MS Access "Can't complete the Output operation"

Hello MartinS_NZ,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate you taking the time.

My apologies, I should have stated beforehand: we did already try changing the macro settings to "Disable all macros with notification" as you suggested above and in your previous post from September - I've also just tried the same again for good measure. Unfortunately it has made no difference; we get no prompt to run either, still just goes directly to the error.

By default, the macro settings were on "Enable all macros" in the past and we know the export functionality was working. So logically I would've thought that it would still. Shouldn't be an issue to keep it on Disabled with Notification if it will help but the issue still persists at this stage.

Hi all,

I'm sorry to resurrect this question, however I'm wondering whether something similar has slipped into another Office update?

Our customer is using Office Professional Plus 2013. Back in July they were trying to export Access reports to Excel and receiving the error: "Cannot complete the output operation. The Visual Basic code you entered contains a syntax error or the Output procedures are not available."

As per this thread, Office update KB5002121 was uninstalled and the export functionality started working again - problem sorted!

Unfortunately, the same customer has now reported the same issue happening again when trying to export reports to Excel, with the exact same error message. Their first thought is that maybe another Office update has caused the issue to reoccur, same as last time. They only became aware of it a couple of days ago, although the last round of Office updates were installed on 11th November, with some before that on the 19th August.

Would anybody happen to know if any updates in this timeframe could be responsible?

Many thanks in advance.

Go into Access and open a database.

Then

File, Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings, Macro Settings. Select Disable all macros with notification.

Now try export a report to Excel. Access will pop a "Microsoft Access Security Notice" prompt which you should allow (Open) when exporting to Excel.

The issue is the file utility.accda which is part of the export "wizard" is untrusted.

Selecting prompt with notification allows the user to decide if they want to allow it.

Hi all,

I'm sorry to resurrect this question, however I'm wondering whether something similar has slipped into another Office update?

Our customer is using Office Professional Plus 2013. Back in July they were trying to export Access reports to Excel and receiving the error: "Cannot complete the output operation. The Visual Basic code you entered contains a syntax error or the Output procedures are not available."

As per this thread, Office update KB5002121 was uninstalled and the export functionality started working again - problem sorted!

Unfortunately, the same customer has now reported the same issue happening again when trying to export reports to Excel, with the exact same error message. Their first thought is that maybe another Office update has caused the issue to reoccur, same as last time. They only became aware of it a couple of days ago, although the last round of Office updates were installed on 11th November, with some before that on the 19th August.

Would anybody happen to know if any updates in this timeframe could be responsible?

Many thanks in advance.

I'm surprised it has not been mentioned before BUT....

Regardless of which updates etc you install you will STILL experience the "Can't complete the output operation" when attempting to output to Excel if your macro settings are set to 'Disable all macros without notification' OR 'Disable all macros except digitally signed macros'.

This occurs I believe because the export to Excel process involves a macro or code in the access utility.accda module which is now untrusted.

You can change your macro settings in the Trust Center ( for 2016 - File, Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings, Macro Settings) Depending on your use case you can set to Enable all macros (which is not recommended) or Disable all macros WITH notification. This setting allows you to decide each time if you want to run the macro or not.

The other issue I've seen is if you are not seeing all the export options in the ribbon you need to change a setting to display full menus. (File, Options, Current Database) scroll down to Ribbon and Toolbar options and **** ensure the tickbox is checked beside Allow Full Menus

Close Access, restart and your problem should now be resolved.

Note that an Access Security Notice window will pop when you try export to Excel, you should click Open to allow the export to proceed.