Microsoft Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough available memory or disk space.

Anonymous
2013-01-14T20:16:02+00:00

Hello,

I am running Office Pro Plus 2013.

I try to open a 35KB xlsx and I get this message:

"Microsoft Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough available memory or disk space.

. To make more memory available, close workbooks or programs you no longer need.

. To free disk space, delete files you no longer need from the disk you are saving to."

I have 200GB free on drive C and 16GB RAM with only 18% in use according to task manager. My Users folder is actually on D: (it's a hard shorctut) and this has 800GB free.

Excel is opening all other things fine and all other office apps work fine (as does everything else) it's just this one small xlsx that is causing me problems.

Googling comes up with lots of results and all seem to either boil down to user error (insufficient disk space) or an incorrect path. A egistry hack, which I've tried, sets the Cache folder to point to c:\Windows\Temp. This makes no difference (but everything else still works)

The spreadsheet in question has been downloaded from Google docs. I've tried a few times to download and always get the same. I've also tried the ods format and I get the same results in Excel. Downloading as PDF, or CSV is fine.

Any ideas?

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
2013-01-15T10:20:44+00:00

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. As I understand, you are unable to open a particular Excel file which is downloaded from the Google docs.

Since the issue occurs with a particular file, it might be file specific issue.

Just a quick question:

What is the format of the File?

Save the file locally on the system and then try to open the file and check if it opens fine.

Right click on the saved file, click on Properties and uncheck the option Block and then try to open the file and check.

If you are still unable to open the file in Excel then open the file in CSV format, save the file as Excel file (.xlsx) and then try to open the file and check.

I hope the above suggestions helps to resolve your issue. If you need any further assistance reply and we will be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

Was this answer helpful?

1600+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

183 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2016-03-15T21:10:33+00:00

    After spending the entire day on it and trying all solutions listed since the beginning of this thread, what worked for me was running both Word and Excel as administrator.  Right click on the icon, and choose Run as Administrator.  If this works for you, right click on icon, go to properties, shortcut tab, advanced, check the run as administrator box and save and apply.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-01T17:43:25+00:00

    Gus, you need to be awarded the Most Valuable Genius badge.  Excellent solution.

    I've been ripping my fast disappearing hair out, because of this "feature", for the past few months.  It's been affecting Word as well.  I do a lot of document and spreadsheet work based on Outlook attachments so, your solution is extremely welcome!

    Have a great day!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-26T14:19:35+00:00

    Thanks you so much for this answer.  All of the other answers just weren't applicable.  We have one guy here at the office, and I had to keep opening his files and transferring them to him.  It was a huge issue for both of us.  After following your directions he can not open and save them himself.

    Appreciate your information.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-16T16:43:49+00:00

    I encountered this problem after installing Office 2013 and teried to open files off the network

    Open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc - I did it with Excel

    File-->Options-->Trust Center-->Trust Center Settings-->Protected view--> Uncheck all the boxes

    This definitely worked

    ~ Ludlow

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments