MS Office files randomly changing into zip files

[gregs305]

This problem has been happening on and off for several months now and I can't seem to figure out why. I have saved Word and Excel files on my computer as we all do. However, sometimes when I go to their folder to locate and open, the files have mysteriously changed from .doc or .xls to .zip - has anyone else seen this happen and if so, how did you fix it? This happens seemingly in a random manner - went for two solid months without it happening at all and today it did it again.

 

[kohlson]

Recent MS Office document formats are zipped. So something is automatically unzipping them. Have you installed some sort of new utility lately?

 

[gregs305]

Recent MS Office document formats are zipped. So something is automatically unzipping them. Have you installed some sort of new utility lately?

No - maybe I did not make the issue clear. I create a word file and save as such. Item is filed as*.docx and I close the folder. Later I go back to the folder and the file has mysteriously converted itself to *.zip - nothing new installed in months

 

[DeltaMac]

"Later (?)" How much later? 5 minutes, same day, a week?
Maybe the files (when left for some length of time) may be automatically transferring to iCloud, or some other upload service?

I don't have any other ideas about why that might happen... But...
Does that prevent you from using the files? If a normal .zip, it should just uncompress to your original file (.docx or whatever) by just double-clicking, or even better, right click, and open with Archive Utility

 

[gregs305]

"Later (?)" How much later? 5 minutes, same day, a week?
Maybe the files (when left for some length of time) may be automatically transferring to iCloud, or some other upload service?

I don't have any other ideas about why that might happen... But...
Does that prevent you from using the files? If a normal .zip, it should just uncompress to your original file (.docx or whatever) by just double-clicking, or even better, right click, and open with Archive Utility

Yes to all your timelines. It has happened within minutes, days and weeks. Files were fine yesterday and had been fine for a couple of months. This afternoon all Office files have a .zip extension

However, the files do not behave like a zip file and also can’t be opened with the associated Office program. Mac has to be restarted to correct this (and sometimes it takes mulitple restarts)

I’m pretty good with my Mac and how it works, but this has me thrown for a loop

 

[kohlson]

Odd that this "fixes on restart." and then reverts. In the old days I would have suggested rebuilding the desktop. But now, it's as though you have a corrupted plist or other meta - foo associated with this. Have you tried something like Onyx (free) to flush all the caches and such?

 

[DeltaMac]

A ".zip" file would not be directly open-able in any Office app, as far as I know.
What I was asking was (to clarify): If the file has changed to a .zip, can you open it by right-clicking, then choosing open with: Archive Utility?
If it has, in fact, converted to a .zip file, you should be able to open it (uncompress) with Archive Utility, even if a double-click does not work.
And, of course, if that does not work at all, can you simply change the extension from .zip to .docx (or whatever Office file it should be)

One more question - Does the file name actually change (.docx extension is now .zip) - or, do you simply see that the file icon has changed to something else?

I would suggest that you should try a reset/rebuild of the Launch Services database. That will sometimes get slightly corrupted, and will results in file associations being changed, and other system oddities. Those will often be fixed completely by a quick rebuild of the Launch Services database. There's a terminal command, but much easier to download and run OnyX. You will see the Launch Services rebuild under the Maintenance tab in OnyX.
You didn't say which version of macOS you are running. OnyX has separate versions for each macOS version. Download the one for your system.

 

[NoBoMac]

Recent MS Office document formats are zipped. So something is automatically unzipping them. Have you installed some sort of new utility lately?

No - maybe I did not make the issue clear. I create a word file and save as such. Item is filed as*.docx and I close the folder. Later I go back to the folder and the file has mysteriously converted itself to *.zip

Kohlson is correct in that the newer Office formats are zip files. Ditto ODF files. Relative ran into this recently: got an ODF document in email, no LibreOffice or OpenOffice installed, every time they tried to open the document, an archive file was left behind, and when you clicked that, the ODF document would re-appear.

Type definition might be messed up re: open with, or as DeltaMac asks, could just be icon is wrong? A cloud storage/backup service having issues? Any unknown process running?

Obviously, some process is touching those docs, as MacOS will not randomly change file extensions.

 

[gregs305]

Odd that this "fixes on restart." and then reverts. In the old days I would have suggested rebuilding the desktop. But now, it's as though you have a corrupted plist or other meta - foo associated with this. Have you tried something like Onyx (free) to flush all the caches and such?

Will try Onyx - thx for the suggestion