CSV UTF-8 Files Saving at Extremely Large File Size

Question

Hello,

I’m reaching out regarding an issue I’ve been experiencing with Excel over the past month.

Previously, when I created a file in Excel and saved it as a CSV UTF-8 file, it consistently saved at the correct file size (around 99 KB). However, within the last month, following the same exact process, the file now saves at approximately 52,000 KB, even though visually the data appears unchanged.

Because of this, I have to reopen and rebuild the file just to reduce the size again.

My question is**:** How can I prevent Excel from saving CSV UTF-8 files at this inflated size so the file saves correctly the first time?

Any guidance on what might be causing this or how to resolve it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi @Vivian Denson,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

According to your concern, the reason the CSV file is saved in a large capacity is due to the worksheet used range. Even though CSV strips all formatting, Excel exports every cell inside the used range of that Excel worksheet. There are several reasons that can make the used range expands (e.g. a whole column/row was formatted, a filter was applied to the entire sheet, or paste data into cells then delete). That can make your file grows up a lot in capacity (from 99 KB to 52 MB).

You can check by

• Pressing Ctrl+End on the worksheet to identify your actual last row and column with data.
• If it jumps far below of your last real value, delete all of it
• Save the workbook to make sure Excel recalculates the used range
• Reopen the file and try export it as a CSV UTF-8 file

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, you can try workaround and share us more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.    

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to your response.

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Answer 2

Most people add formulas to their sheet that usually contain something like:
=IF(A1="","", ...
and fill these formulas far down.

This cells are not empty and so your CSV-file go a lot of empty rows at the bottom.

A CSV-file is a text file, not an Excel file. Open the file with e.g. Notepad and check the contents.

Andreas.