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I have Microsoft Excel 2011 installed on my MacBook Air. It worked on Mojave’s but no longer works on Catalina.

When attempting to open an Excel file on my desktop it usually opens but now archives it instead.

Why is this?

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  • If you're depending on MS Office, I suggest creating a Office 365 subscription. This way, you're always getting updated software. Since you're using 7+ years old software, you should either not update the underlying OS without knowing what this will do (and live with the consequences of potentially insecure software), be prepared to pay for up-to-date software or simply use Apple's offering of Pages/Numbers/Keynote.
    – herrbischoff
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 15:20

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The issue is macOS Catalina no longer supports 32-bit apps, and Microsoft Office 2011 is 32-bit. Support for it was stopped a few years ago and it won’t be updated.

You will either have to buy a newer version of office or use an alternative software like G Suite by Google.

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One could also try to perhaps add the program to the list of apps allowed to access the disk.

This can be found under: Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > ....

I just did this for the MS Office Programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint Outlook etc..).

While in contact with MS Support they advised me to delete everything and reinstall. Adding the programs was a lot easier and retained all my data.

Security And Privacy Settings

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    The icons don't look like Office 2011 though, and adding applications to FDA won't solve the 32bit issue anyway. So I'm not sure how this applies to the problem stated in the question.
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 14:06
  • In addition, Full Disk Access is NOT required for Office to function.
    – Ezekiel
    Commented Oct 19, 2019 at 17:12