Error message states filename or path has an invalid character. Internet indicates this was a problem several years ago but that Apple fixed it. Now I have it and cannot open any excel file which till now had no problems.
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12)
Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 (been using it for 5 years without a problem), version 14.7.7. Mac OS is High Sierra version 10.13.6. Word has the same problem but Powerpoint works normally.
And that is likely the problem. Office 2011 is not fully compatible with High Sierra. While many users aren't seeing major problems, others find it to be almost completely unusable under HS, and other varying results in between.
MS halted all future development for Office 2011 in October of 2017. High Sierra has gotten a fair number of OS updates since then. The more there are, the more the chance a stagnant app will start glitching. On top of that, Office 2011 was never fully updated for High Sierra. MS released an Office 2011 patch for High Sierra's early days that was basically the bare minimum to allow it to work, but none since.
Time to leave what is now almost 8 year old software behind. Either that, or use it on an older Mac, or the Mac you have with an older OS on another partition.
Office 2016 is the current perpetual license of Office. But, Office 2019 is due to be released later this year. MS doesn't have upgrade pricing for Office, so there's no sense purchasing Office 2016 only to spend the full price on Office 2019 in two or three months.
Your approach is OK if you are somewhat isolated and not sharing spreadsheets and documents amongst colleagues, clients, and others in a professional environment. I believe the correct solution would be to use a version of Office that is compatible with your operating system if you are doing anything other than personal work with data and docs.
With respect to your statement that "Nothing that was suggested worked...", I have to disagree. it was suggested several times to check version compatibility. A check would have revealed that an update to Office was required and would have solved the issue. Millions are using Office with their Macs without issue.
It wouldn’t hurt to give the free, open source Libre Office a try, as rccharles provided a link to.
Assuming you've done what has been suggested here, IE change the file name and location and it has not worked, it may be that the issue lies with Excel. The best place to seek Excel assistance is in the Microsoft Excel Help Community located here: Microsoft Community
Best place to ask as it’s their product:
Microsoft Office Forums:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice?auth=1
Microsost Office Support:
or here:
Webroot, like many such services, blocks a lot of things that aren’t threats. Libre Office is used by millions of people (120 million estimated downloads overall). Webroot spends more time scaring people than actually helping.
As BobTheFisherman noted, Apple can’t do anything about Office’s behavior. Only Microsoft has the source code. Only they can fix it.
could also try moving the file to another dir and see if it's with the path or the file name
What system and Office versions are you using?
Where are the files located you're having trouble opening?
Apple does not need to come up with a fix. Excel works fine with Macs if you use the compatible version of Office.
The suggestion to use LibreOffice is also a good solution.
Excel won't open the file or let me see it. So I can't do "save as". All I could do is change the name in the highlight box in Finder but that doesn't help.Same when I try to open it in finder. Only Numbers lets me access it. I did confirm that Word has the same problem so it might be something between Apple and Microsoft. I did the disk utility but that didn't help. Thanks for trying to help me.
Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 (been using it for 5 years without a problem), version 14.7.7. Mac OS is High Sierra version 10.13.6. Word has the same problem but Powerpoint works normally. When I open up Excel and try to call up a file it is in the Recents line though the same problem happens if I just use the "open" line and don't limit it to Recents. I think it is stored in Documents.
Thanks Kurt. A number of people have tried to help me with this issue but nothing has worked successfully. Your explanation sounds logical even though it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I was afraid it would be this. I wish I didn’t do the recent High Sierra update. I think I will convert my files to Numbers as I need them and forget about ever using Excel or Word again. Thanks for the explanation.
I'm usually afraid to download something that I don't know what it is. Webroot usually blocks such software as a threat. Apple is coming up with a new OS and I'll see if that has a fix before I get rid of Excel and Work altogether.
I use Excel and Word for a few personal spreadsheets, no business needs. Someone did suggest getting a compatible version of Office but indicated a new version was coming out in 2019. So I didn't want to upgrade now and will consider it again when the newer version comes out, and by then Apple OS Mojave will be out too so I can make sure that those versions work with each other. In the meantime Numbers does work. I did use Etre and told it to put the report is ASC but so far I can't find it.
I'm not familiar with either of these two. Internet search did reveal questions about these two.
com.viewmc.protect.update.plist (? 0 - installed 2017-03-27)
This thread implies that there is a problem with viewmc protect.
SmartSearch raises some questions too.
Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.SmartSearch.plist
Executable: ~/Library/Application Support/com.SmartSearch/SmartSearch r
Excel Will not open file due to incorrect path or filename
