Password protected Excel file-promptTwice for password for Original & Copy

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I recently noticed everytime I open a password protected file in Excel 2010 it prompts for a password for the original file and a password to open a seperate copy of the same file! If I want to open a password protected file called for example “Books.xlsx” the dialog box pops up to enter my password then another dialog box pops up asking me to enter password for “copy of Books.xlsx also (the copy of file is whatever name your original file name is with the words “copy of” in front) It happens on all my password protected files. This is rather new for me I have been password protecting files in Excel for the last four versions of office and have never seen this before. I think it is related to a new update or something because the same thing happens on my laptop. I am running Windows 7 and Office 2010 home and business on both computers. Please help! It kinda scary!:o:

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Ande,

Did you make the copies and do the non-Copy named files have links into the Copy named files? If there are links between the two files that would explain why Excel is giving you the second password prompt when it opens the file to update the links. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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No I did not make the copy of the file ; they don’t exist as far as I know that is what I find so scary. The only file I see is the original file in my folder. The copy only shows up when I try to open the file . First it prompts for a password on the copy then it prompts for a password on the original. Also and when I save it only the original file is saved, I am not asked to save the copy it’s acts like a shadow. I did check for links as you suggested but there are none. You did give me an idea – Excel did crash a while ago and when I opened it back up it gave me a choice between versions so I saved the one I wanted and it all seemed okay. That was a few weeks ago. I just went into the control panel and ran the Microsoft office repair under add change programs to see if that would help but after I ran it and opened the file it still does the same thing. If you have anymore ideas they would be appreciated!

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In older versions of XL (97-2003), there is a file – save as option to “always create a backup” of the file which this sounds like a little bit. In the older versions, you don’t get the prompt for a password for the copy, nor do I think it opens…

I don’t have XL2010: does it have this option and is it on? If it is on, is the backup being saved to a location that is an alternate startup location so that the backup is being opened as well?

Steve

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This 2010 version of Office is new for me. I think there is that option I will look into and let you know Thanks for the suggestion! Okay I did find that option it was turned on and it gave me a location so I copied that path into windows explorer and opened it but it was empty I also turned autorecover off saved my porblem excel file and reoped with auto recover off it still does the same thing. I also get the occasioanl message that excel cannot open and it askes me if I want to diagnose which I reply yes but it says it cant fix the problem do you think I should uninstall excel and reinstall it?

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Does it happen on all files or only this one? If only this one, I would try recreating this one as it may be corrupt. If recreating, do not copy or move whole sheets, but you can try copying sections of a sheet. But be certain that you know all the interconnections and links to formulas to make sure it is recreated properly

Steve

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I know this is a year old but there was no solution posted so I will post one.
I believe the problem is the Preview Pane in Windows. When you click on the password protected file, Windows tries to show a preview of the file, can’t open it and it triggers the request for the password of a “Copy of X”. If you turn off the preview pane in the directory where the password protected file is, you should no longer have this problem. I was experiencing this and turning off the preview pane worked for me. I am using MS Office 2007 on a Windows 7 OS.

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You are genius mate! thanks

I know this is a year old but there was no solution posted so I will post one.
I believe the problem is the Preview Pane in Windows. When you click on the password protected file, Windows tries to show a preview of the file, can’t open it and it triggers the request for the password of a “Copy of X”. If you turn off the preview pane in the directory where the password protected file is, you should no longer have this problem. I was experiencing this and turning off the preview pane worked for me. I am using MS Office 2007 on a Windows 7 OS.

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thank you very much !

you answer is very helpful !

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I was having this problem for more than a year and was going nuts. Your solution of turning off the preview pane worked like magic. Thanks so much. How did you find out?

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You are welcome. I couldn’t find any help anywhere about this problem and while sitting annoyed about the whole thing, wondered how the Preview Pane could possibly work on a locked file…then it hit me.

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Hi All, I had the same problem for a long time now and finally got to see your discussion on this. thanks for the tip. Turning off the preview does work and my password protected file only opens the original file, rather than the copy file. However, I find that the preview panel is very useful for checking those files without password. Is there any way, to have the preview panel on and yet not have the problem of opening copy of protected files?

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Hi ricna

The preview pane essentially opens a new instance of the Appliction, in order to ‘show’ the file.
You can quickly toggle the preview pane display ON/OFF with [Alt] P
Although you could have a routine which tells whether an Excel file is password-protected or not, it would be difficult to have this operate with the preview pane.

zeddy

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if it is of any help.  if you use  XLSM  extension,  the  double open or Copy of X  does NOT occur  AND  you can leave  preview pane on.

it was driving me nuts as well……

 

 

hope this helps.

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