Excel For Mac 2011 Opens Files Not In Folders On Launch



Symptoms

When you try to save an Excel file in Excel for Mac 2011, it does not save.

Can't save an Excel file in Excel 2008 for Mac?

Click here to follow Excel 2008 for Mac troubleshooting methods for this problem

Note The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu. Open Preferences. Drag com.microsoft.Excel.plist to the desktop. If you cannot locate the file, Excel is using the default preferences. Open Excel, and check whether the problem still occurs. In the At startup, open all files in box, enter the location of the files that you want Excel to open automatically. Use a custom template for all new workbooks When Excel opens a new workbook, the new file is created from a template called Workbook. Open Excel-1. Click File Open. Click the location and folder that contains the corrupted workbook. In the Open dialog box, select the corrupted workbook. Use one of the following methods to prevent files from automatically opening when you start Excel. Remove files from the XLStart folder and the alternative startup folders To remove files from the XLStart folder and the alternative startup folders, follow these steps: Select Start, and then select Run.

Resolution

IMPORTANT: The location of certain files are different if you have Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed. To check if it is installed, open Word, and then click About Word from the Word menu. If the version number is 14.2.0 or above, you have Service Pack 2 and you should follow the Service Pack 2 steps when provided in this article.
We recommend that you follow the provided methods in this article in order. However, if you have previously tried one of the methods and it has failed, you can jump to another method quickly from this list:


Method 1: Check the Hard Disk Drive name

Make sure the hard disc drive icon has a name. The name can contain numbers as long as it starts with text characters. The name should not contain:

  • All numbers

  • Special characters such as periods (.), commas (,), semi-colons (;), quotation marks ('), and so on.


Method 2: Save the file to a different location

Warning The 255 character file name limit includes the file path location of the file as part of the limit. For example, if you save a file to the desktop all the characters that are contained in this file path will be included: HDUsers<your user name>Desktop.
You should first try to save the file to a different location on your local hard disc drive, such as the Desktop or Documents folder. If you cannot save the file to a local hard disc drive location, go to method 3.
If you can save the file locally but you cannot save it to an external device, contact the manufacturer of the external device or Apple.
If you can save the file locally but you cannot save it to a network share, contact the network administrator, your company's IT department, or the owner of the share.

Method 3: Empty the Office 2011 AutoRecovery folder

To empty the AutoRecovery folder, follow these steps if have Service Pack 2 installed:

  1. Quit all applications.

  2. On the File menu, click New Folder.
    A new folder is created on the desktop. The folder will be called 'New Folder.'

  3. On the Go menu, click Home.

  4. Open Library.
    Note The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu.

  5. Open Application Support, and then open Microsoft.

  6. Open Office 2011 AutoRecovery.

  7. On the Edit menu, click Select All.

  8. Drag all files into 'New Folder' on the desktop.
    The AutoRecovery folder should be empty.

  9. Open Excel for Mac 2011 and try to save a file.
    If you can save a file, review the contents of 'New Folder' to decide which files that you want to keep.
    If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method.


To empty the AutoRecovery folder, follow these steps if you do not have Service Pack 2 installed:

  1. Quit all applications.

  2. On the File menu, click New Folder.
    A new folder is created on the desktop. The folder will be called 'New Folder.'

  3. On the Go menu, click Documents.

  4. Open Microsoft User Data, and then open Office 2011 AutoRecovery.

  5. On the Edit menu, click Select All.

  6. Drag all files into 'New Folder' on the desktop.
    The AutoRecovery folder should be empty.

  7. Open Excel for Mac 2011 and try to save a file.
    If you can save a file, review the contents of 'New Folder' to decide which files that you want to keep.
    If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method.


Method 4: Remove Excel Preferences

Warning Removing preferences will delete any customizations that were made. These customizations include changes to toolbars, custom dictionaries, and keyboard shortcuts that were created.

  1. Quit all applications.

  2. On the Go menu, click Home.

  3. Open Library.
    Note The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu.

  4. Open Preferences, and then drag the following file to the desktop:

    • com.microsoft.Excel.plist


    Note If you do not locate this file, Excel is using default preferences. Go to step 6.

  5. Open Excel for Mac 2011, and try to save a file.
    If the problem continues to occur, quit Excel, and restore the file to its original location. Go to step 6.
    If the problem is resolved, drag this file to the Trash.

  6. Quit all applications.

  7. On the Go menu, click Home.

  8. Open Library.
    Note The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu.

  9. Open Preferences.
    Note If you have Service Pack 2 installed, open Application Support instead of Preferences.

  10. Open Microsoft, and then drag the following file to the desktop:

    • com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist


    Note If you do not locate this file, Excel is using default preferences. Go to step 12.

  11. Open Excel for Mac 2011, and try to save a file.
    If the problem continues to occur, quit Excel, and restore the file to its original location. Go to step 12.
    If the problem is resolved, drag this file to the Trash.

  12. Quit all applications.

  13. On the Go menu, click Home.

  14. Open Library.
    Note The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu.

  15. Open Preferences.
    Note If you have Service Pack 2 installed, open Application Support instead of Preferences.

  16. Open Microsoft, and then open Office 2011. Drag the following file to the desktop:

    • Microsoft Excel Toolbars


    Note If you do not locate this file, Excel is using default preferences.

  17. Open Excel for Mac 2011, and try to save a file.
    If the problem continues to occur, quit Excel, and restore the file to its original location. Go to method 5.
    If the problem is resolved, drag this file to the Trash.


Excel For Mac 2011 Opens Files Not In Folders On Launchpad

Method 5: Create a new User Account

Excel For Mac 2011 Opens Files Not In Folders On Launched

The user information may be corrupted. This can cause application startup, install, and usage problems.
To determine whether the User Account is corrupted, log on as a new user or create a new user account, and then test Excel. To create a new user account, read this Microsoft knowledge base article:
2439218 Testing your user account to troubleshoot Office for Mac applications
If the problem continues to occur go to the next method.

Method 6: Save the file in safe mode

To save the file in safe mode, follow the steps provided in this Microsoft knowledge base article:
2398596 Perform a clean startup (Safe boot) to determine whether background programs are interfering with Office for Mac
If you can save the file in safe mode, the issue is most likely related to programs running in the background.

References

If the information in this knowledge base article did not help resolve your problem, select one of the following options:

Opens

  • More Microsoft online articles:
    Perform a search to find more online articles about this Excel for Mac file save problem

  • Help from the Microsoft Community online:
    Visit the Microsoft Community online and post your Excel for Mac file save problem

  • Contact Microsoft support:
    Find the phone number to contact Microsoft Support


File Server: Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Standard Edition)
Workstations: Windows Vista Professional/Windows 7 Professional/Windows XP Professional
(All workstations are using Office XP 2003 Professional)
Greetings,
I have been perplexed by an issue that came up at the same time I started using OpenOffice 3.3.0. Due to the constraints of opening spreadsheets with more than 66K lines of data in Excel 2003 (which ultimately needed to be imported into a table in Access 2003), I installed OpenOffice. It worked great. All I did was open the .xlsx spreadsheet within Calc and save it as a .csv to a shared server file (mapped drive). I was then able to import the .csv into a table in Access and go on with life.
At the same time I started using Calc, other users on the network complained that some Excel files on the server would no longer open. I was dismissing this as mere coincidence, but now I am not so sure. Is it possible that OpenOffice Calc tags something in the server registry that might cause this? My research results are below:
1) Excel files on a mapped drive to the server will not open. Excel will launch and act as though it is opening the file, but ultimately never does. The size of the file does not seem to matter.
2) Calc will open the same file from the same location that Excel could not open with no delay.
3) If you copy the Excel file from the server to the local workstation, it opens right up in Excel with no delay whatsoever.
4) Other Excel files on the same server directory open up right away within Excel, but I cannot pinpoint (because I do not remember) if these are the same files I had originally modified with Calc.
5) It does not matter if the workstation has OpenOffice installed or not.
6) It does not matter what OS the workstation is running.
7) I have checked the File Options to ensure that Excel is the default startup application.
Any ideas?
Kind regards,
Paul