Excel (XLS/XLSX) files open blank on Numbers, but data can be copied and pasted

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Level 1

33 points

Excel (XLS/XLSX) files open blank on Numbers, but data can be copied and pasted

Every Excel (XLS/XLSX) files I open on Numbers appear blank.

However, data is there, because if I hit CMD+A (to select all text), CMD+C (to copy it) and then paste it somewhere else (e.g: Google Sheets) the data is pasted correctly.

I have checked and this is not a misconfiguration of delimiters or colors (the table colors are correct, black text, transparent background).

No explanation as to why this is happening.

[Edited by Moderator]

Original Title: Excel (XLS/XLSX) files open blank on Numbers, but data is there & can be copied & pasted somewhere elsere

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 11, 2025 06:29 AM

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Answer 1

Badunit

Level 7

29,982 points

Sep 12, 2025 06:59 AM in response to Arnasio

I have checked and this is not a misconfiguration of delimiters or colors (the table colors are correct, black text, transparent background).

Are you saying you can select this invisible table in Numbers and see the text colors and all the other formatting in the sidebar?

From your screenshot that has no table in view, my first assumption is that the table is off to one side someplace. If you click on the tab for the sheet and click on the disclosure triangle (or option click on the tab), is there a table on the sheet? If you see one listed, what happens when you click its name?

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Answer 2

Arnasio Author

Level 1

33 points

Sep 13, 2025 08:17 AM in response to Badunit

Hi @Badunit, thanks.

Well, I cannot "select" it in the sense that I cannot see anything if I click on Cmd+A. However, if I do that, and then I do Cmd+C, I can paste that in Google Sheets for example.

If I click on the table, I see this:

I can "Drag" from the right circle button and I just see a hover with an indication of rows/columns:

And if I drag on the first circle button, I can move the two buttons around the screen, but no table appears.

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 3

Badunit

Level 7

29,982 points

Sep 13, 2025 02:51 PM in response to Arnasio

Yeah, something odd going on there. You would have to have 0 columns to get it to look anything like that (which is not possible) but even then it wouldn't look quite like that. Did you try the usual first step: Reboot computer?

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Answer 4

Badunit

Level 7

29,982 points

Sep 15, 2025 11:25 AM in response to Arnasio

You said "every Excel file" in your first post. Are they all from the same source/place/person or are they from various different sources/places/persons?

Try this as a possible workaround:

Do the Command A and Command C thing to copy everything from this strange Numbers table
Create a new Numbers document or a new sheet in this one, which should have a properly formatted table that is visible
Select cell A1 of the new table and Paste the data into it.

Does that work? If it didn't, try using Paste and Match Style instead of the usual Paste operation

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