MS Access "Can't complete the Output operation"

Anonymous
2022-07-16T01:05:33+00:00

I have an Access DB which has a number of reports that can be exported - mostly in .xls format. Starting the last few days, attempting to export the reports for some users results in Runtime Error 2587 - "Can't complete the output operation". This only happens with .xls. All other export formats work without issue - .pdf, .rtf, .txt. I have tried performing exports directly through the ribbon to isolate and ensure there's no syntax or similar issue with my VB code. When attempting to export through the ribbon, the error message still says "Can't complete the output operation". Again, I can export these same reports to all the other available formats from the ribbon with no issue. It's just excel causing the issue.

I cannot replicate this issue on my system which makes troubleshooting difficult. Based on the limited similar issue's I've found posted I have had the end users with this issue attempt running a repair on Office 365 and rebooting their systems with no success. I am not a system admin so my access is limited and am currently waiting on assistance from that department.

Some users are running Win 10, some Win 11. All users have the same Surface pro. All users have Office 365 installed from the same package. I've had users with this issue send me their .mdb to try on my system and the issue goes away - further indicating this is an issue with the particular devices, and not with the database itself.

Logically speaking, it sounds to me like an issue with Office but this is a little above me so looking for some guidance on how I may be able to troubleshoot such an issue, especially being that I can only attempt fixes remotely on other users' systems.

Thank you!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For business | Other

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Anonymous
2022-07-18T22:41:32+00:00

If you are using Office 365 Current Channel, which is Version 2206, there is an update available, which you can get by choosing File/Account/Office Updates/Update Now. This should take you to Build 15330.20264.

Can anyone who is hitting this problem update to this version, and let us know if you are still seeing a problem with import/export?

Shane Groff

Access Engineering

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-07-19T13:27:16+00:00

    What about MS Office 2016? This issue is happening also.

    Thanks

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-18T21:47:59+00:00

    Oh, yeah. This and other issues are related to the last Office security update. I had my first report of this today. I do have another computer that did not receive the update and there is no problem with it. Reports simply will not export to Excel in this latest update. The other problem I encountered and reported to Microsoft is that the TransferText feature in VBA is inoperable as well and doing manual transfer text doesn't always work. 10.5 hours of my life spent diagnosing that. Affected are both Office 2016 and Office 365. Others may also be but those are the only two I have on hand.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-19T17:01:46+00:00

    Hi Shane. For those of us who are on the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (you know... the channel we sysadmins picked because we thought it would have the most stability and fewest bugs introduced by new features *cough* ) when will a fix for this issue be released? In next month's patch? Or will an out-of-band patch for Semi-Annual Channel be released early so that my users who are affected by this bug can get working again?

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-18T17:13:01+00:00

    As a workaround, using acFormatPDF seems to work. 

    In our environment, the same issue was occurring with acFormatHTML (being the 3rd parameter passed to DoCmd.SendObject ) as well as acFormatTXT

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