Error trying to read blockede xls file on python

Question

I am trying to open an Xls file on using python pandas ( also tried several others libraries like xlrd and pyexcel) and wasnt able to open it. when a try to used the comand

df = pd.read_excel('mil.xls')

I get following error:

_locate_stream(Workbook): seen 0 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 20 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 40 2

I found out that when, before trying to read it, I unblock the file, that is, disable manually the protected view mode on excel, I could read the file normally. Is there a way I can unblock the .Xls file on python though some librarie ?

Answer 1

I've noted that if you open and save the file you can read it. This piece of code solve the problem:

xcl = win32com.client.Dispatch('Excel.Application')
wb = xcl.workbooks.open(filename)
xcl.DisplayAlerts = False
wb.Save()
xcl.Quit()