Guides / Problems with the contents
“The file cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents”: what broke, and how to get the data out
Updated August 29, 2026
This error is one step past “unreadable content”: Excel opened the archive, tried to recover it, and either gave up or had to amputate a part the workbook can't live without. The Details button usually names the casualty, and that name tells you a lot.
What's inside an .xlsx, and which part failed
An .xlsx is a ZIP archive of XML parts. The ones that matter here:
- xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml … one part per sheet, holding rows of cells. Numbers and dates are stored inline.
- xl/sharedStrings.xml: a single table holding every piece of text in the workbook. Text cells store only an index into this table.
- xl/workbook.xml and the _rels files: the wiring, sheet names, order, and which part is which.
So the details line decodes like this: a removed worksheet part means one sheet's rows are the problem; a removed sharedStrings part means every text cell in the whole workbook goes blank while numbers survive; broken workbook/rels wiring can make Excel reject the file outright even when every row of data is intact.
The free routes, in the order worth trying
- Open and Repair, both modes. Work on a copy. File → Open → Browse, select the file with a single click, open the arrow next to Open, choose Open and Repair… → Repair. If that fails, run it again with Extract Data, a values-and-formulas-only pull that ignores formatting and survives damage Repair can't.
- LibreOffice Calc. Free (libreoffice.org). It parses leniently where Excel is strict, and regularly opens workbooks Excel has declared beyond repair. Save straight to a fresh .xlsx if anything loads. Command-line users can try soffice --headless --convert-to xlsx broken.xlsx for the same effect without the GUI.
- Google Sheets. Drive → upload the copy → right-click → Open with → Google Sheets. Third engine, third chance. It does upload your file to Google, so weigh that for sensitive workbooks.
- Look inside the ZIP yourself. Rename a copy to .zip. If it opens in Explorer or 7-Zip, extract xl/worksheets/ and xl/sharedStrings.xml. Worksheet XML is readable: numbers sit inline (<v>1234</v>), while text cells (t="s") hold an index into the shared strings file. It's a last-resort way to read your data raw. Tedious, but free, and it proves the data exists.
- Recover an earlier version. OneDrive/SharePoint Version history; Excel's File → Info → Manage Workbook → Recover Unsaved Workbooks; AutoRecover files (location shown under File → Options → Save); backups; the email you originally received it in. An intact yesterday beats a repaired today.
When Excel amputates, salvage instead
Excel's recovery removes whole parts it can't parse. FileQuiet takes the opposite approach: it decompresses each entry leniently (keeping whatever inflates, even from damaged streams), salvages worksheet XML row by row up to the exact corruption point, rebuilds the shared string table so text comes back, and writes a clean workbook from everything that survived.
The rebuild runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded, and the network tab proves it. You get a free preview of the actual recovered tabs and rows; no recovery, no pay button. $12 one-time to download.
Preview your recoverable dataHonest limits: bytes that were overwritten or never written are gone for good. No tool recovers those. Formulas are replaced by their last calculated values, most formatting is lost, and encrypted files are out of scope.
Frequently asked
What does “Removed Part: /xl/sharedStrings.xml” mean?
sharedStrings.xml is the single table where an .xlsx stores every piece of text in the workbook; cells only store a number pointing into it. When that one part is damaged and Excel removes it, every text cell in every sheet loses its content at once, while numbers and dates survive. The text often still exists in the damaged part. It takes a salvage of the original file, not Excel's stripped copy, to get it back.
Excel says the workbook cannot be opened or repaired because it is corrupt. Is it hopeless?
Not necessarily. That message means Excel's own recovery gave up, and Excel's recovery is strict. It needs the archive structure and each part to be close to well-formed. More tolerant parsers (LibreOffice, Google Sheets) or a byte-level rebuild that salvages rows up to the point of damage can still recover data. It is only hopeless when the bytes holding your data no longer exist.
Why did my numbers survive but all the text disappear?
Because of how .xlsx files store data: numbers live inline in each worksheet's XML, but text lives once in a shared table that every sheet points into. Damage that one table, or let a repair remove it, and text vanishes everywhere while numbers remain. Recovering the shared string table, even partially, restores the matching text.
Do I need to install anything to repair the file?
Not necessarily. Excel's Open and Repair is already on your machine, and Google Sheets needs only a browser (but uploads the file to Google). LibreOffice is a free desktop install. FileQuiet runs in the browser tab with no install and no upload; the repair engine executes locally on your machine.