Are you troubled by the The File Couldn't Open in Protected View error in Excel? If you are looking for solutions, this is the right place for you to get answers. MiniTool Solutions compiles several methods for you to solve the problem.
Protected View is a security utility provided by Microsoft in Excel. But, occasionally, it will prevent you from accessing safe files and you will get an error message that The File Couldn’t Open in Protected View. To solve this issue, you can try to following workarounds.
Fix 1: Disable Protected View in Excel
You can disable Protected View in Excel to stop this error. However, you should ensure there are reliable antivirus tools on your computer, as disabling the Protected View feature may come with security risks.
Step 1: Open one Excel file on your computer, then click on the File tab.
Step 2: Choose Options at the bottom of this window.
Step 3: Shift to the Trust Center tab and click on Trust Center Settings on the right pane.
Step 4: Choose Protected View on the left sidebar. Then, you need to deselect all the options under the Protected View section.
Step 5: Click OK to save and apply changes.
Afterward, you can try to open the problematic Excel file again to see if it can open properly. If not, try the following methods.
Fix 2: Unblock the Excel File
If the Excel file that can’t be opened is downloaded from websites or transferred from another computer, it might be blocked to protect your computer. You can unblock this Excel when you ensure its source is trustable.
Step 1: Right-click on the problematic Excel file and choose Properties from the context menu.
Step 2: Under the General tab, tick the Unblock option in the Security section.
Step 3: Click Apply and OK to sequence to save the change.
Fix 3: Disable Hardware Acceleration
When you get the The File Couldn’t Open in Protected View error because the file contains attachments in Outlook, you can try to disable hardware acceleration to fix this problem.
Step 1: Open one Excel file and click File > Options to open the Settings window.
Step 2: Go to the Advanced tab, then you can scroll down to find the Display section.
Step 3: Choose Disable hardware graphics acceleration.
Step 4: Click OK to apply the change.
Fix 4: Update Microsoft Office
Try to update Microsoft Office to the latest version to fix bugs and issues.
Step 1: Open one Excel file on your computer, then navigate to File > Account.
Step 2: Choose Update Options on the right pane and click Update Now.
Then, your computer will search and update to the latest Microsoft Office version.
Fix 5: Repair Microsoft Office
If the Microsoft Office installation is corrupted, you will probably receive this error message as well. You can repair the corrupted Office installation to try to solve this problem.
Step 1: Type Control Panel into the Windows Search bar and hit Enter to open the window.
Step 2: Choose Uninstall a program under Programs.
Step 3: Find Microsoft Office from the list and right-click on it to choose Change.
Step 4: Choose Online Repair in the prompt window and click Repair to fix the problems.
Bonus Reading: How to Recover Lost Excel
What if your Excel files are lost from the computer or disappear after saving? You can check the Recycle Bin and recover the deleted files if found. If you have emptied the Recycle Bin or the files are not in it, you should seek help from third-party data recovery tools, like MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
This file recovery tool is capable of recovering lost files under various situations, such as mistaken deletion, hard drive failure, virus infection, partition deletion, and more. Additionally, types of files are supported to recover with this software. If you need to recover lost Excel files, you can download and install MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free to deep scan and find them. The Free Edition provides you with 1GB of free file recovery capacity.
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Bottom Line
This is all about how to fix Protected View in Excel and how to recover deleted Excel files on your computer. Hope this post gives you some useful information to solve the problem.
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