Converting OemOobe.Document back to Excel.

Question

All of my Excel files have changed to OemOObe.Document files.  I cannot open them.  When I am prompted with "open with" Excel is not a program listed.  I tried the following from a 2013 post, to no avail.

If Excel is not listed, you may do the following:

Right click on the file>Open With>Choose Default Program.

Click on Browse and navigate to ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 14\EXCEL.exe’ or ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office 14\EXCEL.exe’ in case of 64-bit Operating system and click Open.

Similarly for PowerPoint navigate to ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 14\POWERPNT.exe’

I have office 365 and Excel on my desktop.  I am trying to access the file via my computer not online

Please help.

Answer 1

Hello VikkiJean,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Since you are using Excel 2016 you need to follow these steps:

From My Computer or Windows Explorer find an Excel file which has changed to OemOobe.Document and right-click on the file > Open With > Browse.

Now navigate to the following location:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 16\root\Office16 or C:\Program Files (x86)*Microsoft Office 16\root\Office16*

Note: If you are on a 64 Bit computer (64 Bit Windows 10) then you will find the Office16 folder in the following locations.

From your Windows Explorer: Browse to the location C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 16\ClientX86\Root\Office16 or C:\Program Files (x86) \Microsoft Office 16\ ClientX64\Root\Office16.

Look for the file: Excel or Excel.exe.

Select the Excel or Excel.exe icon and then click on Open.

Check if the above steps help.

Thank you.

Answer 2

My issue was solved when I went to Control Panel>Programs>Programs and Features>Uninstall or Change a Program.

Selected Microsoft Office 365. That should give an option to Change or Repair. Select the full Repair while connected to the internet. If only Change is shown, select that and Repair is an option within that. It seems to do a full re-install of Office, which takes a while depending on your connection. But Hey! it worked for me. Hope it works for you.

Answer 3

Hi Geoff,

We see that you quoted Mohan Surnayarayan's resolution to this thread.

Have you tried following the troubleshooting steps he provided? In addition to his answer, we also recommend that you try to check if the setting for default file format for saving workbooks is set correctly. You can refer to this articleto see if you can set it to .xls format when saving the workbook.

Keep us updated with the status of this concern.

Answer 4

Hello VikkiJean,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Since you are using Excel 2016 you need to follow these steps:

From My Computer or Windows Explorer find an Excel file which has changed to OemOobe.Document and right-click on the file > Open With > Browse.

Now navigate to the following location:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 16\root\Office16 or C:\Program Files (x86)*Microsoft Office 16\root\Office16*

Note: If you are on a 64 Bit computer (64 Bit Windows 10) then you will find the Office16 folder in the following locations.

From your Windows Explorer: Browse to the location C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 16\ClientX86\Root\Office16 or C:\Program Files (x86) \Microsoft Office 16\ ClientX64\Root\Office16.

Look for the file: Excel or Excel.exe.

Select the Excel or Excel.exe icon and then click on Open.

Check if the above steps help.

Thank you.

I have the same issue with some of my xls. files bening converted to oemoobe files however when I try this solution posted above  I only have a select few apps to choose from and for some reason 2016 Excel is not an option?

I am very confused and frustrated.

Please help.

Answer 5

I renewed my Office 365 Personal three days ago. Since then all my old .xls files have changed to OemOobe.Document files.  I cannot open them. I have tried all the solutions above and on other blogs. None work. I try opening with Microsoft Office Click-to-Run IntegratedOfficeExe (the only option available) except Excel. When I select Excel here or in any other process to align a file type it says I have a later version of Office installed which I should uninstall. I am not prepared to uninstall because a) that leaves me with nothing, and b) I;ve just paid a full year subscription for a package which does not work in the sense that it is not backwards compatible. In addition to old files not being accessible, new files sent as eMail attachments from contacts still using older versions of Office cannot be opened. What to I need to do?