Fix "Excel isn't ready" and read-only workbooks

When Blast Audit cannot confirm that it can work in your workbook, the pane shows Blast Audit is unavailable right now with one or more reasons underneath. Each reason has its own fix. After you fix it, click Retry.

Blast Audit stores your documents, snips, comments and markups inside the workbook. It blocks the pane when it cannot write to the workbook, so that you never lose work you think was saved.

Find your message

Excel isn't ready

Blast Audit waits about 10 seconds for Excel to answer. If Excel is still loading the file, or the file opened in Protected View, the check fails.

1. Make sure the workbook is open and has finished loading.
2. If a yellow bar at the top of Excel says Protected View, click Enable Editing.
3. Close the Blast Audit pane and open it again from the Blast Audit tab.
4. If the message stays, close Excel completely, reopen the workbook, then open Blast Audit.

If the check takes more than 8 seconds, you can still open documents in the viewer, but the other pages stay locked until Retry succeeds.

Read-only or locked workbook

Blast Audit cannot save snips in a file that Excel opened as read-only.

• Excel on the web: if the file opened in Viewing mode, switch to Editing in the toolbar, then click Retry.
• File on a network drive: if a colleague has the file open in desktop Excel, you get a read-only copy. Ask them to close it, or store the file on OneDrive or SharePoint so you can both edit it at the same time.
• File marked read-only: open the file properties in File Explorer or Finder, clear the read-only attribute, and reopen the file.
• Email attachment or downloaded file: save a copy to a folder you can write to, and open that copy.

Protected workbook

Workbook protection (structure protection) blocks the whole add-in, because Blast Audit cannot write its data into a protected workbook.

1. In Excel, go to Review > Protect Workbook and turn protection off. Enter the password if Excel asks for one.
2. Click Retry in the Blast Audit pane.

Sheet protection does not block the pane, but Blast Audit cannot write into a protected sheet. A table snip on a protected sheet shows "This sheet or workbook is protected. Remove the protection in Excel, then try again." Use Review > Unprotect Sheet on that sheet.

Snips could not be saved

This message appears after Excel refused a write. It clears by itself the next time a snip is saved.

1. Check the workbook is not read-only or protected (see above).
2. Save the workbook, then click Retry.
3. Create one test snip. If it saves, the message goes away.

If it keeps coming back, close and reopen the workbook, then try again.

Blast Audit read-only mode

You get this mode when you click Continue in read-only mode on the sign-in page. You can open documents and look at snips, but you cannot import documents or create, edit or delete snips, comments and markups.

To leave it, sign in from the Blast Audit pane. Blast Audit does not remember read-only mode, so it asks you to sign in the next time you open it.

Excel version too old

Blast Audit saves its documents, snips and OCR data with an Excel feature called Custom XML (ExcelApi 1.5). Some older Excel versions, and files that Excel opens in a mode without this feature, do not have it. Without it Blast Audit can neither read nor save documents, snips or OCR data. It does not block the whole pane for this alone, but you will see "Blast Audit couldn't save snips" as soon as you try to create one.

Save the file as .xlsx and open it in a current Microsoft 365 Excel, or use Excel on the web. See Install the Excel add-in for the supported versions.

If it still fails

Click Help on the blocked screen. It opens a support conversation with the reasons already filled in. Add:

• Your Excel: Windows, Mac or web, and the version (File > Account > About Excel).
• Where the file is stored: your computer, a network drive, OneDrive or SharePoint.
• Whether a new blank workbook shows the same message.

You do not need to send the workbook.