Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications.

Anonymous
2010-05-05T14:25:22+00:00

Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications. the size of the file is 640MB with over 250k records. I have 3.25GB of memory. It takes 5 mintues for the file to open.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-09-07T15:07:34+00:00

I have been experiencing this problem for months (i.e., Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications).  I am running Windows 7 and Office 2010.  The problem can occur with very small spreadsheets so it has nothing to do with the complexity of the spreadsheets.  After reading the other posts, especially the one from Chuthor, I began to suspect incompatibilities between Excel and other MS software that I've downloaded.

Anyway, I just uninstalled Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Outlook Social Connector for Live Messenger, which came with an update from Microsoft on 4/7/2011.  This appears to have solved the problem.

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Anonymous
2012-04-09T18:19:33+00:00

We eventually opened a ticket with Microsoft. Apparently this is on their radar, with no real fix just this work around. The users were experiencing this error daily, and by disabling preview pane in the 3 necessar locations completly fixed the issue. Here is the workaround MS sent me.

Windows 7 is new with Preview/Details panes. These Preview/Details panes contribute to the "Available resources" issues, as well as our "Locked for Editing by another user" issues. We consider turning them off in these 3 locations as a valid test:

Windows:

1. Right click on Start Ribbon.

2. Click Open Windows Explorer.

3. Click Organize | Layout  |

4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

Excel:

1. Click File | Open.

2. Click Organize | Layout  |

3. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

Outlook:

1. Open a new e-mail.

2. In the "Include" group, click Attach File.

3. Click Organize | Layout  |

4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-10-31T14:27:06+00:00

    This problem has nothing to do with memory or thte size of the file.  I've been getting this error for over 6 months, and the file sizes are never more than a couple of MB's  at most.  This usually happens when there are one or more Excel files open and then I try to open another Excel file which is only 710 kb.  In order to open any more files I have to close all excel files and then re-open them.  It seems to be random, I cannot figure out any key element to getting the error.  What a pain!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-10-20T14:26:09+00:00

    POSSIBLE Solution if using VB or MACROs.

    I had this problem while running a Macro or VB code that called a SORT on some data.

    Even though the dataset was small, only a few hundred lines, it would trigger this error.

    In reviewing the code, I realized the Macro or VB command being used was "cells.select", which essentially selects the entire page, regardless of where the data ends.  With the 32 bit version, you run out of memory doing that.  It would have worked on excel 2003 since the pages were so much smaller.

    By using updated code to determine the range of the data only, and then sorting only that range, the error went away.

    updated code I used is something like what is shown below.

    code

        Dim LastRow As Long  

        Dim LastCol As Long    

        Dim LastCell As String

        Range("A1").Select

        LastRow = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count

        LastCol = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count

        LastCell = Selection.offset(LastRow - 1, LastCol - 1).Address

        Range("A1", LastCell).Select

    Hope that helps someone.

    G

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-10-04T21:27:13+00:00

    Outstanding!

    This has been the only suggestion that has actually worked for me!

    I have a new Thinkpad, 64 bit running Windows 7, Office 2010, and with 8GB RAM. I have been creating the same monthly report for two years without issues, but then I started getting these "cannot complete task..." messages.

    After saving to .xls and then re-saving back to .xlsx, I am now able to sort my spreadsheet. BTW, it is usually about 30,000 rows and 15 columns.

    Well doneSharBaitNZ !!!

     

    I work on a tech support desk and was confounded by this issue. I tried every. Single. Solution. in here before finding this answer and it worked! Thanks all!

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