Broken workbook, VBE shows every worksheet twice with weird symbol - excel

When I open a specific workbook, I receive a few VBA errors ("Automation error", "Compile error: Method or data member not found").
I opened the Visual Basic Editor and found that in the document tree under "Microsoft Excel Objects" every single worksheet suddenly appears twice: Once with the regular icon for a worksheet and a second time with a weird blue icon that I've never seen before: Screenshot
The entries with the weird icon show the "CodeName" I had specified for the worksheets but do not show any worksheet name, wile the entries with the regular icons show the "CodeName" followed by a "1" and the correct worksheet name.
This has now already happened the second time to me, both times with the same workbook. The first time (maybe two months ago), I've just deleted the file and continued with a backup from the day before. I will probably do the same this time, but would like to understand the issue.
What did I do?
The file was alright when I opened it the last time. I have then added some data, modified a UserForm and added some VBA code (nothing special). The workbook had initially been created on a computer with German Excel, the latest change took place on an English system (but this process works fine with other workbooks).
I found this link where another user described the same issue 6 years ago: https://superuser.com/questions/1005482/excel-creates-non-existent-worksheets-in-vba-project-explorer
However, the suggested solutions do not work for me. Nothing changes when I save the file as *.xlsb. When I save it as *.xlsx, the entires with the blue icons disappear but the entries with the regular icons remain with the invalid "CodeName", breaking some of my macros.
Did anyone experience the same issue before? Any ideas what might went wrong?
Thanks a lot!

Related

Excel looks for other files that can't be found when opening "Sorry, we couldn't find ........"

I have an excel spreadsheet named "data_covnertot_0.25.xlsm" that has a tonne of VBA in it.
When opening, after the user clicks "Enables Macros" a couple of warnings appear.
These errors occur before any Macros have been run.
There are a few similar queries on Stack Overflow but they either haven't been answered or are regarding add-ons of which I am not using any.
The spreadsheet is saved on ProjectWise however, the error messages occurs regardless of where it is saved.
The error message is:
"Sorry, we couldn't find '...........Copy of data_covnertor_0.18.xlsm'. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?"
followed a second error message:
"Microsoft Excel cannot access the file '...........Copy of data_covnertor_0.18.xlsm'. There are several possible reasons"
The file name or path does not exist
The file is being used by another program
The workbook you are trying to save has the same name as as a currently open workbook
The spreadsheet works fine after clicking ok to both messages, bit as this will be used by a lot of people I want it to be clean and neat.
The file link in the messages is to a share point site, which is where the spreadsheet was saved before being moved to ProjectWise.
I've had a look through all the VBA, sheets etc, carrying out searches etc, and I can't find any reference to the copy of the old version of this spreadsheet.
Can anyone advise where I should be looking
In my case the cause of the error was a button (a form control button) that was referencing a Macro in a different workbook.
I found the offending button by symptomatically deleting sheets and saving copies of the workbook until the error disappeared.

View removed VBA code after repair of Excel file

I am getting an error when opening excel: We found a problem with some content in XXX. Do you want us to try and recover as much as we can? if you trust he source of this workbook, click Yes."
clicking Yes, "fixes" the issue but deletes a lot of VBA code, two weeks worth.
Whatever the issue it was introduced yesterday, I do not want to redo two weeks worth of coding. Is there anyway I can view what was removed, or open the VBA in notepad++ or something without opening the excel?
I opened another excel workbook and tried all the different options for the argument XlCorruptLoad in the Workbooks.Open to open the corrupt workbook. I noticed that there were two non existing sheets created in the project explroer of the corrupt workbook that had the code in there. I am not sure if it did that s a result of what I did or it was there all along and I did not notice it
Note that the reason I had a corrupted data is because the code was extracting a list and putting it in a cell validation formula..i guess I overloaded it.

Excel will not update links, entire day of research and tests with random results

Short version, my Excel is set properly to automatically update links and all my files(locally stored) work fine for years. Suddenly one will not update linked data. I click on Connections>Edit connections>Check Status every linked file has "Warning! Values referring to other workbooks were not updated"
Refresh/calculate all does nothing.Changing to manual and doing this, back to auto, open and closing, restarting, using these same files on another PC. Nothing I did fixes it.
Clicking into an individual cell(F2) then back out though updates that one cell.
Open
All security settings are correct I am 98% sure, regardless whatever settings I had haven't changed and it did work.
I read a post that seemed exactly the same but his solution was enable protected content. Not the case here, i disabled it fully. There seems to be an error causing this possibly..
Long version. This is my largest file I continue to build
I have a main excel sheet that is linked to 35 workbooks. The source workbooks have lists of 3-4 columns, ranging from 1,000-10,000 rows long. The main WB uses index match for each source to pull two small fields. It takes about 5-6mins to do a calculate all with a desktop i7 3.64ghz ivy with 16gb ram.I never have issues on. Win 10/64bit and office 2016 64bit.
Some source files are .xls, I am in the process of changing them to xlsx but when I open the xls file and the values update. I then save as xlsx with a shorter name as well (trying to lighten the formulas) I go back to Connections>Edit connections>Check Status and the same warning is there. However I can click update values and it says OK.
This is very important file and is not physically monitored. Until something sells wrong I realize it wasnt updated, I am hoping for a concrete answer I can solve instead of just changing random things and hoping.. all help is greatly appreciated!
I actually resolved this by opening all source workbooks with the main workbook open and resaving them one by one (Status on some turned OK, most remained). Then I simply used Edit Links and Update Values for each connection which changed the status to OK. Saved the main workbook and no more issues..
Yes I need to take those suggestions and the workbook to the next level as it has clearly outgrown my skillset, but getting there..

Excel Error: Removed Records: Sorting from /xl/worksheets/sheet10.xml part

I'm almost sure I will have to create a new excel file, but maybe at least here I get some ideas what was the source of the problem.
My excel file is constantly giving the following error:
Excel found unreadable content in 'filename.xlsm'. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes.
So I do. And the file opens as repaired showing:
Removed Records: Sorting from /xl/worksheets/sheet10.xml part.
The detail is that I don't even have a sheet10
Its a big excel file full of custom-objects. But I have no DB connections or autofilter so could not relate to AutoFilter Criteria Using Array (Error) - Too Large String? or xlsx error: "Removed Records: Named range from /xl/workbook.xml part" when tried to resolve errors.
Anyone has a clue what's going on?
tks in advance
try clearing the sort before saving down the workbook. When this happened to me I had my sheet references mixed up so the sort wasn't cleared
Sheets(yoursheetname).Sort.SortFields.Clear
I am afraid I cannot explain what is going on, but I had similar experience several times - always with XLSM file. In the latest case I learnt that Excel did not like the same range name used twice, when defined as Worksheet range name (we assumed it is safe to use it that way).
Our troubleshooting path is:
try to save file as XLSB (binary macro file) and either use XLSB file or save it back to XLSM
check file history (we always keep daily snapshots) and find when the problem firstly occurred; use previous version and port your changes
extract the code (via SVN code), create a new workbook and import the code back
Usually Step 1 solves the problem, but Step 3 never failed us.
Awesome,
This issue has been driving me crazy!
It seems that saving as the xlsb (binary) file PLUS adding the clearing of sort fields appears to have sorted out my issue.
I added the following code to the BeforeClose sub, it appears to clear the fields really quick, changes to my Dashboard and prompts for saving.
The xlsb file saved over a mb in file size and appears to load a little quicker!
Thanks for the pointers & support!
Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)
Dim Sht As Worksheet
' Clear all Sort Fields prior to Save & Exit
For Each Sht In Application.Worksheets
Sht.Sort.SortFields.Clear
Next Sht
aa1_Dashboard1.Select
aa1_Dashboard1.Activate
End Sub
I would like to add my own confirmation regarding clearing sort fields in your spreadsheet, as first suggested by Chris. I specifically had the error occur after I used column sorting in a VBA macro, so I deduced that the problem must be column/field-Sort related. It was.
Adding the line:
Sheets(yoursheetname).Sort.SortFields.Clear
after the sort command allowed the sorted columns to remain sorted (in my case), but cleared whatever was causing the
"Sorting from /xl/worksheets/sheet10.xml part." error when the file was next opened.
Many thanks for your support.
I don't know if this will help anyone but it's solved my problem. I had an excel sheet, nothing complex, just contacts, a much used file in Excel 2010 on Win7. Today I was using the 'filter' to select specific groups to email targeted content to. In the middle of selecting and copying to paste into Outlook, the document came up with a pop up as if I was installing something, then the 'installer' both of which I cancelled out of. The Document closed and then on trying to reopen, I was getting the error message. If I chose 'yes' to repair I was given just the subset of my filtered list, so about 40 of my 350 records, the rest lost. I googled and tried different things, including opening in Googledocs google sheets and nothing worked. I never 'saved' the repaired version as my old data wasn't in that. Just now, I right clicked on my document in explorer and chose "restore previous versions" and it brought me to the version of yesterday - thankfully, nothing added to it since then. Opened that one and bingo, it opened fine with ALL the data in it. I know the filter had corrupted it, so will be cautious next time I use it. I don't know why it doesn't like the filter but 4 hours on, i can now calm down and relax! Hope this helps someone.
was having this issue as well. I have a spreadsheet with multiple tabs (maybe 30 tabs?) and had filters on each sheet, and shared on SharedPoint. The error was not enabling editing of the file on SharePoint. I removed the filters on every sheet and uploaded back to SharePoint and the issue is gone!
I did what Chris mentioned above. Clear the sort fields in your spreadsheet.
Sheets(yoursheetname).Sort.SortFields.Clear
Also, save the file as *.xlsb.
That should get it to work.
When you get a message telling that Excel found unreadable.... just click "Open" and then close all the following messages you get.
-In the VBE open the project showing the name of Addin or the .xlsm.. the click anywhere in any module of the workbook as you are going to edit the text of the macro, then click save, select workbook type like Addin select the folder where you want to save it, give it a new name then click "Save", that is all you have to do, the new file you created will ok.

Excel workbook not responding

I am using Excel 2010 and am having difficulty with one old workbook created in Excel 2003. Lots of symptoms to report!
No other workbooks are giving me this problem. This problem file usually causes "MS Excel - (workbook name.xls) [Compatibility Mode] (Not responding) and a blank screen apart from the task bar and this Excel message on a single line across the top of the screen. Waiting doesn't solve the problem. If I close Excel and choose the "Close program" option, it sometimes shows me the file as I remember it for a couple of seconds, then the program closes. Re-opening the file just gives the same behaviour again. During the first few seconds of loading, I can see the message "Contacting server for information" at the bottom of the Excel screen.
In Task Manager I can find EXCEL.EXE *32 running. I'm using Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.
This is a file I use regularly in projects as a specialised calculator, and so I re-copy it each time and save it to save the calculation records in the project file. I've found that versions of the workbook created even several years ago and have given no trouble until now all suffer this problem, so it looks like a problem with Excel 2010. This is the first time I've tried to open these files since migrating from a Win XP computer running Excel 2003.
Please can anyone help me to open the file and to resolve the problem?
Thanks
There might be a calculation or a marcro activated on start up that messes things up.
Try the following:
Open the Excel application, with a blank workbook. Set calculation to manual. Now look up your Macro settings and set these to "disable with notifications".
With these things set, open your misbehaving workbook again and see what happens now. Dont let the macros (if any) start yet! Open the VBA Editor window and check for a script in Workbook called Workbook_Open. If that is present check its content or put a break in and debug it.
Let us know what you find, if any.
UPDATE:
It sounds like there is a database link to an external source that is trying to refresh on startup but isnt working correctly (anymore). I now remember likewise behaviour when I had an Excel workbook with tons of SQL queries in it that (in case of showing a complete table or view by applying SELECT * FROM ...) could overlap other data and that would create autoshutdowns for me. Change the option in the Trust Center for External Content to Disable when you open this workbook and let us know!
I have a client with the same issue. The problem was resolved by removing all the logo's (Images) from the sheet. It appears that the logo contains a link to some web site. I copied the logo into paint and copied it back.
Problem Solved!
It appears that an object placed in the sheet can have its own links embedded in it???
I hope this helps!

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