Excel keep "repairing"/"recovering" a workbook

[JenniferMurphy]

I have a workbook I have been working on for many weeks. When I opened it this morning, I got this error message:

I clicked "Yes" and got this message:

When I tried to save the workbook, I got this message:

I clicked "Yes". When I reopened it, I got the same messages. This happens over and over.

Then I noticed that the "recovered" file is just 82 kb. The last version I saved was 246 kb.

What is going on here and how can I get my workbook back?

Thanks

 

[ISY]

Hi

XML & ZIP: Explore Your Excel Workbooks File Structure

Excel files are actually ZIP files. You can easily unzip them and see all the underlying XML files and folders. Here is what you should know.

professor-excel.com

 

[JenniferMurphy]

Hi

XML & ZIP: Explore Your Excel Workbooks File Structure

Excel files are actually ZIP files. You can easily unzip them and see all the underlying XML files and folders. Here is what you should know.

professor-excel.com

OK. I did the unzip and read the professor-excel page. I didn't see anything showing how to find the problem and, more importantly, how to fix it.

 

[ISY]

Hi
You can move content between two Excel zip files
Hoping to get a result

 

[JenniferMurphy]

Hi
You can move content between two Excel zip files
Hoping to get a result

There are about a dozen folders and subfolders. Each one contains one or more .xml or .bin files. Probably 30 or more in all. I don't have the slightest clue as to what top do with all that.

 

[JenniferMurphy]

I didn't have a recent backup, but I was able to reconstruct the damaged workbook manually. I opened the damaged workbook and let Excel "repair" it. Those repairs did not survive a save, but they workeds as long as I kept that workbook open. So I created a brand new, clean workbook and copied elements from the "repaired" workbook to the new clean workbook, testing periodically to make sure that it could be saved, closed, and re-opened. I now have a fully working workbook.

I think the problem might have been when I tried to move two tables around on the same sheet. The error occurred shortly after I did that. From now on I will not put two tables on the same sheet.

Excel does not have tables completely figured out yet. Another example came up when I was moving things from the "repaired" workbook to the new one. I selected 3-4 sheets and tried to copy them to the new workbook. I got a message telling me that I cannot copy more than 1 sheet containing tables. Another of the myriad gotchas.

PS: I am marking this as the solution even though it is a very tedious and annoying solution. But it is only a solution to my problem. As far as I know, there is no solution to the bug in Excel that causes a repaired workbook to not be repaired.