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Cannot open Numbers file in Excel

Suddenly in the last 6 days I can no longer open a Numbers file in Excel. The "Open with Excel" option is missing when right clicking on the Numbers file icon. If I search for Excel app I get an error that Excel thinks the Numbers file is corrupt. This happens on ALL Numbers files. Even if I create a new Numbers file from scratch with just the word test in the first cell and save as Numbers and try to open in Excel it says corrupt. I have rebooted multiple times. I have deleted the Excel cache folder and restarted. I have un-installed both MS Office for Mac and Mac Numbers and downloaded both apps fresh and re-installed. Nothing works. I can open .CSV in both apps no problem. I can open an Excel file in Numbers with no problem. The issue is only happening when trying to open a Numbers file in Excel. I have just spent 1 hour on a call with Microsoft Office support and they cannot identify the issue. I am running Monterey 12.6.2, Numbers 12.2.1 and Excel 16.68. All of these are the latest versions. All three say "software up to date" when I check for updates. As recently as last Friday I could open Numbers files in Excel by right clicking and choosing open in Excel. This issue has started sometime since Friday Dec 16th.

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Dec 22, 2022 1:02 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 22, 2022 1:45 PM

Numbers documents cannot be opened in Excel. You must first export the Numbers content to an Excel .xlsx document or comma-separated-values (CSV) document before either can be selected and opened in Excel.


Numbers v12.2.1 and Excel v16.68 are current of this post date.

4 replies

Dec 22, 2022 1:30 PM in response to LMW314

I realize this is a forum for Numbers and not Excel, but this appears to be a change in how Numbers files are saved that is now unreadable by Excel. MS was at a loss to explain and had no other reports of this yet and they suggested posting here to see if anyone else has the same issue. My Macbook was upgraded to 12.6.2 from 12.6.1 last Saturday and I believe there was a Numbers update in that same download.

Dec 22, 2022 4:48 PM in response to LMW314

I think you must be remembering how you can right-click an .xslx file in Finder and then you will be offered the choice to open it with Numbers (as well as Excel of course).


As VikingOSX points out, you've never been able to right-click a .numbers file and open it in Excel. You've always had to open it first in Numbers and then File > Export to ... > Excel from within the Numbers app.


SG

Cannot open Numbers file in Excel

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