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Erik_Plekenpol's avatar
Erik_Plekenpol
Copper Contributor
Apr 17, 2019

.XLS Files open extremely slow from network drives.

Hello,

 

While openen .XLS (excel 97 - 2003) files from a network drive (DFS), it takes quite a while to open these files (30 seconds or more). These delays only occur under certain circumstances:

- Files need to be .XLS files (.XLSX opens without problems)

- Files need to be on the network drive (If we copy the files to the local drive, there are no problems)

- Files need to be opened as editable (opening them read-only, opens the files immediatly)

When I check the opened file for errors, Excel reports problems with a stored absolute path.

Removing this path, and then saving the file (to the network) solves this problem.

Unfortunalty, we can't edit all files. Some are created password-protected by certain applications, and changing all the documents we created in the last two decades seems a bit of a weird thing to do.

 

The question is, why do we suddenly (problems seems to have arrisen in the last 2to 4 months) recieve these errors? 

OS: Win10 1803 & 1809

Office version: Semi-annual channel (non-targeted) 

Stuff we tried: Disable Cortana (we don't have cortana), Remove/replace Realtek audio drivers (We use Dell machines, and this apperently can cause problems). Only thing that apperenntly helps is removing the absolute path and then save the file. Strange thing is, when I create a new .XLS file (with no content) and save it to the network drive, it still opens extremely slow.

 

Any help is highly appreciated.

 

Erik

Excel
office 365
  • Paul_Verheggen's avatar
    Paul_Verheggen
    Copper Contributor
    May 31, 2022

    Erik_Plekenpol what does work is: in GPO, i shared the network drives with ip address: like \\192.168.1.3\finance. Instead, use the server name \\servername\finance . This also is for mapping network folders. Use the server name and not ip address of the server. Tried all other tricks, but that didn’t work. This works perfectly and excel files on network drives now open in a blink of an eye. 

    • olli90's avatar
      olli90
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 07, 2023
      Thank you! That worked for us, changing all paths with the hostname instead of the IP address, and now the files open instantanely. Also mapping the path as network drives solves the problem.
    • Erik_Plekenpol's avatar
      Erik_Plekenpol
      Copper Contributor
      Jun 17, 2021

      Raul_Chiarella It has been a few years since I had this problem. I know it took a few weeks, a lot of Googling and testing to solve this. Unfortunately I don't know where I found the solution. And  I don't know if you have the exact same problem. In our case it had to do with the Personal Templates location in Excel (and Word, Powerpoint etc.). I used a .reg-file to fix this.

       

      Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

      [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options]
      "personaltemplates"="K:\\Corporate identity\\Templates"

      [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\PowerPoint\Options]
      "personaltemplates"="K:\\Corporate identity\\Templates"

      [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Options]
      "personaltemplates"="K:\\Corporate identity\\Templates"

       

      K: is a networkmapped drive. I think we had problems with UNC paths.

      You could try with an empty location , or you own harddrive or a network-location.

      Please note the double \\ symbols in the location for regedit. And use your own location, as our K:-drive should not be accessable to you (Looks at our network engineer.).

      Backup your register before applying this (hopefully) fix.

       

      ( Note to myself: Please write documentation for stuff I've solved 😄 )

  • StoneKiwi's avatar
    StoneKiwi
    Iron Contributor
    Jun 16, 2021
    Hi,

    Raul_Chiarella is having the same problem:
    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel/xls-ppt-files-extremely-slow-when-opening-from-network-drive-win/m-p/2455235

    You could try saving a copy of the files as xlsx files and see if that solves the problem.
    Remember to save a COPY in case the file type change disrupts the data in the workbook.

    If you are not able to change the file type for whatever reason you could try:
    • Do a quick repair of the Office programs (Control Panel / Installed Programs / Change).
    • Check add-ins that run with Excel (File / Options / Add-ins) to see if anything looks dicey.
    • Open a blank Excel sheet and then open the Excel file (Excel will already be running when attempting to open)

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