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Problem

I've run into the following issue when opening an Excel file from a local area network drive (provided by my Synology NAS) - whenever I open the file, it is opened as write protected (schreibgeschützt in German).

Excel file opens as write protected

Attributes

Looking at the file's attributes, it is clearly visible that the file is not write protected:

Excel file properties

I can also save the file on the same network drive under a new name without any problems. When I open that new copy of the file, same behaviour as above.

Registry Key

I also know about some issues with older versions of Office that suggest creating a new registry key DisableRobustifiedUNC under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options and setting it to 1. As I'm using Office 2019, there's no such registry path (and still trying to set it under the 2016 path doesn't change anything).

Excel Trust Center

Next thing I tried was to add the network drive in Excel under the "trusted locations" (if that's the correct term for an English Excel):

Excel Trust Center

Unfortunately, same behaviour as before.

Lastly I tried - also in the Trust Center options - to completely uncheck all the settings under "protected view" (only as a temporary measure):

Excel Trust Center protected view

As before, and you may have guessed it, no change at all.

What's wrong here? How can I get Excel to open my own Excel file from my own network drive without the protected view?

Update with animated GIF showing the behaviour

Animated GIF showing the behaviour in Excel

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  • 1
    (1) Do you open the file from Explorer, or from Excel File > Open? (2) Was it a file that you opened already once since boot (sleep doesn't count)? (3) Does it happen if the antivirus is disabled?
    – harrymc
    Commented Dec 30, 2022 at 12:14
  • @harrymc This is interesting - When I open the file from Explorer, the behaviour is as described in my question. When I open it via File -> Open within Excel, it opens "normally", i.e. without any write protection issues. So this is a viable workaround, though I still don't know why there is a difference in the two ways of opening the file.
    – Gorgsenegger
    Commented Dec 30, 2022 at 19:00
  • if you have same problem with other file types, it might be a setting in the networkdrive. Like you have in a cloud when giving the permission "Read only".
    – WeAreOne
    Commented Jan 1, 2023 at 15:08
  • @WeAreOne it's not a permission problem (as described above)
    – Gorgsenegger
    Commented Jan 1, 2023 at 20:33
  • Do your files include the macro?
    – Emily
    Commented Jan 2, 2023 at 5:27

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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After unsuccessfully trying the different suggestions regarding my question, I found out that the behaviour was caused by an add-in that I'd previously installed (and later uninstalled): AlphaVantage.excelDataAddin.xll.

The uninstall apparently wasn't 100% successful and the add-in was still listed in Excel under Options -> Add-Ins -> Active Add-Ins. When I removed the entry (at the bottom of the Excel Options window, Manage Excel-Add-Ins -> Go), the behaviour was back to normal.

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  • You might want to let AlphaVantage know about the problem: there's an email contact address on the installation page.
    – Andrew Morton
    Commented Jan 2, 2023 at 16:20
  • 1
    @AndrewMorton good point, will do, thanks!
    – Gorgsenegger
    Commented Jan 2, 2023 at 17:37
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The fact that this only happens when opening the file from Explorer, but not when opening from Excel with menu File > Open, probably means an error in the file-association of .xlsx files (or .xls files).

To verify :

  • Run regedit

  • Navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx (similarly for .xlsx)

  • Examine the value in the (Default) item, which might be for example Excel.Sheet.12

  • Now use it to navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command

  • My own command in the (Default) item is :

    "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE" "%1"

  • Verify that your command is the same or similar (Office16 may differ for other Office versions).

  • Correct it if it's different.

This change should have an immediate effect, but if not, then reboot might be required.

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  • Thanks for the suggested answer. I just checked the associations in the registry and (unfortunately) I've got the same contents as in your example (see imgur), but the weird behaviour nonetheless.
    – Gorgsenegger
    Commented Dec 30, 2022 at 21:02

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