By Achilles Hill | Last Updated
Some users have reported that their Excel program generates the following error message when they try to open a spreadsheet: "Excel Found unreadable content". This error message allows you to repair the contents of the workbook. If you continue the recovery process, then Excel will open the file after repairing or deleting the contents. In this case, you may lose data at the end of the repair process, or your file may be empty and have no real data, or the file may be corrupted and cannot be opened.
In this article, I will share with you 8 proven ways to fix excel found unreadable content. It covers the reasons why excel found unreadable content and the best applicable fixes that can help you easily access your Excel files and their data.
1. Excel lacks administrator privileges.
It turns out that this particular error occurs if the user account does not have administrator privileges when opening Excel. Some affected users resolved the issue by opening Excel with administrator privileges before attempting to open the XLS file.
2. Files are considered read-only.
There is an unresolved Office error that sometimes causes Excel files to be considered read-only. This can trigger this error message. In this case, the solution is to move the file to a different folder to refresh the permissions.
3. Excel cache is completely full.
When the cache is full, Excel cannot save files that are opened afterwards. So, if you think this is the case, try closing all the files and reopening them.
4. Missing Visual Basic components.
This problem can also occur if your Office installation is missing the Visual Basic component. You may be able to resolve this issue by installing Office and the Visual Basic component.
5. The file is blocked.
If you downloaded an excel file from the Internet, or if you received it via email, your operating system may have blocked it for security reasons.
6. Hardware acceleration is not supported by the OS.
On low-spec systems, this error is often reported if the system can’t allocate enough resources to support hardware acceleration. In such circumstances, we can go to Advanced Excel Settings and disable hardware acceleration.
7. Excel version and your .xls/.xlsx file has a conflict.
If Excel conflicts with a .xls/.xlsx file, you will not be able to use the file. In this case, it is recommended to convert that file to another format and try to open that file to access its content.
Step 1: Type excel in the Start menu bar, then click Run as administrator in the search results. If there is a UAC (User Account Control) prompt, click Yes to grant administrative privileges.
Step 2: Once you open Excel with administrator privileges, Click File > Open > Browse to open the file where the "Excel found unreadable content" error previously appeared.
Step 1: Open the Excel file that shows the error and click Yes at the error message. Then, click on File > Save As > Browse. Next, enter File name and select Web Page(.htm, html.) from the drop-down menu associated with Save as type. Then, click Save to convert the file to a .html file.
Step 2: Open Excel, navigate to File > Open, and browse to the file you previously converted to .htm/.html format, and select Open.
Step 3: After opening the HTML file in Excel, move to File > Save As > Browse, enter the file name and save the file as Excel 97-2003 Workbook(*.xls). Once the file has been converted to XLS, you should no longer encounter this error.
Another way you can try to access the "Excel found unreadable content" error file is to move the file to a different folder and save it with a new name.
Apart from that, you can also try saving the affected file to any other new folder in the new and then try opening it.
While there is no official explanation as to why this fix worked, many users reported that they were able to successfully resolve the issue simply by moving their Excel files from one folder to another.
This specific error can occur if the Visual Basic component is missing from the Office 2010 / Office 2013 installation. Some users reported that the issue was resolved by installing the Visual Basic components on their PCs.
Step 1: Press the WIN+R keys simultaneously to open the Run dialog, type appwiz.cpl, and click OK to open the Programs and Features menu.
Step 2: Scroll down the list of apps and find your Microsoft Office installation (Microsoft Office 2010 /2013). Once you find your Office installation, right-click it and click Change.
Step 3: Once in the Microsoft Office Settings panel, select Add or Remove Features and then click Continue.
Step 4: Browse the list of add-ins that you can install on Microsoft Office, and expand the drop-down menu related to Office shared Features. Then select Run from My Computer from the Visual Basic for Applications drop-down options. Click Continue and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the Microsoft upgrade. After completing the upgrade, reboot your PC and check if the error is resolved on the next boot.
Some users reported that the error only occurs when multiple Excel files are open at the same time. Affected users believe the issue is related to some kind of cache, when the cache is full, no more documents can be processed.
Therefore, when you get the "Excel found unreadable content" prompt, click No at the prompt and go ahead and close any Excel files you're currently open. Then, open the file separately again and you will no longer encounter the error message.
The specific error message also occurs when the excel file you are trying to access is blocked. This problem mainly occurs with Excel files that are downloaded or received via email. Here are the steps to unlock the excel files.
Step 1: Use File Explorer to find the location of the excel file.
Step 2: Right-click the Excel file and select the Properties option.
Step 3: In the Properties section, move to General tab. Click on the Unblock option and click on the Apply and OK option to save the changes.
If the resources on your PC are not enough to support hardware acceleration, you will also have the problem that excel found unreadable content. However, we can solve this problem by accessing Microsoft Excel advanced settings and disabling hardware graphics acceleration.
Step 1: Open your MS Excel and click on File > Options in the ribbon.
Step 2: In Excel Options, select the Advanced tab from the left window. Scroll down from the right window to find the Display section and check the box Disable hardware graphics acceleration. Click OK to save the changes, then restart Excel for the changes to take effect.
Step 3: Once Excel is back up and running, open the file that previously caused the "Excel found unreadable content" error to see if the problem has been resolved.
iSunshare Excel Repair Genius can fix different types of Excel corruption errors for you. By repairing common Excel xlsx file corruption, this Excel repair tool not only gets rid of troublesome error messages for you but also allows you to regain access to .xlsx sheets that were previously unopenable or unreadable. Below are the specific steps to use this software.
Step 1: Click the Open button in the main interface of the software and then select the excel file you want to recover.
Step 2: Once you have made your selection, click the Restore button in the bottom right corner.
Step 3: Wait for the progress bar to finish loading.
Step 4: After the progress bar is loaded, an alert dialog box will appear that the file is restored, click OK to close the alert box.
Step 5: Click the Save button and choose a suitable location from your PC to save your repaired excel file.
Step 6: When the save is complete, it will appear that the file was saved successfully. Click Yes to view the repaired file.
That's all for the Excel found unreadable content error in .xlsx. Hope the above repair methods can help you recover data from Excel file. Apart from that, I recommend to handle the Excel file properly and make an effective backup of the data stored in it to prevent the occurrence of data loss.
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