Excel 2016 file problems

Question

I have a user that have a problem when all his saved Excel 2016 files now open in Read-only mode.  The files in Windows 8 are not set to read-only.

This user also can not save any Excel files.  The save process goes through the process of saving the file but then reports**:**

The document was saved successfully, but Excel cannot re-open it because of a sharing violation. Please close the document and try to open it again.

I have done a full on-line repair of their Office 365 Excel 2016 Business Premium 32 bit software but no change to these two problems. These files are stored on the ocal drive C; and not on any fileserver / OneDrive / Dropbox shared folder.

How can I fix these two problems?

Answer 1

Thank you for reading my post.  I have found the answer.

The anti-virus system AVG Internet Security 2017 now has a specialized Ransomware management centre. Somehow, over the last few day of July (29 to 31) the Excel Windows application program was flagged to be blocked as Ransomware.  This causes the Excel to read any files in Read-Only and will not allow Excel to save files (Sharing violation.)

Anyone else looking for a solution to their simular problem, check with your Internet security / anti-virus software settings first.

Answer 2

In reference to this new link.  I checked this and my user does / did not have any Custom XML. Also this Custom XML removal work-a-round is not practical when dealing with hundreds of Excel files that are all opening as Read-Only within Excel only.

Answer 3

Hi Yleclerc,

Glad to hear you've solved it.

For anyone else who may run into the similar issue, you can also try the workaround provided by Don and AV_Jon in this thread. (Don's steps are for Excel 2013, in Excel 2016, we need to go to "File" > "Info" > "Check for Issues" > "Inspect Document". )

Regards,

James