Error in .CSV file from Mac 2016 Excel

Question

Dear Microsoft Community - 

We're Office365 customers and many of our users use Mac's. For the most part, people have been very happy with the Office 2016 upgrades for Mac.  The problem reported below may be unique to the new version, but we think it may have existed for some time.    

We have multiple users reporting the same issue where .CSV files created/edited in Office for Mac 2016 Excel are not readable by the processing applications.  We are in the financial services industry and we have some applications where we need to upload a .CSV file to a financial institution for processing. Their system is rejecting the file if we save it as any of the following formats: normal .CSV, Windows .CSV or MsDos .CSV in the Mac version of Excel.  If we edit and/or create the file in a full Windows based instance of Excel, the file loads correctly on their side.  Reading some online forums this seems to be a known issue but I can't find any work arounds for it other than using Windows.  I'd appreciate any help or guidance the community can offer. 

Thank you,

Jeff

Answer 1

Thanks for the comments Jim and Arshad. 

I know the issue is unique to editing CSV files on the Mac version of Excel.  If you Google the issue, you'll see lots of treads talking about how Mac's safe the file differently, and other people I know have reported the same issue now that I ask around.  We also know this is not related to uploading the file from a Mac. If I take a CSV file edited in a Windows version of Excel, it uploads and processes correctly. If I open it in Mac 2016 Excel, and just hit save (no change to anything), it somehow changes the files to where it's no longer a valid .CSV file.

Our company works in the financial services space, and we have several applications where we need to upload data to an institution for processing.   Most of them have a web based front end to their applications that allows users to upload data per a .CSV template. For example, we have a data base with customer accounts, and it has their name and address.  We receive address change notifications in the mail, and rather than change them one by one, we put them in the template, and upload them for processing to all the account records.  If we enter them in Windows Excel, everything goes fine - the system reads in the file and processes each change per the template to the data base. If we open it in Mac Excel, I cannot figure out how to save it properly because as soon as we even try to attach the file - it gives us an error message and says the file is not a valid .CSV file format.

Answer 2

I have the same problem.  If I save as CSV using Excel 2016, it cannot be processed.  Open the file in Excel 2011 and save again and it can be processed.  The 2016 file is larger.

Answer 3

I guess what Arshad is trying to say is that he thinks (but didn't test to find out for himself) that the files made in Excel 2016 on the Mac are the same as those made on a PC. He suspects the cause might be the file system or web browser.

So that I don't replicate steps you may have already taken, have you compared the code behind a file made by Excel for Windows and one made by Excel for Mac?

Answer 4

@ Arshad: What does ASAI mean?

Answer 5

What application is in use where the csv files are uploaded? ASAI there is no difference between csv file created on windows and created on mac. But I somehow feel this is happening only if you try to upload it from mac. If that is the case, make sure you have all updates installed for mac and office. The current version of office should be above 15.14 and above.