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How to open .TSV files on Linux

To open .TSV files on Linux, open it in a spreadsheet app that supports importing delimited text; when prompted, choose Tab as the field delimiter (LibreOffice Calc supports delimited-text import).

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Open it in a spreadsheet app that supports importing delimited text; when prompted, choose Tab as the field delimiter (LibreOffice Calc supports delimited-text import).
  2. If double-click opens the wrong app, adjust the file association using your desktop’s MIME settings (Linux desktops typically use the freedesktop.org Shared MIME-info mechanism).

Common issues

Everything appears in one column

The app opened the file as plain text without splitting on tabs, or it assumed a different delimiter (like commas).

  1. Re-open using an import workflow for delimited text and set the delimiter to Tab.
  2. Verify the file actually contains tab characters (open in a text editor and look for consistent spacing between fields).

Garbled characters (encoding issues)

TSV is plain text, but different tools may assume different character encodings, causing accents/symbols to display incorrectly.

  1. Re-import the TSV and choose a different text encoding (commonly UTF-8, if available).
  2. Ask the sender/exporting system which encoding was used and re-export as UTF-8 if possible.

Rows break unexpectedly or data shifts

Inconsistent line endings or embedded newlines/tabs inside fields can confuse parsers and cause records to split incorrectly.

  1. Open the file in a text editor and check for unexpected line breaks within a single logical record.
  2. Re-export from the source system with consistent record separators and proper handling of embedded newlines.

Double-click opens the wrong application

Your system’s file association may map .tsv to an app that doesn’t import it as a table.

  1. Use “Open with” to choose a spreadsheet or text editor.
  2. On Linux, update the association using your desktop environment’s MIME/file association settings (per the Shared MIME-info approach).

Security note

A .TSV file is typically plain text and does not contain macros by itself, but it can still carry untrusted data that triggers problems in the software that imports it (parser bugs or unexpected data types). Prefer opening in a reputable spreadsheet/text tool and avoid obscure importers for untrusted files.

Back to .TSV extension page