Share via

Excel 2013 fails to open files on network share

Anonymous
2016-01-25T20:42:22+00:00

Previously I had a Windows 7 machine running Microsoft Office 2013, which worked fine.

I recently purchased a new Windows 10 computer, and installed Microsoft Office 2013 on it. 

Every time I try to open an Excel document on a network share, I get the following error:

"Sorry, we couldn't open \COMPUTER\filename"

There is no problem with the network, as I can open non-Office file types without any issues. I can also open Office files in other applications.

Also, when I try to open a CSV or TXT file - even one on my local computer - I get the error:

"Microsoft Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough available memory or disk space"

I have hundreds of GB of disk space and 13GB of free memory, so this is obviously not the issue.

"Normal" Excel files from my local computer seem to open fine.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

  1. Anonymous
    2016-01-27T07:33:16+00:00

    I uninstalled and reinstalled Microsoft Office twice, without success. As I made clear in my original post, drive space is not the issue - there were hundreds of GB of free space on all drives.

    I managed to fix the problem myself. The issue was an invalid Cache location, as a result of creating a new User.

    The solution was to 

    1. Run regedit.exe
    2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
    3. Set the Cache to a valid location

    This would have been much easier to diagnose if the error messages had been even vaguely meaningful.

    Office should have been able to tell that the Cache location was invalid. If the error message had said "Invalid cache location" instead of "Sorry, we couldn't open \COMPUTER\filename" or "Microsoft Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough available memory or disk space", it would have saved me many hours of trouble.

    Hopefully this helps someone else.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

2 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2016-03-23T12:48:29+00:00

    Unfortunately, this solution does not work for me.  The Cache key is already set to a valid location.

    The problem seems to be that Excel tries to open the network share as a web URL (e.g. http://foo/bar/thiscantwork.xlsx).  If I copy the file to my local system, then Excel has no problem opening the file.

    I have tried every other suggestion that I have found in these forums, but nothing has worked so far.  Here is what I have done:

    1. Disable OneDrive and stop sharing the OneDrive folder
    2. Set the default browser to Internet Explorer.  This actually made some sense because dragging from the network share and dropping into Internet Explorer will successfully open the document in Excel (go figure).
    3. Repair Office.

    Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-26T15:04:01+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

    We understand how you feel about the situation. Let me guide you to resolve the issue.

    I need more information before we proceed.

    1. Did the issue persist with particular file?
    2. Do you have any pending updates?
    3. Do you have administrator permissions to open the file?

    I suggest you to delete some unwanted files from your computer and check if the issue reoccurs.

    If issue persist with all the files, repair the Office suite, restart your computer and then try working with the Office applications.

    Refer to the following article for instructions on repairing the Office suite.

    https://support.office.com/en-US/Article/Repair-an-Office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b 

    I hope the above information is helpful. If you need any further assistance related to this issue or any other Office related to issues reply and we will be glad to assist you.

    Thank you.

    0 comments