Resolved: Very Large XLS File Problems in Excel 2013 - Excel Cannot Successfully Sort Files With Large Numbers of Rows

Need to have some answers towards this problem - can you point me in the right direction?

Unfortunately, there is no "right direction" until MSFT fixes the Windows 8 / Excel 2013 bug.  

Here's we fix the problem: I finally realized that I needed to simply downgrade back to Excel 2010, and wait until MSFT fixes this bug.   I installed my old Excel 2010 alongside Excel 2013, and now only open large files in Excel 2010. That fixes all of the problems mentioned above.

Please don't say "win 8/Excel 2013" anymore.  Multiple Windows 7/64 users have posted.  The only common denominator in this thread is Excel 2013 and "lots of records".  As another user has already pointed out, this should not have passed the alpha-test stage.  I mean, a simple sort!  Really?

Also, please don't call this an "inconvenience" or "annoying".  I would be that, IF you got an error when you tried to sort.  But you don't.  It just seems to work.  So, when I sorted my error log by error type, and no critical "1"s or "2"s bubbled up to the top, I reported that all was well.  In fact, it hadn't sorted it at all, and I was just lucky to have kept my job.

My system: (The failing one.  Like others here, the same sheet works on my laptop with Excel 2007.)

Windows 7 64-bit SP1

i7 12-core 3.33 Ghz

24 GB ram

32 TB disk

Amen, Badger.  Agreed:  Excel 2013 problem...platform irrelevant.

In theory I don't see how animations would apply to this sorting problem, but then again, who knows what goes on in the background

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Slow Excel 2013 - Rubber band effect, delayed Response time when typing – Disable Animation feature

In Office 2013 MS added a funky new UI feature called “Animation”. It is supposed to “smooth out”, or some such nonsense, cursor movement in the applications. I first noticed it in Excel 2013. I found it so annoying that that “feature” alone was enough to completely turn me off from using the whole Office 2013 bundle. Fortunately, or not (?), I found these fixes.

<snip> Hi, I have exactly the same problem, Excel2013.

Just opened a new spread sheet, typed the nr 1 in cell A1 to A22, took me about 10 seconds.

Took excel 55 seconds to display, looks like slow motion.  </snip>

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The article in the first link has a link to another article with a downloadable file that will make the change without you having to edit the registry manually

There’s an easier fix for the “rubber band” animations in Excel - just turn them off

1. File menu,
2. Options command
3. Advanced option
4. Scroll down to the Display section of the dialog,
5. Turn ON the box for “Disable hardware graphics acceleration

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I have my Control Panel set up to display small icons (meaning I don't get the big generalized groupings), and here's the path in that kind of setup (Windows 7):

Press the Windows Button + [Pause/Break] to skip the next 2 steps

    or

        Open the Control Panel

        Choose System

Choose Advanced System Settings in the left hand column of choices on the next dialog

On the [Advanced] tab, click the {Settings...} button in the Performance section

Clear the checkbox next to the "Animate controls and elements inside windows" entry right at the top of the list

Click [OK] and close out all of the dialogs and the Control Panel.

That did it for me instantly without a reboot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4o6p12HL30

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I found an option that can be turned off when you're typing over cells that have already been saved. Under options > advanced - (allow editing directly in cells) once I turned this off the lag stopped. 

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*********** Registry Hacks *********

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**http://winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta2/office-2013-tip-disable-animations-143779**- Reg hack

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**http://www.withinwindows.com/2012/07/21/disabling-animations-in-office-2013/** - Reg hack

Note, you may have to also add the “Graphics” key.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Graphics]

”DisableAnimations”=dword:00000001

To see the effect of disabling Office 2013 animation, you’ll need to reboot your computer. 

To reverse the effect, change the value of the added DWORD to its default of 0.

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Alternate, related solution

I’m using Windows 8, and found a different solution there:

To disable Windows animations (this is secondary IMHO, but may be required):

• On the metro start screen type Edit,
• <tab>, <down Arrow> to then move the search results down 1 to “Settings”
• “Edit system environment variables” is the first thing in second column on my search results, yours may vary
• double click on it
• provide the admin password to display the “System Properties” dialog
• In the “Advanced” tab, Performance section, click on the “Settings...” button to display the “Performance Options” dialog
• Personally, I prefer to select the “Adjust for Best Performance” option to get rid of the frilly “bells & whistles” that do not contribute to efficiency of my system.
• At a minimum, confirm that the “Animate controls and elements inside Windows” option is disabled/unchecked.
• Click on Apply
• OK out
• boot the computer

Under options > advanced > turn off  “allow editing directly in cells”

Here is another idea worth looking at :<snip>

I have had this problem also when authoring user guides.

Eventually I found that if I switched off the “Maintain compatibility” check box in the Save As dialog the problem disappeared.

Word may be scanning each element to make sure it maintains compatibility.

See this screen capture: https://www.dropbox.com/s/djupspb2572kd9i/Word%20Slow%20Typing.png

</snip>

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It does not seem likely, but could this reply be related to your problem:

**Excel 2013 is very slow in loading large workbooks**

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-excel/excel-2013-is-very-slow-in-loading-large-workbooks/3dc258b1-0d9b-492c-8ab8-2ba1df26fc7e?msgId=7f92ee0a-4a73-45ce-ac2a-80eb0e0ad1ae

Anita Oakley \[MSFT\] replied

Hello Jacques,

I just saw this, and I can explain it. In 2013 we went to a more secure algorithm across Office - not just in Excel. Excel 2013 uses SHA-512. It makes only milliseconds of difference with one call, but in those cases where code runs, protecting and unprotecting many sheets, it all adds up to a terrible performance issue.

Because it is considered a security risk to modify that, all request for a change have been turned down. The development team will never do anything to make Office less secure. See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/office-2013-known-issues-HA102919019.aspx for an explanation from the development team.

Thanks, Anita

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Here are some long shots ideas ...

Excel 2013 Crashes when you scroll - OSF.DLL (Office / Visio DLL File) - Stop “annimations” & uninstall Avast AV

http://blogs.technet.com/b/the\_microsoft\_excel\_support\_team\_blog/archive/2013/11/04/excel-2013-crashes-when-you-attempt-to-scroll-down-the-page.aspx

4 Nov 2013

We have seen several reports of Excel crashing when you scroll down, even on a brand-new sheet. The Application Event log points to a crash in OSF.dll.

We have found that at least one cause of this particular crash is a conflict with Avast! Antivirus. Essentially, if you install Avast! and then open any workbook, Excel will crash if you scroll down using the scroll bar or the mouse wheel. This issue only occurs if you are logged in using a Microsoft Account (previously known as Live ID).

Unfortunately, the crash continues to happen even if you uninstall Avast! and run an online repair. We have been able to reduce the instance of issues by Uninstalling Avast! Free Antivirus, rebooting, and then turning off animations in Windows. To do that:

1. In Control panel, go to the Ease of Access Center
2. Click on Make the computer easier to see
3. Scroll down to Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible)
4. Check that, and Apply.

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Note: Just turning off animations or removing Avast! Antivirus is not enough to make a difference. You need to do both.

Alternatively, if you have the restore point created before you installed Avast! Antivirus, you can restore your system to that point.

We contacted Avast! product support, and have received word that they are working on a fix. They should release a patch soon.

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Try Renaming OSF.DLL and doing an Office Repair

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Another person had tried disabling Hardware Accelerated Graphics through the UI but it did not work.  They had to use to Registry Hack before it worked.