Encrypted file cannot be opened or repaired by Microsot Excel

Question

Tried to open this morning an encrypted spreadsheet that I use daily. Received the following messages:

We found a problem with some content in 'teste.xlsx'. Do you want us to try to recover as much as we can? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes.

This encrypted file cannot be opened or repaired by Microsoft Excel because it is corrupt.

I am using Microsoft 365 Excel Version 2407 (Build 17830.20094 Click-to-Run).

Tried opening the same file in my wife's computer: worked fine.
She is using Microsoft 365 Excel Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160 Click-to-Run).

Decided to create a new encrypted spreadsheet in my computer. Same message as above.

Something stopped working between 2406 and 2407 regarding encrypted spreadsheets. Both computers are running Windows 11 Home 64 23H2 OS build 11631.3958 Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22700.1026.0

Answer 1

Dear MB_HLX,

Welcome to the Microsoft Community.   Thank you very much for sharing your solution and feedback suggestions, I will take your suggestions and feedback them in our appropriate department.In addition, to help the development department understand the issue more accurately, we recommend that you also post your question or idea (with as much detail as possible, including images, replicated videos, etc. if you can) on the dedicated feedback platform: Ideas · Community (microsoft.com), where it will be followed by a dedicated developer who will comment on your feedback. After sending your feedback, you can share the feedback link in this forum, so that other users with similar questions, including me, can vote for your feedback, and the more votes you get, the more likely you are to get attention from the development team.Thank you for your understanding and support. I wish you all the best.Best regardsIsabella-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 2

Solved.

Root cause of the issue: I removed an old hard drive from my computer that I thought was not being used for anything useful but one of my TEMP environment variables in Windows was still pointing to a folder within that drive.

How I discovered that this was the root cause of the problem: Acrobat Reader tried to do something and complained that it could not find the TEMP folder it needed.

My solution: review all my environment variables and point them to new folders in the C: drive.

Strong suggestion to Microsoft: improve error messages in Excel. If it were not for Acrobat, I would be still thinking that something in the new version of Excel was causing problems with encrypted spreadsheets...