Cant open password protected MS Office Files

  • Nextcloud Server version: 31.0.10
  • Operating system and version: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
  • Web server and version : Apache 2.4.52-1ubuntu4.16
  • Reverse proxy and version: 1.28.0.1-v.ubuntu.22.04+p18.0.73.1+t251001.0636
  • PHP version : 8.29
  • Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Yes / No): Yes
  • Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar? *(Yes / No): Yes, mod_security 1:2.9.12-v.ubuntu.22.04+p18.0.72.0+t250806.0608

Summary of the issue you are facing:

I have a Nextcloud 31 installation here under Plesk with Nextcloud Office and a separate Collabora server with its own domain as a Docker/Portainer setup. Everything is working, I can create/open all file types. Only password-protected files created in MS Office cannot be opened. Both in the browser (Safari/Firefox) and in the iOS Nextcloud app, an error message appears: ‘Failed to load the document. Please ensure that the file type is supported and that the file is not corrupted, then try again.’ How can I fix this?

Steps to replicate it (hint: details matter!):

  1. Open password protected file in Nextcloud files

Any ideas? Am I the only one with this problem?

I guess, that your question better will be placed as an issue in the Collabora-forum or at Github:

because it is Collabora-related but not a Nextcloud issue.

Well maybe all would have this Problem who use password-protected files created in M$ Office. M$ Office is not Open Source like LibreOffice. That means not all Functions could be integrated by Reverse Engineering.

M$ has never published the source code for NTFS. Thanks to reverse engineering, it is possible to integrate NTFS file systems for reading and writing under other operating systems, such as Linux, but it is still not possible, for example, to repair an inconsistent NTFS file system with ntfs3 or ntfs-3g under Linux.

Corresponding problem reports can be found in the relevant Linux user forums almost daily. The only solution so far has always been to have the inconsistent File System repaired on a PC with an M$ operating system.

The same could apply to your problem.

Thanks for your feedback. I have now created an issue on the Collabora GitHub page.

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