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flew's avatar
flew
Explorer | Level 3
8 years ago

Issue with Excel - "Excel file format is not valid"

Excel file format is not valid.  Please help as unable to open Excel.
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  • Brandos's avatar
    Brandos
    8 years ago

    I think I found the solution.

    If you disable the office dropbox add-in the problem doesn't seem to occur anymore. You can still save to dropbox via file explorer making it redundant anyhow.

    to do this, open excel, go under file, Choose "Options", and navigate to "add-ins".

    From there locate the Dropbox Add-in and right click, select "disable".

    Should stop it from being an issue.

Rich's avatar
Rich
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
You need to provide more information about the problem you're having. Are you opening Excel files from the Dropbox folder on your desktop, or the Dropbox website? Does the problem only occur with files in your Dropbox folder, or elsewhere on your computer as well? Have you dragged one of the problem files out of your Dropbox to your desktop and tried to open it from there? Mac or PC? Office version? etc.
Brandos's avatar
Brandos
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago

I think I found the solution.

If you disable the office dropbox add-in the problem doesn't seem to occur anymore. You can still save to dropbox via file explorer making it redundant anyhow.

to do this, open excel, go under file, Choose "Options", and navigate to "add-ins".

From there locate the Dropbox Add-in and right click, select "disable".

Should stop it from being an issue.

  • lbarry's avatar
    lbarry
    New member | Level 2
    6 years ago

    I have been using my dropbox account for a few years with no issues. Recently, when I was saving a file (which Iregularly use) a message popped up saying I needed to "grant access" to save the file to the location. It was a random message that had never come up before but I granted access and was able to proceed. This has appeared a few times for different files since then. 

    Now my lastest issue is that it won't let me open a file. The error message states:

    "Excel cannot open the file 'George Cycle 2.xlsx' because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file."

    I use these files regularly and this has just come out of the blue. 

    All ideas as to why this has started happening would be great!!

    Thanks!

    • Jane's avatar
      Jane
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      6 years ago
      Hey lbarry, I appreciate your prompt message detailing us what this looks like on your end. Kindly note that I’ve moved your thread under this discussion here, as other users have posted some workarounds that have proved helpful in resolving this discrepancy. To recap, here’s a few helpful tips to get you going: 
       
      Spoiler
      #1. I’d recommend unlinking & relinking your account on your desktop once, as it recreates the local database. 
      #2. Check the file path length. 
      #3. You may have to repair the file extension. 
      If you’re still getting the same results after trying my suggestions, I’d appreciate it if you included a screenshot in your next reply here, so as to get a better idea of the issue at hand?
       
      Please do keep me updated on the results you’re getting on this discussion here & thanks again for taking the time to try my suggestions. Looking forward to hearing back from you! 

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