diff --git a/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py b/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py
index 851019a3..ca25e4d0 100644
--- a/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py
+++ b/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py
@@ -134,6 +134,12 @@ class TestIngestClassificationData(TestIngestData):
         response = self.ingest_data(filename, file_format)
         self.assert_parse_error(response)
 
+    def test_wrong_excel(self):
+        filename = 'text_classification/example.jsonl'
+        file_format = 'Excel'
+        response = self.ingest_data(filename, file_format)
+        self.assert_parse_error(response)
+
 
 class TestIngestSequenceLabelingData(TestIngestData):
     task = SEQUENCE_LABELING
diff --git a/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py b/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py
index e5bb89af..0a4d7bb1 100644
--- a/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py
+++ b/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ from typing import Dict, Iterator, List, Optional, Type
 import chardet
 import pydantic.error_wrappers
 import pyexcel
+import pyexcel.exceptions
 from chardet.universaldetector import UniversalDetector
 from seqeval.scheme import BILOU, IOB2, IOBES, IOE2, Tokens
 
@@ -199,8 +200,12 @@ class ExcelDataset(Dataset):
 
     def load(self, filename: str) -> Iterator[Record]:
         records = pyexcel.iget_records(file_name=filename)
-        for line_num, row in enumerate(records, start=1):
-            yield self.from_row(filename, row, line_num)
+        try:
+            for line_num, row in enumerate(records, start=1):
+                yield self.from_row(filename, row, line_num)
+        except pyexcel.exceptions.FileTypeNotSupported:
+            message = 'This file type is not supported.'
+            raise FileParseException(filename, line_num=-1, message=message)
 
 
 class FastTextDataset(Dataset):