Why are files opened in office 365 apps(e.g, Word, Excel, Powerpoint) from any other iOS app show up as read only?

Hello Ahmed,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Office Community.

Please provide more information to help you better.

1) Are you experiencing this issue with all the files?

2) What does the Office application files contain?

3) Are you able to edit the Office application files from Office Online apps if you access them through web interface?

I look forward to your reply to assist you further.

Thank you.

Why can’t I edit some Microsoft Office documents on my phone?

You might not be able to open or edit some documents on your phone depending on what's in it or how it was last saved. Here are some of the more common things that make a document read-only on your phone.

The file is:

• Saved as an older type of Microsoft Office document, such as a Microsoft Word 97-2003 document (.doc), Microsoft Excel 97-2003 workbook (.xls), or Microsoft PowerPoint 97-2003 presentation (.ppt).

• Digitally signed.

• Marked as final.

• Protected using rights management.

• Protected with restricted editing rights.

Microsoft Word documents are read-only if they have:

• Track Changes enabled.

• Frames.

• Custom markup (custom XML, Structured Document Tags (SDT), or smart tags).

• XML tags with unsupported values.

Also, there are cases where you can edit the Word document but can’t edit certain sections like:

• If a select section contains an image or clipart.

• TOCs.

Microsoft Excel workbooks are read-only if they have:

• Functions that aren't supported on the phone.

  Note    We are listing all the functions that are supported. You should be able to edit an Excel spreadsheet that use these functions: ABS, ACOS, AND, ASIN, ATAN, ATAN2, AVERAGE, CHOOSE, COLUMNS, CONCATENATE, COS, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, COUNTIF, DATE, DATEVALUE, DAVERAGE, DAY, DCOUNT, DCOUNTA, DDB, DEGREES, DGET, DMAX, DMIN, DPRODUCT, DSTDEV, DSTDEVP, DSUM, DVAR, DVARP, ERROR.TYPE, EXACT, EXP, FACT, FIND, FV, HLOOKUP, HOUR, IF, INDEX, INT, IRR, ISBLANK, ISERR, ISERROR, ISLOGICAL, ISNA, ISNONTEXT, ISNUMBER, ISTEXT, LEFT, LEN, LN, LOG, LOG10, LOOKUP, LOWER, MATCH, MAX, MID, MIN, MINUTE, MOD, MONTH, N, NA, NOT, NOW, NPER, NPV, OR, PI, PMT, POWER, PRODUCT, PROPER, PV, RADIANS, RAND, RANK, RATE, REPLACE, REPT, RIGHT, ROUND, ROWS, SECOND, SIN, SLN, SQRT, STDEV, STDEVP, SUBSTITUTE, SUM, SUMIF, SUMPRODUCT, SYD, T, TAN, TIME, TIMEVALUE, TODAY, TRIM, TRUNC, UPPER, VALUE, VAR, VARP, VLOOKUP, YEAR, FALSE, and TRUE.

• Scenarios.

• Data validation in one or more cells.

• Array formulas.

• Data tables.

• Slicers.

• Macros enabled.

• Large column or row widths.

• Formulas that contain links or references to other workbooks.

• Formulas with structured references.

• Formulas that contain references, content, or formatting beyond cell IV16384.

• Formulas that are longer than 512 characters or have more than 30 arguments in them.

• Tracked changes.

• Dialog sheets.

• XML markup that isn't formed correctly.

• OLE objects or ActiveX controls.

For Microsoft PowerPoint presentations on your phone, you can only make certain types of edits like editing text in a text box, adding or editing notes, changing the order of slides, or hiding slides.

Hello Daniel, 

Thank you for the quick respond. To answer you questions:

1. Are you experiencing this issue with all the files? Yes
2. What does the Office application files contain? regular text (i.e., only my name)
3. Are you able to edit the Office application files from Office Online apps if you access them through web interface? do I have this option?, Also can I open a file stored on my computer without having to open it through dropbox?, If I stored the same file on dropbox and try to edit it online, then it is doable. Also, it is doable to edit the same file from the iOS dropbox app.