OLEDB No Longer Works on a Closed Excel File

IanCampbell — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 15:14:00 GMT

I currently have multiple processes that used the OLEDB VBO to access Excel 2016 files, using the connection string: (Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\file_name.xlsx;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0;HDR=YES;"). This has worked for a few months with the excel file closed, however in the past 2/3 weeks this connection no longer works unless the Excel file is opened previously. The error message that comes up is: "ERROR: Internal : Could not execute code stage because exception thrown by code stage: External table is not in the expected format.".

I have tried:
- Varying connection strings
- Downloading Access Database Engine to the machine again
- Attempting across multiple machines.

From what I can see there hasn't been any changes to the machine that would cause this, and the fact it now no longer works on multiple machines I'm at a bit of a loss as to what could be causing the sudden change. I am aware that a workaround can be built to open the file prior to the query and then close it again, but this will be a lengthy rebuild to integrate this to every step of a current production process.

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RPA Specialist
Allen & Overy
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OLEDB No Longer Works on a Closed Excel File