Cannot Edit Excel File in Protected View (3 Reasons with Solutions)

We’ll use a simple dataset to showcase the most common fixes for not being able to edit a file in Protected View.

Cannot Edit Excel File in Protected View: 3 Solutions

When opening a file downloaded from the internet, you will likely see this message:

“Be careful—files from the Internet can contain viruses. Unless you need to edit, it’s safer to stay in Protected View.“

Steps:

The message has disappeared. You should be able to edit the Excel file.

You can disable this feature permanently from the Trust Center.

The Trust Center window will appear.

From Protected View, uncheck “Enable Protected View for files origination from the Internet”.
Press OK.

This is not the safest option as you may be prone to malware attacks.

We’ve saved our file in Excel 95 format using the Save As command. When opening it, this message will appear.

“Editing this file type is not allowed due to your policy settings. Click for more details.”.

Steps:

You’ll get File Info.

Untick the checkboxes for Excel 95 Workbooks options named Open and Save.
Press OK.

You can also manually open the file in Protected View. You’ll see the following message.

“This file was opened in Protected View. Click for more details.”

Steps:

You should be able to edit the file.

When opening a file from another person’s OneDrive, you may get the following – “Be careful—This file is from someone else’s OneDrive. Unless you trust this person and want to continue collaborating with them, it is safer to stay in Protected View.“. To fix this, click on “Trust Documents from this person”.

Download the Practice Workbook

Solution to Cannot Edit in Protected View.xlsx

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