Can't open password protected xlsx files in iOS 14.2

The appropriate procedure for working around this issue has been posted in this thread several times.

No need to copy the file,

1)Make sure the excel app is installed

2) Simply ignore the initial request for the doc password and click the box with the up arrow in the top right of your screen

3) Select “open in” or “open with” and choose excel.

4) excel will ask for the pw and viola. You’re in.

Current workaround - install free microsoft product/s on your device, go to email, click on attached file, click on arrow up (or apparently some people see 3-dots) on top right of screen that opens, select excel or other microsoft product, enter password, file then opens.

I am having the same problem with my iPhone. I have tried to open files saved in Dropbox as well as various mail apps. They all attempt to use the native viewer which reports the "Null" error. The only solution I have found is to use the Excel app and open the file via the Excel app. It requires a few extra steps but it works! I don't understand why Apple refuses to acknowledge the problem and fix the problem!

Ok I had the same problem. But I solved it at least for Microsoft Word documents. All you have to do is click the little three dots beside your document name on OneDrive and then click ‘open in another app’ and then click the Microsoft Word icon (that is I guess if you have Microsoft Word downloaded as an app in your device). After that I was able to open my password protected Microsoft Word document on my iPhone. I suppose it’s the same for other Microsoft office files. In other words you cannot open it the way you did before by just clicking on the name of the file but you have to take an extra step by clicking the three little dots and then saying that you need to open it on another app and then after that click on the icon of the office app if you have installed it before. I hope this helps

Greetings everyone,

I'm addressing this issue like you from a user prospective. One would agree when software companies release updates to existing applications and OS platforms you'd think there was extensive testing done prior to a release.

This is not the case. What I think happened here is the big yearly Apple OS release and launch of their new products occurred in and around the time Microsoft released their monthly OS and application software updates.

If you remember, Office 365 is now Microsoft 365. These application packages keep changing hands.

Now aside from all this, the folks contributing to this thread have been very helpful by sharing some discovery about how to access the encrypted password protected MICROSOFT files from your mobile devices after whatever release of software caused this issue for everybody.

When I personally examine the symptoms and attempt to open my password protected MS files I see two different password prompts depending on the method I use to open my saved file in OneDrive Personal Vault …

If I attempt to access my OneDrive Personal Vault file by simply double clicking on it, a password prompt appears and if I attempt to enter my password I get the error everyone is reporting.

However, If I instead click on the 3 "..." to the right of my file that I would normally just double click to open I have a list of prompt choices. Now if I do what a nice person in our community has suggested and click on "Open in Another App", a different type of password prompt appears for me to enter my encrypted micro soft file password. In my case I've saved an Excel file, so a NEW list of available applications appear and I simply have to manually choose "Microsoft Excel" from the list.

Yeah, I get it we have to take a different path to open our files because whatever update that was done seems to not be able to DEFAULT the file association correctly to the proper Microsoft application upon any attempt to open a file the proper way simply DOUBLE CLICKING on it.

So with all that said, I'm betting when I opened my AppStore application on my IPHONE and noticed had 13 applications that needed to be updated last year all the Microsoft applications including OneDrive helped break something using the Mac OS versions of these applications.

I'm also very sure programmers are working on a solution and like anything else that breaks and needs to be fixed correctly ... IT TAKES TIME!

So how about we all step back and use the generous steps provided by these nice people and see if a permanent solution arrives sooner than later.

Think solution!

When the password prompt pops up ignore it and click the box with the up arrow in the top right and open in the excel app. It will ask you for the document password and then open the doc.

Yep I have the same thing. I saved my excel file as an older version 97-03 .xls and it opens fine. Many thanks to ScottB32!

Hey Apple, what’s wrong that you can’t acknowledge this “oops” and get a fix up?? Please!

It happened to me as well.

solution:

save the excel doc to Files (on you iPhone.

install the Microsoft Excel app (from app store).

Run Excel app and now you can open that file from Excel.

IT IS FIXED IN iOS 14.4! 🍾

Yes. Based on your post I updated to ios 14.4 and the issue with passworded excel workbooks retrieved with FE File Explorer seems to have disappeared.

Me as well.

Your solution to resave the file at the source location as an Excel 97-2003 Workbook did work for me as well.

I recently encountered this with FE File Explorer trying to get to a pass worded Excel file I store only on my home server for security and to ensure only one version of that file existed (other than what would be on a disk backup). I had been doing this for at least two years with no issue. Then, after the ios update, I was getting the "Decryption failed" error.

But somehow, and I no longer remember how, I managed to get a copy of that Excel xlxs file saved onto my iPhone. That provided a temporary work around. But, I there could now be potentially two versions of the file in existence with the same name and, it did nothing to fix the issue on my other, ios devices (iPads, etc.)

It would be very nice if Apple owned the issue and fixed it, rather than trying to blame third party apps. I mean, what will they do if they actually come out with some kind of Apple car, be it one they produce or, one that they only provide the operational systems for, and an upgrade creates an issue?

"Geez. My Apple car won't respond. I've got this "no go" error."

Will we be told to check with the manufacturer? Oh, it's that third party app?

Trust goes a long way in selling anything.

I’m having the same issue with Excel and Word. My wife updated her iPhone and iPad, and I updated my iPhone. All three now cannot open password protected files. I held off on updating my iPad and it opens the same files that cannot be opened with 14.2 iOS. Very frustrating and inconvenient. How long will we have to wait for this to be fixed?

I'm having same issue with files stored on Sync (cloud storage provider). All worked perfectly fine before this last iOS update. I confirmed with Sync that this is an iOS issue and they advised users of other cloud storage providers such as Box, DropBox, etc. are having same issue since this last iOS drop. Looking to Apple to resolve ASAP.

I have the exact same problem. Saving to the 97-03 excel worked but Apple needs to fix this.