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"Sorry, we couldn't find XXX is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?"

Anonymous
2018-03-01T16:27:27+00:00

When I try to open an Excel file from File>Open>Recent often times I will get the following error message: "Sorry, we couldn't find XXX is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?"

If I go to the actual folder it's stored, I see files that I did not create and are not associated with a program named "59AEA700" or "86A20700" for some of them, I can add a .xls extension to (works about 50% of the time) and I can open the file.  

What could be causing this? It's getting rather annoying losing my work.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-07-10T23:47:47+00:00

    I had this same issue with trying to open a CSV file. 

    What I found was that the path to the file was very long (along with a very long file name).

    When I copied the file in Explorer to a directory that had a short path (e.g., C:\Temp), Excel opened it. 

    So I'm thinking that there is a Windows limitation to the length of path and file name.

    90+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2018-08-30T14:40:02+00:00

    I had this same issue with trying to open a CSV file. 

    What I found was that the path to the file was very long (along with a very long file name).

    When I copied the file in Explorer to a directory that had a short path (e.g., C:\Temp), Excel opened it. 

    So I'm thinking that there is a Windows limitation to the length of path and file name.

    Same here. Long path: nogo. Short path: opens. Even though I changed the registry settings for long filenames. VERY annoying. Windows 10 in 2018. And we can still not use long filenames. Oh yeah, for I forget: no Onedrive involved.

    60+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2018-03-01T18:00:01+00:00

    Hi Jared,

    It's possible that the file might have been corrupted. To help you resolve your concern, please follow the answer of Emi Zhang on this post. It's similar to your concern.

    Do let us know if you have any other concerns.

    50+ people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2018-03-05T05:46:47+00:00

    Thanks Raymond.  I followed steps outlined in the link attached, but am still experiencing the same issues.

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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