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
    2012-03-28T18:34:43+00:00

    Problem Fixed, (for me anyway...)

    http://www.officearticles.com/excel/troubleshooting_microsoft_excel.htm

    Delete the Excel.XLB on the users profile.  Tried everything here, but no good.  Found above webpage, searched for and found the excel.xlb file, and the out of resources error went away.  Also fixed the slow speed problem. 

    Not what I expected.  Even after doing this for over 15 years, I am still amazed at fixes to problems that seem to be completely unrelated to the problem.  The Excel.xlb file (search on *.XLB , and delete all files found) is supposed to just contain the users basic template stuff that gets passed to excel when you open the program.  The file is recreated when you open excel the first time.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-05-02T15:20:13+00:00

    None of the resolutions above have worked for me. I am still getting the same error message. Excel cannot complete this task with available resources. Choose less data or close other applications.  I have used excel since day one and never had a problem. . This problem started a few months ago. It happens on all my excel files whether large or small and it happens when I try to open or export a file to excel. Please help.

    i have the same problem with a user ever since upgrading to a precision ws with 8gb of ram. he's in the acct dept and uses excel extensively. here's what i've managed to find so far. his custom toobar seems to be causing it. excel 2007 works fine on this machine. so,  uninstalled /reinstalled office 2010 64. no help. finally after long troubeshooting hrs I discovered he was using a custom toolbar with about 30 icons on it. removed toolbar. excel 2010 works fine without it. so he rebuilt the toolbar from scratch in excel 2010. worked for two days then error started again.  installed excel 2007 32 and it works fine with his custom toolbar.  i'm now in the

    process of having him add one function at a time to the toolbar to see if its just one or more of the functions causing it or the custom toolbar itself.  We've spent a few hours on this and his lost production is not setting in very well. as for now he's using office 2010 without excel and just using excel 2007 just so that he can use his custom toolbar.  what a crock. but it is working. however you lose the "new" features in excel 2010. which he's not pleased with at all.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2012-05-02T18:09:24+00:00

    Turning off the preview didn't work for you? If any of those toolbar addins let you peek at the file before opening that might be the one to start with as it appears that the extra miniview causes the break. Since I turned them all off I've had no issues

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments