On newest Ipad Pro 12.9”, MS Office Excel suddenly gives “cannot read file” error on all spreadsheets…upon reinstalling, no spreadsheets appear at all anymore

Question

Overnight my Ipad Pro current MS Office version of Excel, cannot read and does not open more recent spreadsheets that I’ve worked on. One of them is over 5 years old, and it is a budget I built that balances to my bank account every month. Each tab is for one month. I built this spreadsheet over 5 years ago, and had an older version that I ran for about 5 years before that…I have never encountered read issues, and now I can’t get it or any other spreadsheet I have created in the last few months, to open at all. I have deleted the app and reinstalled it and once I did that, no .xls file appears at all in any of my directories that were there before I deleted and reinstalled the Excel app.

There was nothing that happened on my Ipad to trigger anything corrupting files, or causing this to happen. I’ve been using Excel going back in the early 2000’s, and now at 66 yrs old and set in my budget balancing ways, I’m about to lose my mind if I can’t find that missing spreadsheet! That budget and checking account balancing spreadsheet took me years to build up to the point where every month I balance it to my checking account 3-4 times. I have checked my icloud and other clouds, and I have never backed up that spreadsheet due to the sensitivity to the data in it, so it is not in a cloud anywhere either. I have spent a couple of days hunting for the missing budget spreadsheet with no luck, and I am going to be absolutely lost without that spreadsheet. I have no idea what could cause any spreadsheet to suddenly disappear and I did nothing on my Ipad Pro to cause Excel suddenly not to work. Upon reinstalling Excel, now there are none of my last 10-12 years of spreadsheets in my files to even read!

Please help!

Answer 1

You have to install the individual components via the iPad App Store (OneDrive, Excel etc) and associate them with the O365 MS Account

Answer 2

How exactly do I associate the MS Office apps with my 365 account? I deleted and redownloaded Word and Excel…Word is working fine now, but Excel will not read any of my spreadsheets that I attempt to open.

Answer 3

Hello Cheryl Silver,   Welcome to the Microsoft Community. I completely understand the anxiety you're feeling right now. The budget balance spreadsheet you've meticulously crafted over the years holds immense significance, and its sudden disappearance is truly hard to accept. Based on the situation you've described, it's possible that the file association with Excel was disrupted after the reinstallation, or the file was inadvertently moved to another location. Here are some suggestions that might help you retrieve the lost file:

Search for Files Utilize the "Spotlight Search" feature on your iPad. Swipe down on the home screen and enter the file name or keywords you remember to see if you can locate the file.

Check the "Files" app under the "Recent" and "Browse" tabs to see if the file you need is there. Sometimes files may be automatically categorized into different folders.

Check iCloud Drive Although you mentioned that you didn't back up the file to iCloud, to ensure nothing is missed, it's still recommended that you log in to your iCloud account and check if there are any synchronized Excel files in iCloud Drive. Sometimes syncing between devices can occur automatically.

Check Other Cloud Services If you've used other cloud services (such as OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.), please log in to the corresponding accounts and check if there are any backed-up Excel files in these cloud services.

If none of the above methods can help you find the file, it is suggested that you contact the OneDrive team. They have professional technical means and experience, and might be able to help you find other ways to solve the problem.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. Best RegardsEliac | Microsoft Community Support Specialist