti,
I have downloaded an Excel file from email, which is showing the same error message. A person, who sent me this file, doesn’t have the backup of it. I know some methods to repair corrupt Excel file with Open and Repair but can’t fix the problem. I just want to know the reason of this issue.
Reck,
There is no fixed reason of this problem. It can be Ms Office issue, dirty shutdown, Virus, Malware, closing the application abnormally, etc. Download Stellar Repair for Excel software and repair the file.
I hope it will be work for you.
Good Luck!
When I am trying to open my file then, it is opening with the black screen. How can I fix this?
Hi Fred,
The blank screen issue occurs when the setting of MS Excel has changed. To work around this issue, you can try this:
1. Open MS Excel
2. Go to File tab->Options
3. Click on Advanced
4. In General, section, uncheck the box Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)
5. Click on OK
If you have further queries, then feel free to ask.
Thank you!
I have an important file of my senior, and when I opened it, an error message was appearing on the screen about file corruption. We do not have the another copy of it. I read this blog and tried your Excel repair tool. It works
Thanks a lot, Judith,
I tried so many methods to repair my Excel file. After reading Judith comment I checked my drive and, I had a copy of my Excel file in google drive. 🙂
Hello.
I Badly needed you help. What does it mean when a dialog box appears that states “We found a problem with some content in ‘name of the file’. Do you want us to try to recover as much as we can?” and if yes only numbers were seen on the worksheet, is it corrupted? How can I recover my lost data?
Thank you so much.
Hi Anne,
This error message means the Excel file is corrupted. You can try the following options:
• Update your MS Office with the latest patches.
• Check this “%appdata%\Microsoft\Excel\” and if you have any file or folder in it then move those files to some another location.
• Try to disable the hardware graphics acceleration from Excel->Options->Advanced->Disable hardware graphics acceleration. Click Ok and restart MS Excel.
If above options won’t work then, try Stellar Repair for Excel tool. Download the demo version from here: https://www.stellarinfo.com/repair-excel-file.php
I hope it will work for you.
I had a low battery on my laptop and, I was doing very important work. Suddenly the charge goes down of the laptop. I charge it and opened to continue my work. Due to a sudden power issue, my file became corrupted.
Stellar Excel File repair helped me as a secure and safe option. I also want to share some points, that a use should remember:
· Save the data during the work.
· Immediately connect the charger when low battery message appears on the screen.
· Update the software by latest updates.
· Save the copy of a document in google drive of any external device.
· Always use a licenced antivirus program.
Hi Judith,
Thanks for sharing your experience with our readers. Points that you have mentioned are also important and the user should take care of it.
Keep reading!
Fantastic stuff!
Your software worked very well. It recovered all formulas from corrupt file. I have started backing up my files.
My Excel file was corrupt and I only read the repairing corrupt Excel file section of this blog. Second option is the life saver for me.
I am getting sudden auto-recover warning every time when I was opening my Excel file. I am not aware of this corruption indication. Thanks a lot
I like this post and all methods seem very important. I am using MS Excel from past 8 years and sometimes its unexpected behaviour made me hopeless. I will definitely try these methods on my two corrupt files. Thanks for sharing.
I have created an excel file with VLOOKUP function and it was working perfectly. Today, I sent the file to my friend via email and he opened the file then VLOOKUP functions are not working and showing #N/A error.
What is #N/A error in VLOOKUP function?
Hi Winsy,
VLOOKUP function error #N/A means “not available”. This error occurs When excel can’t find the value for VLOOKUP function. There are many reasons of this error:
1. A typo error
2. In case of approximate match in VLOOKUP
3. In case of exact match in VLOOKUP
4. Text in number (Example ‘56996)
5. Leading or trailing spaces etc.
Try to send the excel file as ZIP to your friend.
I hope it will help you!
I had the same VLOOKUP function error and your solution worked like magic for me. Thank you so much.
Nice Post but, I read so many blogs of MS Excel and steps that you have mentioned are not unknown for me. You combined the solutions in a single blog post which is appreciable.
Ohh. i really like this. It would go really nice with my comments. Thanks. I’ll get on it.
Hello Jyoti,
Thank you so much for your great effort and time you put into making this post very helpful.
I got the same error message which you have mentioned in the blog. I used the second method as you have mentioned and it worked well.
I am using MS Office 2007 and a little bit confused during creating a backup file of my workbook. Can you please describe it in details for me?
Hi Nora,
When you will click on the Save As option then a Save As pop up will be open. As you are using Excel 2007 then, see the Tools option in the bottom of the left hand side. Now click on the General options and tick the check box of Always create backup.
The backup file location will be same as original file location. If the original file name is test.xlx then backup file name will be Backup of test.xlk .
The password option is only for file security and it is not necessary to give a password to create the backup file.
Thanks