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
    2012-05-23T03:59:31+00:00

    Found the problem and solution: It is a Security update for MS Update for Excel (KB2597166) that was installed on 5/9/2012.  After removing this update, Excel is back to working like a champ!

    Wow!  I've only been using Office 2010 for a couple of months and I had no issues until the update put out on 05/09/2012.  None of the "fixes" posted are helping the issue.

    I have a user that experience the same problem too (Excel cannot complete with the available resources).  Tried different recommendations ( Delete .xlb, disable add-on, copy file to work on local drive...etc).  Removing the KB2597166 on 05/09/2012 worked on our case too!  Thanks all.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-05-23T21:51:07+00:00

    Have the same problem starting today and noticed the following behavior:

    If I click in the upper left hand corner to select all, then try to sort, I get the error message. If I select only the columns that have data in them, no problem. Interestingly, when I click to "select all" but choose subtotal instead of sort, Excel automatically highlights only the columns with data in them and everything is fine.

    I'm not sure exactly what this means, but it's almost as if the "select all" is treating the entire available spreadsheet as if every cell had data, at least for the sort function.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-05-24T13:00:40+00:00

    It’s to do with empty cells both to the right and at the bottom of spreadsheet! In Excel 2003 the cell limit is 65,536 rows by 256 columns 2010 it’s over 1 million! Just select cells you need (rows & columns) and sort them - or delete empty cells at the right and end of spreadsheet.

    That’s the reason it then worked by saving it at as a 2003 xls file - see previous response (it’s limited the cells to 65k)

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