===================================== **EDIT: The sorting problem described below isnow resolved with the latest Office update from Microsoft. See here for instructions on how to update Office to Service Pack 1:** http://www.thewindowsclub.com/update-office-2013-manually ====================================== All these problems are occurring on Excel 2013 on a Lenovo ThinkPad W540 with 16GB of RAM running Windows 8.1 Pro (Intel i7-4800Q CPU). Note: I do not have these issues working with the exact same large file on a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 running Windows 7 and Excel 2010, although it is (obviously) much slower. The problems seem to be related to either Windows 8.1 Pro or Excel 2013 ( UPDATE: It seems like Excel 2013 is, in fact, the culprit ). Seems to me that having a more powerful box + updated OS and Office should make it easier to work with large files, as opposed to the other way around. Does anyone have a fix for the following issues? Problem #1: Large XLS FIles Open As Blank When Other XLS Files Are Also Open in Excel 2013 on Windows 8.1 I'm experiencing an issue where very large XLS files open as blank if you try and open them after opening a smaller file. Large files open just fine after opening another smaller one. To reproduce: Open a small file (I'm opening one that is 70KB), then; Open 300MB+ xls file (the one I am opening is 316MB), then; See the following blank screen. All menus do not display and the content also does not display. Note that once I close both files and then try again to open the large file alone, it opens just fine and displays fine (although then experiences problem #2 below). The issue seems to be with having a smaller file open at the same time as the large one. Problem #2: Deleted Columns Continue to Display After Deletion in Large XLS Files in Excel 2013 on Windows 8.1 To reproduce: Delete one column in a xls file with approximately 700,000 rows (again this is a large 300MB+ file), Excel still displays the deleted column after deletion. (although you cannot interact with it -- it's not actually there...it just displays as there) However, if you then save the file, close it, and then open the file back up again, you see that the deleted column is, in fact gone. Is this a display bug? Problem #3: Sorting Large Numbers of Rows Does Not Work in Large XLS Files in Excel 2013 on Windows 8.1. Excel cannot sort large numbers of rows. To reproduce: Open a file containing 700,000 rows with three columns of data Sort by Column A on Values in A to Z order (or any order/values/column combination) Click OK See that the sorting never occurred, and there was no error message Note: If you then select a subset of the 700,000 rows (experimentation has shown me that you must select fewer than 5,000 rows), then sorting will happen successfully.

We may be on to something here, RijuKumar . I have the same sheet failing on Windows/7 with Excel 2013. Try this on your Windows/7 machine: Run MS Excel and create a new blank spreadsheet Use =RAND() function to fill cells A1 through A500000 with random numbers Copy range A1:A500000 and then Paste-Special Values. So now we have 500,000 random numbers Highlight range A1:A500000. Click on Data ribbon bar. Then click on Sort button Select "ColumnA" Sort by Values and "Smallest to Largest" Click OK Did it sort? If it did not, then we're back to the problem is Excel 2013. If it did, then we have to look closely at our installations and see what really causing this. For example, I plagiarized this test from RichHolowczak 's post, but he used 200,000 instead of 500,000 cells. My installation worked at 200,000. He and I have pretty much the same software, but I have 24GB of ram on an Intel i7 @ 3.33GHz. Everybody! Find out where your break point is using exactly the procedure above, then describe your software & hardware. I know we're doing Microsoft's work for them, but what else have we got?

Gracious of you to reply WildeSolutions , but you started your post with "I'm not sure if it's related," so you could have talked about warp core plasma injectors and I wouldn't have said a thing. I was actually pointing the finger at Rohn007 's tome, just before your post. I'm just hoping we can stay focused on the root problem: "Excel 2013 can't sort a big spreadsheet!" How has this not made the news? Such a basic failure of such a widely used product? O.K. Back on topic. RijuKumar , when you said "i am also facing the same issue with huge file and the problem is related to win 8.1 only its working fine with win 7". Do you have Excel 2013 on both of those machines? We're operating under the premise that this is an Excel 2013 problem. It's failing on my Windows 7 machine. Please try RichHolowczak 's great replication test (page 2 of this thread) to verify. I can see how many people might think this is a Windows 8 problem: Most Windows 8 machines have to be new, because Windows 8 is new. New machine -> latest version of software. Latest version of Excel -> ugly, ugly, UGLY 2013 which can't even sort. Voila! An we have our (apparently ignored) predicament. Even for a new Win/8 install on an old machine, you might take the opportunity to also upgrade your Office. Regarding the first question 1) yes the system on which it is working fine is office 2013(win 7) I strongly believe that the problem is related to os 8.1. Because the system on which sorting is not working, i installed 2010 and its working fine. Its something related to compatible issue with win8.1. Can you pls help me to resolve the issue.

Everyone who is having this problem should make sure to click "Me Too" at the top of each question / response. Maybe that will give us some traction with MSFT's developers.

Gracious of you to reply WildeSolutions , but you started your post with "I'm not sure if it's related," so you could have talked about warp core plasma injectors and I wouldn't have said a thing. I was actually pointing the finger at Rohn007 's tome, just before your post. I'm just hoping we can stay focused on the root problem: "Excel 2013 can't sort a big spreadsheet!" How has this not made the news? Such a basic failure of such a widely used product? O.K. Back on topic. RijuKumar , when you said "i am also facing the same issue with huge file and the problem is related to win 8.1 only its working fine with win 7". Do you have Excel 2013 on both of those machines? We're operating under the premise that this is an Excel 2013 problem. It's failing on my Windows 7 machine. Please try RichHolowczak 's great replication test (page 2 of this thread) to verify. I can see how many people might think this is a Windows 8 problem: Most Windows 8 machines have to be new, because Windows 8 is new. New machine -> latest version of software. Latest version of Excel -> ugly, ugly, UGLY 2013 which can't even sort. Voila! An we have our (apparently ignored) predicament. Even for a new Win/8 install on an old machine, you might take the opportunity to also upgrade your Office.

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

Anonymous

=====================================

**EDIT: The sorting problem described below isnow resolved with the latest Office update from Microsoft. See here for instructions on how to update Office to Service Pack 1:**http://www.thewindowsclub.com/update-office-2013-manually

======================================

All these problems are occurring on Excel 2013 on a Lenovo ThinkPad W540 with 16GB of RAM running Windows 8.1 Pro(Intel i7-4800Q CPU). Note: I do not have these issues working with the exact same large file on a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 running Windows 7 and Excel 2010, although it is (obviously) much slower. The problems seem to be related to either Windows 8.1 Pro or Excel 2013 (UPDATE: It seems like Excel 2013 is, in fact, the culprit). Seems to me that having a more powerful box + updated OS and Office should make it easier to work with large files, as opposed to the other way around.

Does anyone have a fix for the following issues?

Problem #1: Large XLS FIles Open As Blank When Other XLS Files Are Also Open in Excel 2013 on Windows 8.1

I'm experiencing an issue where very large XLS files open as blank if you try and open them after opening a smaller file. Large files open just fine after opening another smaller one.

To reproduce:

Open a small file (I'm opening one that is 70KB), then;
Open 300MB+ xls file (the one I am opening is 316MB), then;
See the following blank screen. All menus do not display and the content also does not display.

Note that once I close both files and then try again to open the large file alone, it opens just fine and displays fine (although then experiences problem #2 below). The issue seems to be with having a smaller file open at the same time as the large one.

Problem #2: Deleted Columns Continue to Display After Deletion in Large XLS Files in Excel 2013 on Windows 8.1

To reproduce:

Delete one column in a xls file with approximately 700,000 rows (again this is a large 300MB+ file),
Excel still displays the deleted column after deletion. (although you cannot interact with it -- it's not actually there...it just displays as there)
However, if you then save the file, close it, and then open the file back up again, you see that the deleted column is, in fact gone.

Is this a display bug?

Problem #3: Sorting Large Numbers of Rows Does Not Workin Large XLS Files in Excel 2013 on Windows 8.1. Excel cannot sort large numbers of rows.

To reproduce:

Open a file containing 700,000 rows with three columns of data
Sort by Column A on Values in A to Z order (or any order/values/column combination)
Click OK
See that the sorting never occurred, and there was no error message

Note: If you then select a subset of the 700,000 rows (experimentation has shown me that you must select fewer than 5,000 rows), then sorting will happen successfully.

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.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Raju,

BINGO! I found the solution went to File- Account - Office Updates & appended.

There must have been a patch undocumented but I can sort a million rows.

Mukund.

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40 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-07-08T18:48:16+00:00
We may be on to something here, RijuKumar. I have the same sheet failing on Windows/7 with Excel 2013.

Try this on your Windows/7 machine:
1. Run MS Excel and create a new blank spreadsheet
2. Use =RAND() function to fill cells A1 through A500000 with random numbers
3. Copy range A1:A500000 and then Paste-Special Values. So now we have 500,000 random numbers
4. Highlight range A1:A500000.
5. Click on Data ribbon bar. Then click on Sort button
6. Select "ColumnA" Sort by Values and "Smallest to Largest"
7. Click OK
Did it sort? If it did not, then we're back to the problem is Excel 2013. If it did, then we have to look closely at our installations and see what really causing this.

For example, I plagiarized this test from RichHolowczak's post, but he used 200,000 instead of 500,000 cells. My installation worked at 200,000. He and I have pretty much the same software, but I have 24GB of ram on an Intel i7 @ 3.33GHz.

Everybody! Find out where your break point is using exactly the procedure above, then describe your software & hardware. I know we're doing Microsoft's work for them, but what else have we got?
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Anonymous

2014-07-07T16:48:53+00:00

Gracious of you to reply WildeSolutions, but you started your post with "I'm not sure if it's related," so you could have talked about warp core plasma injectors and I wouldn't have said a thing. I was actually pointing the finger at Rohn007's tome, just before your post.

I'm just hoping we can stay focused on the root problem: "Excel 2013 can't sort a big spreadsheet!"

How has this not made the news? Such a basic failure of such a widely used product?

O.K. Back on topic. RijuKumar, when you said "i am also facing the same issue with huge file and the problem is related to win 8.1 only its working fine with win 7". Do you have Excel 2013 on both of those machines? We're operating under the premise that this is an Excel 2013 problem. It's failing on my Windows 7 machine. Please try RichHolowczak's great replication test (page 2 of this thread) to verify.

I can see how many people might think this is a Windows 8 problem: Most Windows 8 machines have to be new, because Windows 8 is new. New machine -> latest version of software. Latest version of Excel -> ugly, ugly, UGLY 2013 which can't even sort. Voila! An we have our (apparently ignored) predicament.

Even for a new Win/8 install on an old machine, you might take the opportunity to also upgrade your Office.

Regarding the first question 1) yes the system on which it is working fine is office 2013(win 7)

I strongly believe that the problem is related to os 8.1. Because the system on which sorting is not working, i installed 2010 and its working fine.

Its something related to compatible issue with win8.1.

Can you pls help me to resolve the issue.
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Anonymous

2014-07-07T16:33:00+00:00

Everyone who is having this problem should make sure to click "Me Too" at the top of each question / response. Maybe that will give us some traction with MSFT's developers.
Was this answer helpful?

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Anonymous

2014-07-07T16:20:34+00:00

Gracious of you to reply WildeSolutions, but you started your post with "I'm not sure if it's related," so you could have talked about warp core plasma injectors and I wouldn't have said a thing. I was actually pointing the finger at Rohn007's tome, just before your post.

I'm just hoping we can stay focused on the root problem: "Excel 2013 can't sort a big spreadsheet!"

How has this not made the news? Such a basic failure of such a widely used product?

O.K. Back on topic. RijuKumar, when you said "i am also facing the same issue with huge file and the problem is related to win 8.1 only its working fine with win 7". Do you have Excel 2013 on both of those machines? We're operating under the premise that this is an Excel 2013 problem. It's failing on my Windows 7 machine. Please try RichHolowczak's great replication test (page 2 of this thread) to verify.

I can see how many people might think this is a Windows 8 problem: Most Windows 8 machines have to be new, because Windows 8 is new. New machine -> latest version of software. Latest version of Excel -> ugly, ugly, UGLY 2013 which can't even sort. Voila! An we have our (apparently ignored) predicament.

Even for a new Win/8 install on an old machine, you might take the opportunity to also upgrade your Office.
Was this answer helpful?

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