Title: Cannot open excel file Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Cannot open excel file * [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/) * I cannot open Excel or Word documents that I post as links in WordPress. In FireFox they open fine, but in Internet explorer I get the following error: * “‘file.xls’ cannot be accessed. The file may be corrupted, located on a server that is not responding, or read-only.” * When I upload the same file to my IIS web site, it opens fine in I.E. * Any clue what might be the problem? I’m guessing it’s something with WordPress not interpreting correctly which program to open the file with? Any help would be appreciated. * Thanks, MSchwade Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/page/2/?output_format=md) * [kmessinger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kmessinger/) * (@kmessinger) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038574) * URL? * Thread Starter [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038577) * It’s a local URL… It’s something like [http://ourcompany.domainname.com/stores/file.xls](http://ourcompany.domainname.com/stores/file.xls) * Thread Starter [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038591) * I might also add I can’t open a Word file, but can open PDF files just fine. * [kmessinger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kmessinger/) * (@kmessinger) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038594) * Actually I wanted the real URL so as to test with a variety of browsers. * You might find this interesting, [http://webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=162526](http://webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=162526) * Thread Starter [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038596) * I know, but what I was trying to say is it’s a local URL not open to the public 🙂 Thanks for the links, I will look at those. * Thread Starter [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038624) * That didn’t help.. here’s the screenshot of my error: [Screen Capture](http://www.teamswd.com/23/printscreen.jpg) * [kmessinger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kmessinger/) * (@kmessinger) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038638) * > I’m guessing it’s something with WordPress not interpreting correctly which > program to open the file with? * WP is not opening the file, the browser is so I don’t see how wp is causing the problem * If you click on that link within WP, IE and FF should respond with “open or save” and choosing “open” actually opens Excel or Word. The response should be the same if you put the link into the browser. * You can try the normal debug of disabling all plugins and switching to the twentyten theme and then try the link. You can also validate the links, html and look at the source code for the link to see if there is something strange. * Thread Starter [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038796) * Here’s the situation… Typing this url * [http://home.mystore.com/CurrentStoreAlignment.xls](http://home.mystore.com/CurrentStoreAlignment.xls) causes the following: * Firefox – Open Save Dialog -> Opens Fine IE – Open Save Dialog -> Doesn’t open fine * [http://windowsserver.mystore.com/CurrentStoreAlignment.xls](http://windowsserver.mystore.com/CurrentStoreAlignment.xls) causes the following: * Firefox – Open Save Dialog -> Opens Fine Internet Explorer – Open Save Dialog- > Opens Fine * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038801) * As kmessinger said, it’s not a WordPress issue. * Thread Starter [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038804) * I thought I pinpointed it to an IE-WordPress issue if the same exact file is opening fine on my IIS windows server? * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2038809) * It’s possible that you’ve hit a server problem and that the .xls file isn’t being served correctly but it’s definitely not WordPress. * Thread Starter [mschwade](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mschwade/) * (@mschwade) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2039025) * This issue is still, unfortunately, not resolved. I can provide more information now, though. Internet Explorer is truncating the download, therefore throwing the damaged or corrupt dialog back at us. A 1.6 MB file is only downloading like 200K or 300K and it’s really never the same amount of what it downloads. We turned off deflate in apache, but we’re still having the problem. The problem is intermittent, meaning somtimes the full 1.6 MB will download just fine. But it is with all files that are around 1.5 MB, not just excel files. Very frustrating, but wanted to update what we know to see if anyone has any ideas out there. * Thanks! MSchwade * [Clell Tompkins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/clell-tompkins/) * (@clell-tompkins) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2039053) * I’m having the same problem. I’m uploading a file with a excel workbook in it into the media library and then posting it on my Thank You page for downloading but it won’t open. I’m not finding any good answers on the forum as to how to solve this. Hasn’t someone done this same task and resolved it? * [kmessinger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kmessinger/) * (@kmessinger) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2039054) * URL? * [Clell Tompkins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/clell-tompkins/) * (@clell-tompkins) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/#post-2039056) * I figured it out. I brought it into media. Thanks Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Cannot open excel file’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [corrupt](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/corrupt/) * [Excel](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/excel/) * [link](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/link/) * [xls](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/xls/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 17 replies * 6 participants * Last reply from: [JohnDempsey](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johndempsey/) * Last activity: [14 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-open-excel-file/page/2/#post-2039064) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics