How do I convert XLS to TSV?

Add your XLS file to the upload area above, then press Convert. The TSV file downloads straight to your device. You do not need an account, and there is no watermark.

Are my files uploaded to a server?

No. This conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly, so the file never leaves your device — you can even disconnect from the internet after the page loads and it will still work.

Does converting to TSV reduce quality?

Nothing is re-encoded — the content is taken out of the XLS container as-is, so its quality is unchanged.

How large a file can I convert?

Up to 100 MB per file for this conversion. Because the work happens in your browser, the practical limit is your device's memory — larger files work on a desktop with plenty of RAM and may fail on an older phone.

Can I convert several files at once?

Yes. Add as many as you like and press Convert All. Each file is processed independently, so one failure does not stop the rest, and you can download everything together as a ZIP.

Can I use this on my phone?

Yes. FileTools360 works in mobile browsers on iOS and Android, including choosing files straight from your camera roll. Very large videos may run out of memory on a phone — those are better converted on a laptop.

SpreadsheetExtracted as-isRuns in your browser

XLS to TSV Converter

Turn XLS files into TSV in a couple of clicks. Excel's pre-2007 binary workbook. Like CSV but tab-delimited — safer for text with commas. Content is pulled out of the source container rather than re-authored.

On your deviceNever uploadedGone when you close the tabHow this works

Drop your files here

XLS files (.xls) · up to 100 MB each

or paste files from your clipboard

Ready when you are

Drop a XLS file above and FileTools360 will turn it into TSV — right here on your device, without uploading anything.

⌘K to search converters

How to use it

1
Add your XLS files
Drag them onto the upload area, choose them from your device, or paste them from your clipboard. You can queue several at once.
2
Adjust the settings if you want to
The defaults suit most people. Open Advanced to control delimiter and header handling.
3
Convert and download
Press Convert. Everything happens on your own device — nothing is uploaded. Download files one by one, or grab them all as a ZIP.

XLS and TSV explained

The pre-2007 Excel format is a binary structure limited to 65,536 rows and 256 columns — limits modern datasets routinely exceed.

TSV is CSV with tab characters as separators. Because tabs almost never appear inside data fields, it sidesteps most of CSV's quoting problems.

Where XLS files come from: Spreadsheets from Excel 2003 or earlier, and some legacy export systems.
Where TSV is used: Bioinformatics, data pipelines and anywhere fields contain commas.

XLS vs TSV

The two formats solve different problems, which is why converting between them involves trade-offs rather than a straight upgrade.

XLS compared with TSV
Property	Source	Target
Compression	None	None
Introduced	1987	—
Browser support	Still opens in Excel and LibreOffice.	Wide, especially in data tooling.

XLS is stronger at: Still opens in Excel and LibreOffice.
TSV is stronger at: No ambiguity with commas inside values. Simpler parsing than CSV. Common in scientific data.

Why convert XLS to TSV?

People make this switch when they run into the limits of XLS: anything else — XLSX is better in every respect. TSV is the better fit when your data contains commas and you control both ends of the pipeline.

XLS limitations that prompt the switch: Hard row and column limits. Larger files than XLSX. Binary format that is awkward to parse.
What you give up: Tabs are invisible, making manual editing error-prone. Less universally recognised than CSV.

What is preserved when converting XLS to TSV?

Both formats store the content without discarding data, so this conversion preserves it exactly. The file size may change because the two formats compress differently, but the content itself is unaffected.