Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Recovering Macros from Corrupted Workbooks.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 30, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Devarajan ran into a situation where a workbook became corrupted, but he wanted to recover the macro module that was associated with the workbook. (The macros represented quite a bit of development time.) Devarajan wondered how the module could be recovered.
The answer depends, in large part, on how corrupted the workbook really is and where the corruption is located within the workbook. Much has been written about how to recover corrupted workbooks; the following resources will be of interest in this regard:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=820741 http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/CorruptFiles.asp
These pages refer specifically to recovering data, not to recovering the macros in a module associated with a workbook. One thing that you might try in order to get your macros is the following:
Another way to attempt recovery is to use OpenOffice, a free alternative to Microsoft Office. The spreadsheet program in OpenOffice will open Excel files, and it isn't as sensitive to some corruption issues.
If this still doesn't work, try using a low-level file manipulation tool that allow you to read files sector by sector from a disk, and then allow you to see the information in each sector. With most types of files this won't be very helpful. In fact, it wouldn't help you recover any data from an Excel workbook. Recovering macros is a different story, however. They are stored in the workbook in plain ASCII text, so you should be able to recognize the macro code and then copy it from the disk tool.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12712) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Recovering Macros from Corrupted Workbooks.
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2022-03-29 07:27:27
Jose Santos
THANK YOU!
You sir, saved my posterior.
2020-06-22 11:24:27
James McNemar
When I opened my xlsm this morning, it appeared OK, no error messages... But when I went to add more code - poof, it was all gone. Every module was empty. I tried exporting, it wouldn't even save an empty file. When I tried to view code on a form, received message that object not found. Then when I tried to close the file to try reopening, received "catastrophic error" message. File wouldn't close, sheets wouldn't "copy". Had to kill Excel task. Reopening file resulted in same outcome. So I found this post and, much to my surprise, the steps worked. When I opened the file with the Macros disabled, the code was all there again. Thank you! Don't understand the why or the how, but just happy that I was able to recover everything. Thank you again.
2020-02-11 05:19:18
David Patras
I just encountered similar issue. Steps above didn't help me. What helped was to open the excel file in older and clean Office version (o365, ver. 1906) and save it again - thus removing anything that was corrupt in the file.
2019-08-01 02:44:49
Sam Benson
Hi
I've had a couple of issues with corrupted Excel macro files over the last 6 months and have found the following works (though for non-technical it is a bit involved)
1. Install python 3 and get a copy of the oletools package
2. Make a copy of the corrupted file and put in an empty directory
3. olevba -c <name of file.xlsm> > <file to save code into.txt
4. Rename the corrupted xlsm file to zip file.
5. Within the zip file under xl directory delete the vbaProject.bin file
6. Save the zip file and rename back to xlsm (effectively have deleted all excel modules and classes)
7. Open up the renamed file in Excel
8. Import the text file from 3 above into Excel and edit as required.
It is not perfect but has saved me having to re-write/ rebuild / re-record macros from scratch.
Could probably use olevba to backup all the Excel macro code and save problems when codes does fail.
2019-03-31 03:11:36
Petros
Use the MACRO MOVER addin to recover an entire VBA project even from a corrupted workbook that won't open or load (given that its VBA project is intact). Locked VBA projects can be recovered as well. VBA projects can be exported intact, along with code, forms, references, protection settings and compilation directives.
Click 'Export Macros' and select the corrupted workbook, then import the exported [vbaProject.bin] to a 'healthy' macro-enabled workbook.
https://www.spreadsheet1.com/move-excel-vba-projects-from-one-workbook-to-another.html
"...Recovering macros is a different story, however. They are stored in the workbook in plain ASCII text, so you should be able to recognize the macro code and then copy it from the disk tool"
=> No, VBA is stored in a compressed format called RLE, which is not fully readable by text or Hex editors.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
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