SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

1903666 - Error: 'Excel found unreadable content in <FILE NAME.xlsx> ...' when opening a report exported MS Excel from Crystal Reports

Symptom

  • Error: "Excel found unreadable content in <FILE NAME.xlsx> Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook?"
          
  • When attempting to open some reports exported from Crystal Reports to Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Data-only format, it displays the errors:
      
       "Excel found unreadable content in <FILE NAME.xlsx> Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook?"

    Followed by the message: 
      
       "Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content. Removed Part: /x/sharedString.xml part with XML error. 
        (Strings) Illegal xml characters. Line <X>, column <Y> …"

Environment

  • SAP Crystal Reports 2011
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2013
     
  • Crystal Reports Viewer 2011
  • Crystal Reports Viewer 2013
      
  • Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0
  • Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.1

Reproducing the Issue

  1. In Crystal Reports, open a report.
      
  2. Export the report to Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Data-Only format.

  3. When attempting to open the exported report in MS Excel, it will generates the error: 
     
       "Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content. Removed Part: /x/sharedString.xml part with XML error. 
        Strings) Illegal xml characters. Line <X>, column <Y> …"

  4. And when clicking "Yes", the following message displays:

       "Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content."

  5. And the spreadsheet is either empty or contains partial information.

Cause

  • The causes of this issue is due to specific characters the report displayed that are not acceptable in the Microsoft Excel xml file format.
  • This situation has been tracked under ADAPT01703799

Resolution

  • The issue is resolved in the following product updates, for the specific characters reported:
        
    • Crystal Reports:
      • Crystal Reports 2011 - Support Pack 09
      • Crystal Reports 2013 - Support Pack 03
             
    • Crystal Reports Viewer:
      • Crystal Reports Viewer 2011 - Support Pack 09
      • Crystal Reports Viewer 2013 - Support Pack 03
          
    • Crystal Reports for Enterprise:
      • Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0 - Support Pack 09
      • Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.1 - Support Pack 03
                
            
  • If after applying the product update you are still experiencing the same error in MS Excel, then it is because your report contains text using special characters that were not part of this update, and therefore, to workaround this situation, use one of the following workarounds:
                  
    • Export the report to MS Excel (97-2003) format.
      This format is not an xml file format, but a proprietary binary file format called Excel Binary File Format (.XLS); or
            
    • Export the report to CSV format; or
                       
    • Identify the specific character(s) that is displayed on the report that MS Excel does not accept, and create a formula on the report to substitute those characters by a similar character, or by removing the characters.

Keywords

CR, export, xlsx, Excel , KBA , BI-RA-CR , Crystal Reports designer or Business View Manager , Bug Filed

Product

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2013 ; SAP Crystal Reports Viewer 2011 ; SAP Crystal Reports viewer 2013