Microsoft Excel for Mac database corruption (sqlite)

Question

Dear Microsoft Support Team,

we have problems with Microsoft Excel for Mac. Whenever we start the application it asks to recover the last state of a document. It doesn't state which document it wants to repair and if we accept it opened up the last couple of documents that we have worked on. This only occurs once whenever the application is started. In the console there are hundreds of errors like:

Microsoft Excel database corruption at line 89345 of [2b954060f]

/Applications/Microsoft Excel.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Excel (/usr/lib/libsqlite3.dylib)

Subsystem: com.apple.libsqlite3 Category: logging

Activity ID: 0 Thread ID: 0xcf71 PID: 715

What can we do to solve the problem? Where is the sqlite database stored? Can we delete them so that Excel creates a new one?

Kind regards,

Oliver

Answer 1

Hi Eli,

the original error states that the SQLite database is corrupt. Of course Microsoft is using a framework provided by Apple, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. But if what you say is true, then it would not even work with a new profile since the whole SQLite framework on macOS would be affected. My assumption is that the SQLite database created and used by Excel is corrupt and either needs to be fixed or deleted/recreated. I have been asking where this database is stored but so far I have not been able to extract this information from this thread. Please forward this request to a higher level support member so that we can find out how proceed and solve the issue.

Thanks in advance,

OPN

Answer 2

Hi Eli,

the proposed solution did not work. The error message is still popping up. Here is what I have done, additionally to removing the AutoRecovery folder under /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.<product>/Data/Library/Preferences/:

• Reinstalled Excel for Mac 2016, same issue
• Reinstalled the whole Office for Mac 2016, same issue
• Cleared /Users/<username>/Library/Caches/ and /Library/Caches/, same issue
• Removed the whole /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/ folder, same issue

Then I created a temporary user, logged in and started Excel without problems. I have also installed a tool called fsmonitor, it will show all filesystem events (writes, deletes, etc.) to monitor what changes are made to the system when opening Excel but apart from accessing the users's container folder under Library there is not much else going on.

Can you please assist me with the next steps?

Answer 3

Hi Eli,

unfortunately I have not been able to verify the proposed resolution. I will be able to test it this afternoon and let you know afterwards, until then I can't approve that your answer solved the problem.

Answer 4

Hi Oliver，

May I know if the issue has been resolved by following our suggestions? If you need further assistance, please share more information I mentioned with us. We are willing to continue helping you here. 

Regards,

Eli

Answer 5

Hi Oliver,

According to your information, it seems that the files might not be deleted automatically last time, so it prompts every time.

If it is in this situation, I would suggest you try checking the AutoRecovery folder and delete the AutoRecover files manually. You can find the files in the Finder under /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery.

(Note: Make sure you have the files you need or back up them before deleting.)

For more information, you could refer to the part of Find an automatically saved AutoRecover file in Recover files in Office for Mac.

If the issue remains when you have try the suggestions above, I would like to confirm following points:

1.As your described, seems that you open Excel (not a Excel workbook) will prompt you to repair and if you accept the requirement, it opens the last couple of documents. Is it in this situation?

2.Will the prompt will appear when you open a document directly (double click on a file)? If so, does the issue occur when you open every workbook?

3.Please share the screenshot of error message and your current Excel version with us for further assistance.

Regards,

Eli