Why Excel Shows Blank Screen When Opening File? – Get 10 Fixes Here!

Have you ever tried opening an Excel file and met with a frustrating blank screen issue? You’re not alone! This is a common problem that many Excel users face, and it can be extremely disruptive, especially when you’re on a deadline. In this blog, we’ll dive deep into why Excel shows blank screen when opening file issue and explore various methods to get your Excel back on track.

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Why Is Excel Showing Blank Instead of Opening a Document?

When the users double-click on an Excel file, the program starts but a blank screen appears with a white screen or in some cases grey screen instead of the projected file. It happens due to various unforeseen reasons, including:

  1. Corrupted or damaged Excel workbook.
  2. Due to enabled Ignore DDE feature or hardware graphics. acceleration option.
  3. Conflicting add-ins.
  4. Corrupted Microsoft Office.
  5. Outdated software.
  6. System incompatibilities.
  7. User profile problems.

Solutions to Fix Excel Shows Blank Screen When Opening File

There is no exact fix for the problem, so here try the different given fixes and check which one works for you. The below-given solutions work well in both cases when the Excel file opens a blank grey screen and white screen issue.

So, try them in your respective case.

Quick Solutions:

Solution 1: Close Unnecessary Background Running Apps

Running too many applications in the system’s background can cause this problem. All you need to close the unnecessary applications running in the background to tackle this situation.

Follow these steps to do so:

Close the Unnecessary Excel Process

Solution 2: Un-check the Ignore DDE Box

One obvious reason for the Excel program not opening files showing a blank screen is choosing the Ignore DDE box (Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange).

The DDE function is to send a message to the program when the user doubles and then instructs it to open a file or workbook that has been double-clicked.

Follow the steps to do so:

Enable-DDE

Please Note : Selecting the Ignore DDE box, will not open the workbook when double-clicked, as Excel ignores the entire instructions sent for other programs to itself.

However, this is a working solution that helped many users to open the Excel by troubleshooting the Excel not opening White or grey screen displays issue.

Solution 3: Check Hide/Unhide

Well, you can also try this to fix the Excel opening blank screen workbook issue. Users can hide Excel documents by selecting the Hide option. As a result, a blank screen appears instead of the actual spreadsheet document.

So here it is recommended to check if the hide option is enabled or not and “unhide” data.

Unhide

Solution 4: Reset Excel File Associations to Fix Excel Shows Blank Screen When Opening File

Try resetting the Excel file associations to their default settings to resolve the Excel won’t open files issue.

Follow the given instructions to do so:

Hope doing this will help you to fix a blank Excel sheet without cells appearing and access your Excel file easily.

Solution 5: Repair Microsoft Office

Well, in many cases the Microsoft Office issue also causes various problems, so here it is recommended if yet the issue is not resolved then try repairing Microsoft Office programs.

Follow the steps to do so:

Excel shows blank screen when opening file

As the whole repairing process is finished restart your PC and check if the issue is resolved.

Solution 6: Turn Off Add-ins

Excel add-ins in many cases interfere with the document loading so here check for the add-ins.

Two types of add-ins can cause Excel programs not to open files.

So turn off Excel add-ins, and check if this helps you.

After finishing the whole steps double click on the file to restart your Excel program

Please Note: If in case still the problem is not resolved, follow these steps and open the Excel in safe mode.

Solution 7: Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration

Try disabling the hardware graphics acceleration option, this helped many users to solve Excel file not opening showing blank screen issues.

Follow the steps to do so:

Excel shows blank screen when opening file

Solution 8: Ensure to Update Excel

Sometimes, updates to your Excel software can introduce compatibility problems and may result in blank screen issues. So, ensure to update the Excel application to overcome this situation.

Steps to Update Excel Software

Excel shows blank screen when opening file

Solution 9: Fix Excel File Corruption

To get rid of this perky problem, it is suggested to use Excel’s built-in Open and Repair utility. It can repair the corrupted Excel file for free & with ease.

If you want to run this utility, follow these steps:

Excel shows blank screen when opening file

excel open and repair 1

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