Solution To Fix “Invalid XLS File Format” Excel Error

A very common error that most of the excel user may have faced particularly when they tries to open their excel worksheet sent in their email. The following error gets displayed on their screen:

“Invalid XLS file format. Excel cannot open the file 'filename.xlsx' because the file format for the file extension is not valid. “

However this error message is not only for excel files that user gets in their emails but it is often encountered with commonly used file also. Sometime you may also rendered with this situation on your excel workbook on which you are working from long time suddenly starts displaying error message when you tries to open it.

Causes:

The very genuine reason of this error is:
•    The file is not well compatible with the version of excel that is being used.
•    The file has somehow got corrupted.

Also Read: Excel workbook corruption detection, recovery & repair

Resolutions:

If you too are dealing with the same error on your excel workbook then don’t get worried as there are many effective ways to fix this. After following which you can regain access to your
Excel sheet.

Change the File Extension of Your Excel Sheet: 

Sometime this type of error is occurred because of the unsupported file extension of your excel file. To check the xlsx extension support, go to 'My Computer'. Browse 'Tools >> Folder Options >> File Types'. Make a check that 'xlsx' extension is included there or not. If not then rename the file and change '.xlsx' to '.xls'.

Use 'Open and Repair' Option of MS Excel:

For this open your excel document and then go to the 'File >> Open'. Select the file you want to open but don’t make double click on it. Go to the 'Open' drop-down present on the 'Open' dialog box, and after then select 'Open and Repair' option from here. This process repairs the corrupt excel spreadsheet and open it normally.

 Excel Repair Software:

If by trying the above mentioned solution still you are unable to access your excel file then you must take help of a recommended tool that is Excel repair software. Excel Repair Tool is one such software that is well suited to fix corrupt excel sheet and restoration of the entire data without altering the original formatting. The software is well equipped with the facility to deal with such error in different versions of MS Excel such as 2016/2013/2010/2007/2003/XP/2000/97/95 files and Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP/2000/98/NT/95.

For further more information, read: 

Fix Excel Error “Invalid XLS File Format” On Windows OS