Forum Discussion
Excel Files Not Opening On Client's Hard Drive
- Any errors?
Could they be hitting the 214 file path limit?
Andrew HodgesAndrew,...I decided to go back again and really dig deep into this and wanted to be sure to tell you that you were SPOT ON!!!!!! THANK YOU! They had put the files 3 folders deep and yes they exceeded the character limit.
Why is there a limit? I mean we did create a workaround and all is good now but why is there a limit and is there a way to change that??? Just curious.
Hi TDTooner ,
Its a legacy thing from excel, Excel on the desktop will not open files greater than 218 characters. That message is exactly the ones we are seeing when this issue is hit. Excel online has a 400 char limit but the functionality is not 100% and large spreadsheets with many authors just do not work, so users open them on the desktop and this issue is hit. Word and PowerPoint have a 400 limit on the desktop so its just excel (assuming Win10)
If you are happy with the answer please mark as best response.
Andrew HodgesI certainly did mark your answer as the best response. Thank you again! And thanks again for the explanation! You are a HERO with my group at the office! I feel so dumb for not thinking about the character limit. I guess because PowerPoint and Word files were located in the same folder and they were working, I dismissed the limit being the cause. Never would have guessed.
They need to fix that but it's something I can fight with Microsoft at a later date. Meanwhile we simply worked around it and all is GREAT again.
Hi TDTooner ,
I don't get called a hero often!
You should have seen how long it took us to figure this one out in the first place, a fair bit if testing but as with anything it seems obvious as soon as you know.
You may get the scenario where a file will work on one users desktop and not another, still the char limit if they get that message, it is just that one user's name or path is different so hits the limit on one and not the other.
Andy