Cracking the Code: How to Open Large Excel Files Without Crashing (2024)

For many people, MS Excel is the go-to tool for analyzing large datasets. I’m no exception. I love playing with data, and Excel used to be the only tool in my tech stack — until everything went south.

When I was working with a particularly large dataset, Excel started brewing trouble. The app kept crashing, and my screen froze constantly. The file could also become corrupted, and I’d have lost all my data. It was code red.

The struggle was real, and so was the frustration. I desperately needed a way out.

So, I frantically searched for how to open a large Excel file wherever possible and tried several different ways to open my large Excel file. It was a painstaking effort, but well worth saving my data.

If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation (or want to prevent it in the first place), I’ve compiled a list of tried-and-tested techniques to open large Excel files and manage your datasets seamlessly.

But first, let’s see how you can optimize your device for opening large Excel files.

Here are three things you can do to ensure your system can handle large files:

1. Check your version of Excel: Excel is available in two versions, 32-bit and 64-bit. While the 32-bit version consumes up to 2GB of system memory, the 64-bit version can use all available memory. That naturally means if you have the 32-bit version of Excel, you’re not using up all the memory required to load your file. At the same time, older versions of MS Excel — like Excel 2007, Excel 2010, and so on — can also have slow performance. New versions are designed to handle large files with better memory management capabilities. So, update your Excel app to the bigger and newer version!

1. See your system’s RAM availability: RAM is important for opening and processing large Excel files since the app loads all the data in a file every time you open it and doesn’t store any cache. If you’re unable to open large Excel files, it’s likely that you’ve run out of RAM and need an upgrade.
2. Adjust Excel settings for better performance: You can also tweak some settings in Excel to improve performance and work seamlessly with large files. This is one of the easier steps to implement when you notice your system is crashing. Here are the settings to adjust:

• Limit the number of worksheets and delete unnecessary ones to reduce the file size.
• Turn off add-ins that you don’t use to minimize the processing time. Go to File > Options > Add-ins to disable the unnecessary ones.
• Reduce your file’s total size by deleting extra formatting, reducing/simplifying formulas, and clearing the pivot cache.

Once you’re done with all these initial steps, you’re ready to dig deeper and solve the problem head-on. Let’s check out four techniques on how to open a large Excel file with actionable steps.

I personally tried each one of these methods when I found myself in this nightmarish situation. So, go ahead with whichever option looks best for you and work on Excel without the struggle.

1. Using Gigasheet as a Preprocessing Step to Shrink the File

When I first came across Gigasheet, I couldn’t believe this tool was available for free. Gigasheet is a big data spreadsheet that lets you work with complex databases in a convenient spreadsheet format.

The platform is intuitively built to help users like you navigate large datasets and perform different operations without getting stuck anywhere. You can upload Excel files as big as 1 billion rows, and it’ll load your file in seconds, then work seamlessly to perform any action.

While it doesn’t offer the exact same functionalities as MS Excel, Gigasheet is a great alternative to Excel and several steps ahead with features like:

• Filtering data with conditions to organize your dataset.
• Grouping and segmenting data to get deeper visibility.
• Setting IF/THEN conditions to expand your database.
• Creating charts and graphs to visualize your analysis.
• Collaborating with anyone with the cloud-based sheet.

The best part: you don’t have to spend any time figuring out your way around this platform. You can get started quickly and navigate the interface easily.

Once you’re done analyzing your data, you can export it as a CSV and it’ll open right away in Excel, then save it as a traditional Excel spreadsheet. Want to see how it works? Sign up on Gigasheet and give it a go yourself — you’ll never go back to Excel!

2. Using other techniques

While using Gigasheet is one of the best ways to open large Excel files, you can also try these three methods:

A. Changing calculation options to manual

One reason why your Excel files are taking too long to open can be the auto-calculate setting for formulas. By default, Excel has a setting for automatically calculating all the formulas in a workbook whenever you make a change. So, every time you try to open this file, Excel will go through a long process of recalculating all formulas — slowing down your system and sometimes crashing the file.

You can solve this problem by switching the auto-calculate option to manual. Go to the Formulas tab and click on Calculation Options. Then select Manual, and your file will now be easier to open. This essentially stops Excel from constantly recalculating your formulas in the background.

B. Enabling multi-threading processing

Another great way to tackle large files is by allowing multi-threading in Excel. This option lets the app perform several tasks simultaneously. This means Excel can calculate your formulas and process all the data at the same time to produce faster performance.

It also helps in opening a large Excel file because multi-threading ensures everything loads quickly and your workbook is ready for your review.

You can enable multi-threading by going to File > Options > Advanced. Here, find the Formulas section and check the option called Enable multi-threaded processing. When you do that, Excel can use all the available cores in your processor to speed up the loading process.

C. Using Power Query to query data

Power Query is a tool within MS Excel designed to import data from several sources and clean it up. Once the data is transformed, it loads all the data into your sheet. This function is helpful for large datasets since it speeds up the process of handling millions of rows.

You can use Power Query to import crucial data and reduce the load on your system for better performance. Follow these steps:

• Click on the Data tab on the main menu and press Get Data.
• Choose From Workbook. Now, you’ll see a window where you can choose the file from which you want to import the data.
• Select the desired file and click Import.
• A new window will open with a preview of all the data from this file.
• Select the tables or cells you’d like to import and press Edit to open the Power Query Editor.

Inside the editor, you can filter rows and remove columns alongside a bunch of other transformations. All actions help in reducing your data size and load your file more quickly.

Excel is a godsend for those working with large datasets. But as your file size increases, so does the challenge of working on Excel. The slow and laggy performance might just leave you in tears.

But you’re already in luck. This quick article will save you from ever finding yourself in such a situation. Try any of the methods for opening a large Excel file or simply sign up on Gigasheet and say goodbye to all the worries — the choice is yours!