Fixing Excel error “The file you are trying to open is in different format than specified by the file extension”

You might have come across this error message if you are regular user of Excel file. The error message you get is - “The file you are trying to open is in different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupt and is from a trusted source before opening the file. Do you want to open the file now?”


At such situation users will always click on “Yes’ button to open the file, but even then also the files does not get opened and you may get blank sheet with no data contained in it. If you have any critical data stored in it then you would definitely like to restore data from it. So, in this post you will learn how to fix excel error o“The file you are trying to open is in different format than specified by the file extension” and recover data.

1 – Use inbuilt Open and Repair utility

You can use inbuilt utility that comes with excel application that is popularly known as Open and Repair to fix this error. Just follow the steps mentioned below:

• Click on Office button
• Then click on Open
• Now select your file
• Now click on arrow located next to open button
• Finally click on Open and Repair

Also Read: 3 quick tips to Fix “Excel 2013 has stopped working” Error Message

Once you perform the above steps, a new dialogue box will get displayed which will inform you “Excel can perform checks while opening the workbook and attempt to repair any corruption it detects, or extract just the data (formulas and values) from the workbook”.

• You can click on Repair if earlier excel was not able to repair the sheet.
• Or you can click on Extract Data if you want to recover data from it.

Use Backup for Recovery

Well, if you have recent backup of your Excel file then you can restore your data easily from there. This is the only reasons why it is always suggested that you must keep backup of everything, so that you can fix errors and restore your files from there very easily.

Use MS Excel Repair

If you are unable to fix the error by using inbuilt utility or if you do not have any backup then you can use world famous third party tool known as MS Excel repair. It is particularly designed to fix any types of excel errors and recover data easily. It is very easy to use as it is user friendly. Free download is also available so that you can check the features of the tool.