Excel Workbook Crashing on Save and Visual Basic editor open

Question

A specific xlsm workbook crashes when I try to save, save as, or when I open the VBA editor. I've tried disabling macros, removing auto calculations, etc. I can't actually get to the code to see if there's a bug causing the crash due to the editor itself causing crashes.

Edit: Also forgot to mention there are links to another workbook in the file - but removing auto-updating/calculating upon save doesn't seem to help. Also, I'm able to modify the workbook, I just can't execute the macros, save, or open the VBA editor.

Edit2: Some additional info. I tried deleting all worksheets and still have the same problems so there must be something wrong in the code.

Looking for a solution to salvage the workbook.

Disable macros in excel first on the developer tab> macro security — Steven Martin, Dec 08 '15 at 20:33
Or try putting the file in design mode first before opening editor on developer tab> design mode — Steven Martin, Dec 08 '15 at 20:34
Or hold shift while opening the file to force design mode - 1 of these 3 ways will always work — Steven Martin, Dec 08 '15 at 20:34
Tried disabling macros and opening the developer tool in design mode - Excel still crashes when I try to save or open the VBA console. — Fubudis, Dec 08 '15 at 21:11
@TimWilliams Is there a 64 bit version of that app? The page you linked to says it will only work for 32 bit version of Excel. — Fubudis, Dec 08 '15 at 21:56
Sorry - only 32-bit. 64-bit Excel still much less-common I guess, since it has issues with many of the avaliable add-ins out there. — Tim Williams, Dec 08 '15 at 22:08
If you absolutely can't open the file using excel then *maybe* you can still open it in OpenOffice ? That's one thing to try... — Tim Williams, Dec 08 '15 at 22:09
I can open the file but any attempts to access VBE, modify macro names, or save the workbook cause a crash. I think it has to do with the naming of some of the macros, but I'm not sure. I'll try open office — Fubudis, Dec 08 '15 at 22:12
your WB might be corrupt. save modules to disk, create new empty WB, copy sheets to new WB manually, and then import modules... — Patrick Lepelletier, Dec 10 '15 at 16:53

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Remove the VBAProject.bin file from the .xlsm file:

copy the .xlsm file
change the extension of the copy to .zip (say Yes to the warning about changing extensions)
open the ZIP file
open the xl folder
cut the VBAProject.bin file and paste it to somewhere outside the ZIP file
rename the ZIP file back to a .xlsm extension

You should now be able to open the .xlsm file in Excel but it will no longer have any macros.

It is theoretically possible to reconstruct the macros from the VBAProject.bin file using the resources linked to in this answer but this may involve considerable effort

Excel Workbook Crashing on Save and Visual Basic editor open

1 Answers1