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Brett_Phifer_SCI's avatar
Brett_Phifer_SCI
Copper Contributor
Feb 23, 2026

Project Server Error when exporting to a Pivot Table using Visual Reports

Since migrating all our schedules to on-premises Project Server last year, we are getting an error message when trying to export a schedule to a pivot table using Viusal Reports. The error reads: "An...
Dale_HowardMVP's avatar
Dale_HowardMVP
MVP
Feb 23, 2026

Brett --

If I had a dollar for every time I have seen that error dialog, I would be retired by now.  I even got that error dialog during a live webinar where I was presenting how to use the Excel Visual Reports feature in Microsoft Project.  Totally embarassing!  In that webinar, I tried a second time, and got the error dialog again.  Fortunately, I had saved a copy of the Excel file with the exported Excel Visual Report, so I simply opened the Excel file and continued with the webinar.

The truth is that the error message you are seeing is quite common in Microsoft Project.  I suspect there is some kind of bug that causes the message to appear intermittently, but Microsoft has never admitted this is a bug, and thus, has never fixed it.

So, you and your PMs are not doing anything wrong.  What I have done in the past is to keep exporting the Excel Visual Report until I get no error message.  That's the only workaround I have discovered with this annoying "feature" in Microsoft Project.  Hope this helps.