Error message: Decryption failed(null) when attempting to open an Excel document on iPad

The consistent theme here is the 'upgrade' to 14.2. I've had exactly the same apps and the same p/w protected document that I accessed on my phone. Before 14.2, no problems accessing. After 14.2, problems. So stand by, I'm shouting: YES, APPLE! IT IS YOUR PROBLEM! FIX IT! There, I feel better. Please, Apple, this is transparently your problem with 14.2. Quit worrying about your next "woke" emoji and fix this baseline operational problem....

I have a slightly different take on it, I think it pretty fantastic that Apple allows us to open Microsoft products on their phones without needing to install Microsoft on the phone. I'm happy about that and can very easily remember the days when Apple and Microsoft would have nothing to do with each other. Plus, you can download and install the MS Office app for free and its only 414Mb.

Now, if we can only get Apple to fix this issue then I can remove the MS Office app from my phone and go back to the way it used to be. 14.2.1 did not fix it so am waiting for the next release.

I. I have an iPhone 8

2. And 8. I have gmail and I get to it using the mail icon on the bottom of my iphone screen.

3. I don’t have msoffice or excel on my phone.

4. And 6, 7. Not sure on 4. I just go to the mail icon on the bottom of my phone screen. It takes me into my gmail. I open the email, then click on the excel, it prompts me for my password and the excel file opens. haven’t tested entering a wrong password yet. I’ll post when I do.

9. I back up my phone automatically each night to iCloud.

10. I did no updates to iOS or to any apps between the time my excel got this error and when it started opening again. The only thing I did was go onto my pc opened and edited the excel file and reemailed myself the excel file. Initially it did not open either. But a couple hours later I tried to reopen it again from within the new email and it worked. Then I opened the older email with the previous version of the excel file and it worked too!

11. I don’t have any auto updates for any apps.

not sure if this is helpful but hopefully I’ve answered your questions.

Interim solutions are good but they don’t resolve the issue. By using the MS Excel app on my iPhone 7+, I can open protected spreadsheets but the reading on such a small screen is quite challenging. At this point, I would like Apple to put out an interim solution to remove the 12.2 update so we can get back to normal.

Until Apple fixes this issue, there is only a work around but its free and it works whether you are using an iPhone or iPad. The key is to have MS Office on your device. You still won't be able to open a preview from within Mail but at least you will be able to open your password protected file. For details, go here and look for the post entitled “Interim Success"--> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252022256?answerId=253930156022&page=2

Not sure what some of you have done so that you can open encrypted documents directly on your phones/iPads etc. I wonder if you’re actually inadvertently opening it/them in either Numbers/Excel or Pages/Word? Still not working for me when I attempt to open encrypted file directly in Dropbox. I have Excel and Word on my iOS devices but no Office 365 subscription - I can open and read documents but not edit. If I go into Dropbox and attempt to open the file I still get the result as photo below.

I can click on “open” and go to the MS Excel app and open it that way which works fine for me (except it’s an extra step which I don’t need) but it’s irritating that an update should eliminate some functionality. I expect Apple are doing their usual, i.e. not saying anything but working quietly in the background to sort the issue. I haven’t tried the solution of transferring to “files” and opening from there yet as my workaround does the job.

First, no one is saying they are opening password protected MS Office files "directly", we are all using the workaround in one way or another. Some people just don't put many details in their posts so you really have to guess at what they are saying.

There are a couple ways of opening MS Office files under iOS 4.2.X, none of them are as straightforward as they used to be before Apple released 4.2 so while you are correct that its an extra step now, it is what it is till they fix it, if in fact they see it as an issue in the first place, who knows, maybe it was intentional :-0

1- I installed the MS Office app (not 360), free from the App store, that takes care of Word, PowerPoint and Excel but I do not open that app and then use it to open my file. For me, I have my files in Apple's "File" folder app which comes standard in iOS, all the files are there in one nice tidy place. I open the file I want from within the Files app and let the phone do the rest. It looks at the file extension then looks at the apps on my phone, it finds the MS Office app and automatically opens that to open my Excel file thereby prompting me for the password. Works great and since its opening it in the proper app instead of an Apple Preview, I get to use the app features if I want. I'm actually starting to like it better than the way it was but would still like to see Apple put things back to the way they were.

2- Others just open their MS Office app first or if they don't have that app but only have the separate Excel or Word, etc app, they open that first, navigate to the file they want and open it by entering their password just like you would on a desktop.

In other words, you now need to have the app responsible for the file extension you want to open, on your device whereas before, Apple's embedded Preview opened it. What was nice about using Preview was that you could "preview' the file directly from within Apple Mail and of course now you cannot.

Hope this helps.. ..

It's marked as solved... but not for me. Word doc gives me the same error, whether opening within an email or saved in Notes. If I save it to Files (per the workaround described below), it works. At least for now....

Yeah, I fumbled with that too till I figured it out, everything is easier in hindsight :-) Actually, I "think" I like the work around better than opening it in Apple's preview because now it brings it up in Excel thereby allowing me to use the Excel functions if I want to and its easier to copy and paste from Excel into other iPhone applications. The cells and data are also much clearer when blowing up the spreadsheet to be able to read small print. . . and really, at least on my iPhone, it does not take any longer to click on the file in Files and have it opened and ready for the password than it did in Preview. Same goes for Word.

Thanks but I have no experience with that particular app. I see you have the Files app in your dock, give that a try, works for me and others. If the File app works and the Documents app doesn't then you will know the issue is within how the Documents app works.

Thank you so much for the sweet workaround! In my case the source for the file is Google Drive, so the only issue there is I have to re-download the file every time I need to use it since it’s not the synchronized version, whereas before I simply opened it directly from the Drive app. Apple, please fix this.

Get used to using the work around. If this is not an issue, meaning it was an intentional change by Apple, then it will never go back to the way it was. We've had two iOS updates since 14.2 and neither has fixed it. At least its good that the MS Office app is free.

Same problem now sorted thanks

OMG, this worked! Thank you, thank you, thank you.