Exporting Search Results to Excel – File Format Error
When I export a saved search to Excel and open the file, I receive an error message saying “The file format and extension of [export file name] don’t match. The file could be corrupted or unsafe. Unless you trust its source, don’t open it. Do you want to open it anyway?”
PS – I know the answer, but this is a question we get pretty frequently in Slack, so I thought I’d add it here for others that might be searching.
My understanding is that this error occurs because NetSuite outputs the excel export in an xml format to preserve formatting and be Excel version agnostic (and they haven’t devoted the resources to updating the file format that gets exported). This error can be safely ignored and there is no easy/simple fix to get around this error.
Per SuiteAnswers:
When exporting from NetSuite to Microsoft Excel there is a standard pop-up that will appear:
“The file format and extension of ‘xxx.xls’ don’t match. The file could be corrupted or unsafe. Unless you trust its source, don’t open it. Do you want to open it anyway?”
This is a standard message coming from excel when the extension does not match. Since NetSuite is the known source ‘Yes’ can be selected on this pop-up and the results will be exported.
It is recommended that users manually change file type from XML Spreadsheet to Microsoft Excel Workbook before saving the file.
For more information on this reference this article from Microsoft:
Yeah, that’s what you want to do. But is there any way to have report exports from NetSuite auto assume you’ll select Yes on that file/extension error message, and also to auto assume Yes on Enable Editing? I export reports a hundred times a day and I should be able to select “trust this source” and have these error messages disappear. It’s 2021. I can live with the requirement to convert/save exports to actual current Excel, when needed, but selecting yes and enable editing on every export from the same source is just silly.
Per my answer “This error can be safely ignored and there is no easy/simple fix to get around this error.” But I hear you, my friend, it is extremely frustrating for me as well. Best advice is to raise a stink with your account rep and hope they eventually put a fix in a future release. Or export to CSV and be aware of/deal with formatting challenges. Any solution similar to the one you suggest would be in Excel, rather than NetSuite, and might potentially expose you to vulnerabilities from malicious “Excel” files, if it’s even possible (which I kind of seriously doubt).
Eleni
Thank you. Do you happen to know why the font is so tiny on a saved search export?