Opening Excel 2019 in Desktop App on SharePoint using chrome

Question

Opening Excel 2019 in Desktop App on SharePoint using chrome

Ibrahim AlHusari 191

Dears,

I have noticed strange issue happened to me after latest office 2019 update version 1808 build 10417.20030, I cannot open excel file on my SharePoint in app mode anymore as I was doing before the update.

This issue only affecting excel application other office programs word and PowerPoint have no issues after the update.

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Kindly note if I rollback office update to build 10417.20020 everything will work again as before

your help is highly appreciated

1 answer

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Answer 1

Julie-Hu 870 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear @Ibrahim AlHusari,

Good day! Welcome to Q&A forum!

Thank you for providing the detailed information and screenshots. They are really helpful!

Regarding your situation, kindly try the following suggestions to check what might have caused the issue:

Clear the Office Document Cache: This can sometimes resolve issues related to files not opening as expected. Therefore, kindly try to:
- Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache using Windows + R and clear the contents
- Restart your computer and try opening the file again
Reset your credentials: Sometimes updates can affect saved login info
- Open Windows Credential Manager
- Remove any entries related to Office or SharePoint. They might be labeled as "MicrosoftOffice16_Data" or similar
- Try opening the file again and you’ll be asked to log in fresh
Kindly use another browser to access your SharePoint and open the Excel file to see if it is browser-related issue
Add ?web=1 to the URL: When you click a SharePoint link, it often tries to open the file in the browser by default. Adding ?web=1 to the end of the URL tells SharePoint to open the file in the desktop app instead, which is especially helpful when Excel isn’t launching properly after an Office update
- If your original link is: https://sharepoint.company.com/sites/team/Shared%20Documents/Report.xlsx
- Change it to: https://sharepoint.company.com/sites/team/Shared%20Documents/Report.xlsx?web=1

Kindly let me know if these help identify the cause of this issue before rolling back to the previous Office build. Any updates you’re able to share would be really helpful. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing how things are going!

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Ibrahim AlHusari 191 Reputation points

2025-08-06T09:25:56.47+00:00

HI,

Thank you for your quick reply, I tried everything that you have mentioned above

Kindly note that all people in my site having same problem, I also noticed if I use Firefox the issue is fixed!!!
Julie-Hu 870 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-06T09:52:28.92+00:00
Hi @Ibrahim AlHusari,

Thank you for your update!

I'm glad that using Firefox helps resolve this issue.

The reasons for this might be:

Chrome removed support for NPAPI plugins, which older Office integrations sometimes rely on while Firefox may still support the necessary components or handle the fallback better.

Firefox may still support certain protocols or link behaviors that Chrome has restricted or deprecated and therefore, more flexible with how it opens these links, and it avoids the problem.

The recent Office update may have changed how Excel works with Chrome, causing this issue for everyone.

Therefore, I recommend these suggestions in the meantime:

Download the Excel file to your local device and open it in Excel desktop app to isolate the cause and be sure that the file is not renamed, moved or deleted and that the Excel app is working properly or not

Use Firefox as a temporary workaround until Microsoft releases a fix

Clear Chrome’s cache and cookies, and test again

Try accessing your SharePoint site using InPrivate/Incognito window to open your Excel file in Excel desktop app

Report the issue to Microsoft Support, especially since it affects multiple users. By giving feedback within Excel, the product team will be able to investigate further and might include a fix for this soon

Open Excel online > Go to Help tab > Choose Feedback > Report a problem

I am here and happy to help if you need further assistance or when you have any updates regarding this.

Thank you for your kindness and understanding!

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Ibrahim AlHusari 191 Reputation points

2025-08-06T10:54:51.12+00:00

@Julie-Hu Thank you for your support

I have opened support ticket with Microsoft, I will keep you updated
Julie-Hu 870 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-06T11:45:23.1366667+00:00

Hi @Ibrahim AlHusari,

Thank you for updating me!

I hope that the Technical Engineer would find the cause to this and help you with it so everyone in your site would get back to a smooth workflow.

Thank you for your effort and patience.
Julie-Hu 870 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-11T08:27:00.5566667+00:00

Hi @Ibrahim AlHusari,

Good day! I hope everything is going well on your end.

It’s been a little while, so I just wanted to follow up and see how things are progressing with your concern. If you've run into any challenges or if there's anything further that I can help with, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Any updates you’re able to share would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your time and attention! I look forward to hearing from you.
Ibrahim AlHusari 191 Reputation points

2025-08-11T10:58:56.7266667+00:00

Hi @Julie-Hu

The support did not help me, they asked me to roll back with office version
Julie-Hu 870 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-11T11:27:47.9533333+00:00

Hi @Ibrahim AlHusari,

Thank you for letting me know. I understand this isn’t ideal, but as a temporary solution, rolling back to the previous version may help restore functionality while we work on a permanent fix.

Kindly let me know if it works better in the previous Office version.

Thank you for your kindness and understanding!

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Opening Excel 2019 in Desktop App on SharePoint using chrome

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