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
    2012-07-14T08:45:31+00:00

    This is definitely an Office 2010 bug. The file I could not sort using Excel office 2010 because of this error message, when copied onto my old PC which has Office 2003 sorted immediately for me with no error message! I am thinking of reverting back to my old version of Office!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-07-02T12:17:18+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.

    Did not work  --> same results

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-06-22T13:55:36+00:00

    Thanks Cody

    I had actually figured out something on my own.

    I checked other computers in our office and on one persons machine the sort worked. When I investigated, her choice of columns only went to the used columns in the file while on everyone else's the columns were infinite.

    I then went into page setup and input the cells for print area. The first time it didn't work but I'm stubborn and I shutdown and tried again this time the print area  worked. When I went into sort this time I was only given the applicable columns and the sort worked.

    This morning I checked out your solution and the preview option was only checked Explorer and everywhere else preview and details were already unchecked.

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