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How to Fix Excel Blank When Opening File Issue?

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Published By Mohit Jha
Tej Pratap Shukla
Approved By Tej Pratap Shukla
Published On May 8th, 2023
Reading Time 4 Minutes Reading

Are you facing the problem that Excel becomes blank when opening file, or that Excel becomes blank when you open the file? The Excel file appears blank with no cell, column or row names and no grid lines.

Do you know why this is happening or how to get Excel working again? If not, continue reading this article. Then all questions will be answered. This blog will show you the best solution to open a blank screen in an Excel file. Also, you will get complete details about this Excel open-blank issue.

When you open a Microsoft Excel workbook by double-clicking, Excel may display a blank workbook. More precisely, a blank grey screen appears instead of the file you expected to see. Such issues can be caused by simple issues like incorrect Excel preferences settings or more complex issues like possible workbook corruption. No matter what the cause of the problem is, you can fix it by using some of the simple solutions mentioned below.

Method to Fix Excel’s Blank When Opening File Error

There is no clear solution to this problem. Try the different solutions listed here and see which one works for you. The solutions provided below work for both blank grey screen and white screen issues when opening Excel files. So try using it in each situation.

Solution 1: Uncheck the Ignore DDE Option

When a user double-clicks an Excel Sheet on Windows OS, a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) message is sent to Excel asking it to open the spreadsheet.  If DDE messages are set to “Ignore” in Excel, double-clicking the workbook opens a blank screen. Therefore, check the value of this setting and uncheck the Ignore DDE option if it is enabled. In this order:

  • In Microsoft Excel, click File > Options. It will open Excel Options window.

Open Excel Options

  • Select the Advanced & scroll down to the General section.

uncheck General Setting

  • Uncheck the box next to Ignore other program that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).

  • Now Press the OK Button.

Solution 2: Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration for Excel Workbooks

The “Excel opens a blank workbook” error can occur if your computer’s graphics card is not working properly due to hardware acceleration issues. To solve this problem, follow the steps below to disable MS Excel hardware acceleration:

  • In MS Excel, click File > Options to open the Excel Options window.

02Excel-Options

  • Click the Advanced tab and find the Display section.

Select the Display

  • Check the box and next to Disable hardware graphics acceleration option

  • Click OK to apply the changes.

Repair MS Office Installation

If the above solutions don’t solve the problem, it’s possible that your MS Office installation is corrupted.

  • Go to the Control Panel and  then choose Programs and Features.
  • Select “Microsoft Office” from the list of programs and click the “Repair” option.
  • If prompted, click Continue.

Note: This task may take some time to complete. Do not disturb him until he is finished.

Alternative Solution to Repair Blank Excel Workbook

If you continue to experience black screen issues when opening Excel, the Excel workbook you are trying to open may be severely damaged. In this case, use the Recommended Solution to recover data from corrupt Excel file.

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This software can fix all kinds of Excel errors and restore all tables, charts, cell comments, images, formulas, sorts, and filters in a new Excel workbook. You can download the demo version of the tool for free to scan and preview the recoverable data in your files.

Excel Blank When Opening File – Steps

  • Download the application on your Windows.

Download Excel Recovery Tool

  • Hit on the Add Files to load Excel file.

Browse Excel File

  • Pick the Repair to start the repair process.

recovered process start

  • Preview the repaired your Excel data files.

repaired excel files

Conclusion

After reading the full solution, I’m pretty sure you can fix the Excel blank when opening file problem yourself. In the end, we would like to conclude that the problem of opening an Excel file on a blank grey screen has also been resolved due to an incorrect change of Excel settings. This is mainly done to avoid external programs. Therefore, we recommend following the fixes above closely.

  author

By Mohit Jha

Mohit is a Microsoft-certified expert who has assisted thousands of clients with Outlook & Microsoft Office 365 issues. He enjoys writing on email clients as well as data migration. He is always excited about giving troubled readers the most up-to-date knowledge, explanation, and refinements.