Level 7

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Trying to export a Report to Excel. 'Excel cannot open the data file' error message. No problem with exporting .CSV file. How can I fix this?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
December 11, 2018
8 replies
7 views

Excel version 2016. QB 2011. Done it hundreds of times before, even after upgrading to Excel 2016. Never had any issues till today. I was trying to export a Client Balance report. Restarting QB did not help. Exporting as CSV file and opening in excel is okay, but I wanted the excel formatting. Thanks.

QuickBooks Desktop

Best answer by nicole11_2

Hello apemaya,

I'd like to test out a few troubleshooting steps to start:

Restart the computer.
Open QuickBooks.
Access the report and send to Excel.

Please let me know how these steps work out for you, and we'll go from there. Thanks!

N

nicole11_2Answer

Hello apemaya,

I'd like to test out a few troubleshooting steps to start:

Restart the computer.
Open QuickBooks.
Access the report and send to Excel.

Please let me know how these steps work out for you, and we'll go from there. Thanks!

L

lindak1119Author

Level 7

Thanks! This was the solution I needed!

J

JoyCornerstone

This does NOT work for me. I have the same problem but the reboot did not solve it.

AlcaeusF

Level 14

Hi, @JoyCornerstone.

Thanks for trying over the steps provided above. Allow me to step in for a moment and help fix the error you're getting when exporting reports from QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) to Excel.

To start off, let's update your QuickBooks to the latest release. This will help you download the changes, improvements, and fixes that were made to QuickBooks. Here's how:

1. Go to the Help menu at the top, then pick Update QuickBooks Desktop on the drop-down.
2. Select the Update Now tab, then check the box next to Reset Update.
3. Click Get Updates.

For your reference, you may visit this article: Update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release. Next, let's run the Verify and Rebuild utility. This tool will fix any errors it can find and notify you of anything that needs to be manually corrected.

To run the Verify and Rebuild utility, here's how:

1. Go to File menu at the top, then pick Utilities on the drop-down.
2. Select Verify Data.
3. Once done, go back to Utilities, then click Rebuild Data.

You can also check out this article for further guidance: Verify and Rebuild Data in QuickBooks Desktop. Once done, try to export your report again to Excel. If you're still getting the same results, you can repair QuickBooks Desktop to fix program-related issues or errors.

That should get you fixed right up! But if the issue persists, please let me know so we can try other steps to get this working. I'll be here if you need further assistance.

W

westwater

I'm having the same issue and none of the above fixes worked.

J

Jeff Berg

Updating Excel fixed this problem for me.

In Excel:

-> File

-> Account

-> Office Updates

-> Update Now

J

Jeff Berg

Updating Excel fixed this problem for me.

In Excel:

-> File

-> Account

-> Update Options

-> Update Now

BettyJaneB

Level 9

Hi there, @Jeff Berg.

I appreciate you sharing your inputs here in the Community about fixing the error when exporting a report to excel in QuickBooks Desktop.

This information will surely benefit other users. Also, I have here some articles about exporting MS Excel files in QuickBooks for yout future reference:

Feel free to post again if you have any questions about QuickBooks or any thoughts you might want to share.

Thank you and wishing you and your business continued success.

D

dso0216

Having the exact same issue with a client 2018 QB desktop Pro. I've been attempting to export a report to excel and get the message "excel could not open the data file". Randomly, this started happening about 2 weeks ago. I've run the update to no avail.

The CVS file will export which I can convert to excel but I don't understand why it's happening randomly. Been using Excel with QB desktop for years.

AMAcpaPC

I killed so much time over this. I decided to reinstall Windows 10 since I thought I was having other issues.... I wasn't new Window updates were messing my system up, but the Excel export is working.

Try a Clean Boot https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows,

but when it says to disable all non-MicroSoft office programs, don't uncheck the QuickBooks programs. The either programs have the name Quickbooks under the 'Service Name' or Intuit under the 'Manufacturer' name.

Once you restart from a clean boot, see if export to Excel will work. If it does, then once of the programs you disabled is the cause, which you'll find out as you enable one program grouping at a time - as described in the Clean Boot.

D

dso0216

I would do that but this is my client's QuickBooks file I'm working with at their location. I'm not touching their Windows or uninstalling anything.

D

DebraP

I tweaked instructions for another error and it worked for this one! Save and close any open Excel files. Use CTRL-ALT-DEL and select the Task Manager. Under the Processes tab, look for instances of Excel.exe and select End Process. This should allow you to export your file from QuickBooks to Excel without rebooting your computer or shutting down QuickBooks.

D

dso0216

Debra P,

Definitely going to try that one when I'm at my client site tomorrow. So far they've not gotten the file to work with excel.

M

mjami

I installed excel 2007 and it fixed the problem I was having .

C

Candice14

Level 8

Hey, @mjami.

I'm glad to hear that installing Excel 2007 helped to resolve this issue.

If you have any questions you'd like to ask, just let me know. I'm always here to lend a helping hand.

Orchestra2001

I am using a newly purchased Quickbooks 2021 Desktop for Mac Software on a new Macbook Pro running Big Sur V. 11.2.3, and a 2019 Microsoft Suite for Mac that I confirm is fully updated. Exporting the P&L Detail to Excel, even with this ideal setup does not work. I receive error alerts from excel and the text portion of the data does not show up in the excel spreadsheet. In this chain of comments alone, the export errors are widely reported by others and a known issue to Quickbooks. I had two calls that each lasted an hour with Quickbooks and was able to run a utility that confirmed there were no problems with the data in my quickbooks, and there were still pop up errors and alerts even when generating the report on sample data. In the second call I allowed a screen share for a more complete examination of the issue and the customer service rep claimed the error is a problem with Excel. I am disappointed with Quickbooks customer service. They directed me to contact Excel/Microsoft Customer Service, which was fruitless for me and wasted additional hours of my time. It is Quickbooks responsibility to design their product to work with other softwares that it claims are compatible. It is not fair for this large company to expect individual customers to contact other companies about a design flaw in their product. My Excel software seems to be running perfectly, does not require an update and the Microsoft Customer Service team found no issues with it.
I am eager to resolve this so that I can deliver P&L detail excel reports for my nonprofit. I do not have an IT department to dedicate time to resolving this. Will also say the Customer Service people were doing the best they could with a poor set of tools to resolve customer complaints. I am sharing this comment in the hopes it helps someone else making a decision about investing in the software. If Quickbooks wishes to reach out to me to take a third try at resolving this issue I am open to it. I cannot see a way to begin a new thread in this community page.

C

Catherine_B

Level 9

Hello there, Orchestra2001.

We aim to provide you the best experience. This isn't the kind of impression we'd like you to have when exporting reports to Excel and getting help from our Customer Support Team.

What specific error message you're getting once you try exporting your Profit and Loss report to Excel? We currently have an open investigation about the "Excel could not open 'list' because some content is unreadable" error while exporting reports to Excel in QB Mac 2021. If you're getting the same error, I'd recommend reaching out to our Customer Care Support Team so we can add your account to the notification list. All updates and the permanent fix to this issue are sent via email.

If you're getting a different message, I'd suggest performing the repair process for both QuickBooks Desktop for Mac and Excel. For QBDT you can use the link below while for Excel, I'd suggest getting in touch with them again so they can walk you through the correct steps.

Fix data damage on your QuickBooks Desktop company file

Please keep me posted on how this works. Thanks for your patience while we're constantly checking on a fix to this issue. Take care!

Orchestra2001

Thank you for responding to my issue Catherine_B. With all due respect, I do not think you considered all the background I provided, in your response.

You suggest visiting this link

Fix data damage on your QuickBooks Desktop company file

I received this link by email in my first call to quickbooks customer service. I ran the utility while on the phone and no problems were detected in my company file data. There is no way to manually fix errors that don't exist. It seems there may be a problem with the Quickbooks utility, the export process, or both?

You suggest getting in contact with the Customer Care Support Team, but I have already done so twice with no resolution offered to my issue aside from contacting other software companies and reinstalling the same softwares. In a screen share yesterday in my second long call with Quickbooks Customer Service my issue was observed and should be well documented with your team. One would hope you already have a "open investigation" about this issue related to reports not exporting to excel, based on my actions yesterday. I could find no such topic and no way to being a new thread in this forum, but my problem with reports is certainly related to the many complaints in this thread about excel export difficulties, including the list export issue you mention specifically below.

Per your request, here is the text from all the alerts and errors that occur when I export the P&L Detail Report from Quickbooks 2021 Desktop Mac Software:

-Excel dialogue box #1 Alert: We found a problem with some content in 'Profit and Loss Detail5.xlsx'. Do you want us to try to recover as much as we can? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes. [I click yes]
-Excel dialogue box #2 Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content. [I click view button]
-Microsoft Word dialogue box #2 This command is not available on this platform. [I click OK which is the only button available]
-Microsoft Word dialogue box #3 This file has custom XML elements that are no longer supported in Word. Saving the file will remove these elements permanently. [I click OK which is the only button available]
-Microsoft Word doc opens in compatibility mode with the following text:
Repair Result to Profit and Loss Detail70.xml

Errors were detected in file'/var/folders/bq/7qwq2nr13_1dkscw011glsnc0000gn/T/Profit and Loss Detail7.xlsx'
Excel completed file level validation and repair. Some parts of this workbook may have been repaired or discarded.
Removed Part: /xl/sharedStrings.xml part with XML error. (Strings) Xml parsing error Line 1, column 97146.

Removed Records: Cell information from /xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml part

I think your programmers need to resolve this issue with the Quickbooks software. It would be great if there was an option to export these reports as a CSV in the Mac 2021 desktop version. I do not see that option but the errors suggest there is some formatting in the outgoing text data from quickbooks that is not readable in excel. The numbers show up on the spreadsheet but the text does not. I'd like some assurance that Quickbooks will address this issue and correct it in upcoming updates/patches to their software? I still consider this issue unresolved, and I still look forward to exporting to excel using this new Quickbooks software. Thanks again for looking into my issue, and please take care.

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