file path access error

Question

How can I fix "file/path access error" when copying excel sheets to new workbook (either manually or through VBA) ?

Answer 1

Dear Shahzad Khan,

Greetings! Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

As per your description, it seems like you have an Excel workbook which has links to other external workbooks, when you copy sheets to new workbook, it shows error "file/path access error".

May I know if my understanding of the scenario is right?

If yes, we're afraid it's expected that "file/path access error" error will appear when we only copy sheets including links to other external workbooks. Thanks for your understanding.

If those external workbooks are stored in local drive on your computer, you may need to manually recreate the links in the new workbook.

If you want to use VBA solution to create the links to fix the error, considering that it's VBA related queries, we would recommend you refer to this article Office VBA support and feedback | Microsoft Learn and go to Stack Overflow Community by using the VBA tag, along with any other relevant tags as there are also many experienced engineers and experts in the forums there. 

At the same time, we will also keep this thread open, so other Community members and Experts can also share their suggestions and inputs. 

If our understanding of the scenario is not consistent with yours, feel free to point it out, we will continue helping you.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding! We hope you keep safe and healthy always.

Sincerely,

Tina | Microsoft Community Moderator

[Updated by Tina Chen MSFT on 7:27 AM, Friday, December 2, 2022(UTC)]

Answer 2

Dear Management

The current workbook only has links within the workbook and even moving sheets inside the workbook gives error of "file/path access error".

I developed an excel program that would extract certain sheets to a new workbook using VBA and the program was working perfectly fine until I had user login problem due to server issues and reinstalling fresh windows was the only option.

After reinstalling a fresh window, my program is giving errors on extracting sheets to a new workbook and I am sure it has nothing to do with links since moving sheets with links to a new work book was functional before the fresh install of windows and I have checked my program on my colleagues' systems and it works perfectly fine.

Additionally, VBA function to identify if a workbook with identical name is already open is also not working (while it was working properly before the fresh install) and it might probably be the same reason.

I hope I have made my question more clear this time.

Answer 3

Dear Shahzad Khan,

Thanks for your valuable feedback and sharing updates with us and I really appreciate your effort and your precious time doing.

Based on your description, it seems like the issue starts to appear after reinstalling a fresh windows. You use VBA to extract certain sheets to a new workbook.

To further narrow down the situation and check if issue happens when using VBA, may I know if the previous error message still appears when you manually copy Excel sheets to new workbook by right clicking a sheet, choose "Move or Copy" to a new workbook?

Does this issue happen in a specific workbook which contains links?

Please also share with us your Excel version, we want to test in same version to see if we can reproduce this error message. Please go to File>Account, capture a screenshot of Product Information. as shown below:

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding!

Sincerely,

Tina | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 4

Dear Miss Tina

First of all I would humbly appreciate your support of which I am in dire need.

Yes, the issue started with fresh install of windows

The error appears both ways, either move/copy sheet manually or through VBA.

In response to "Does this issue happen in a specific workbook which contains links?"

It's not a problem of specific workbook. I tested in multiple ways on other excel sheets as well in order to identify the problem and also searched on internet but I could not solve the problem. In my system, any excel sheet (having data and links inside the workbook) will give error if I move/copy it to new workbook which did not happen before the fresh install of windows.

Let me show you some screen shots

Once I click the "Extract FS" with excel logo, it should extract certain sheets in excel in to an identified location (the identified location is fully accessible with no admin restrictions and excel can identify that location because saving the PDF version of those excel sheets is working perfectly fine).

Below is the screen shot of error.

I hope I have made my question clear. (a remote screen sharing session is also possible)

Thank you...

Answer 5

Dear Shahzad Khan,

Thank you for posting back and also share details including screenshots of the issue. We appreciate your time and effort so far.

You made the description clearly. We understand same error message appears either you move sheet manually or through VBA.

Considering that it's not specific workbook issue, it starts happening after the fresh install of Windows, the better way to investigate the situation further is to remotely help check the environment on your side, collect logs when the error appears then help you find root cause.

Meanwhile, considering that it's an urgent issue, we understand you want to solve it as soon as possible, and you prefer a remote screen sharing session. We sincerely recommend you contact your Microsoft 365 administrator, follow steps in this article to contact Microsoft Online Support.

For reference: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

The support team over there has higher permission to remotely and directly check the environment on your end, they will involve more resource to do further investigation and help find root cause of this problem. This would be the most efficient way in handling this case for you.

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding! I hope you keep safe and healthy always.

Sincerely,

Tina | Microsoft Community Moderator