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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

80+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

60+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

139 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-03-07T10:30:47+00:00

    Tried Muzzaffars suggestion. Without success.

    Seeing that I would like to present an otherwise fine tool for clients it is depressing that it will appear unstable in the eyes of customers, without it being a programming error (as far as I can understand).

    I have tried the following:

    Private Sub Workbook_Open()

    Application.DisplayAlerts = False

    End Sub

    and it appears to help, but I still get the error message once i a while.

    Is there a better way?

    Cheers.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-14T15:08:24+00:00

    We have 2 users having this same resource error. We've tried clearing the XLB files and the temp files in their user profile directory without resolution. Here are more details:

    1. It happens to random Excel documents, some are very large, some are very small and had just basic formulas.
    2. It happens with files stored on a network server, and when opening Excel attachments in Outlook.
    3. The 2 users are using 64bit Windows 7 with Office Professional 2010 32bit, all fully up to date.
    4. One of the users reported receiving the error opening one file, they closed it down, continued working on other tasks (working in other spreadsheets), then opened the spreadsheet that gave her the error earlier and it opened just fine.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2012-03-24T17:21:38+00:00

    Well I dunno if will work for anyone else but I've found that If I simply double click the file with Excel closed the file opens. Once opened I can close and open it and a another similarly constructed file.Once opened excel will open it all day. This is over a network - small and lightly used network - off a Linux file server if that matters.

    I'll keep watching for a real answer

    FB

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments