How to repair a corrupted workbook in Microsoft Excel 2013 or 2016?

Microsoft Excel is an application of MS Office, used to create spreadsheets. You can access the application on your Windows, Mac, iOS and Android operating system. The application features pivot tables, calculation & graphic tools and much more. VBA, Macros, Lookup Formulas, Conditional Formatting are some of the other exciting features of Excel.

If MS Excel detects a corrupted file, it will automatically initiate file recovery mode and tries to recover your workbook. However, if it fails to begin it automatically, you can follow these steps to repair the workbook manually:

1. Click File and then Open
2. Open the folder containing that corrupted workbook
3. Select the corrupted workbook, click the arrow button available just next to Open button
4. Now, click Open and Repair
5. To recover the data, click Repair
6. If it doesn’t works in your favor, click Extract Data to extract values as well as formulas from the workbook

You can also recover the data when you are unable to open the workbook in Excel. Follow the below mentioned steps to do so:

1. Set the calculation option in Excel to manual
2. Now, open the New from File menu
3. Click Blank workbook
4. Open Options from File
5. Under the Formulas category, pick Manual under Calculation options
6. Click OK
7. Click File and then Open
8. Now, double-click the corrupted workbook to open it

The aforementioned steps will definitely work in your favor. To avoid this situation occur in future, always go for automatic saving of your workbook. If your workbook has a back up, you don’t need to worry when it gets corrupted or deleted accidently. To do so, follow the below mentioned steps:

1. Open MS Excel
2. Click File and then Save As
3. Now, click Computer followed by Browse
4. You will see a Save As dialogue box
5. Now, click the arrow available next to Tools, and click General Options
6. Check Always Create backup box
7. It’s done!

Apart from this, you can also choose "Automatically Create a Recovery File at Set Intervals" by following these steps:

1. Click File and then Options
2. In the Save category, check the SaveRecover Information Every box, which is available under Save Workbooks section
3. Now, enter the time duration after which it automatically creates a recovery file
4. Once it’s done, go to the AutoRecover File Location, enter the location where you want to save the file
5. Ensure that the Disable AutoRecover for this workbook only box is unchecked

If the aforementioned procedure for repairing a corrupted workbook doesn’t work for you, contact Office.com/Setup customer support team and get an instant technical help by a technician. Hope the information was useful!

Source: http://office.com-setupinstall.com/how-to-repair-corrupted-workbook-microsoft-excel-2013-2016/

Lena Smith is the author of this article, she has written various articles on Technical issues.