Unable to process the request when opening an Excel document in SharePoint 2010
03Nov
2010
One of our customers recently contacted us with a very annoying issue opening Excel files from SharePoint 2010 document libraries. Upon arriving to review their installation we discovered the following odd behaviors:
Clicking on a document library link to an Excel document resulted in the following error:
Unable to process the request.
Wait a few minutes and try performing this operation again.
Oh joy, very helpful indeed
<Research Happens Here>
The Solution EDIT: Updated solution post service pack 1 NOTE: This does not always resolve the issue, even with SP1 installed. We have yet to determine a consistent root cause. If the solution steps above do not resolve the issue, continue on to our original solution below (or reinstall SharePoint… whichever works best for you) Original Solution Edit the serverfilesExcelServer.xml file at the following location: Comment out any lines with the file extension of xlsx or xls Example: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <!– Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. –> <ServerFiles> Perform an IISRESET and you will now be presented with the tried and true standard “Open Document” dialog
(What!!!, you don’t have SP1 installed yet?? checkout this link for details)
The problem was traced to SharePoint’s built-in URL redirection for various files types. Behind the scenes, SharePoint was attempting to redirect the Excel file to a common viewer component. We just needed to turn this redirection off.
[Program Files]Common FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions14TEMPLATEXML
<!–<Mapping FileExtension="xlsx" RedirectUrlTemplate="/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?id=|0" NoGetRedirect="TRUE" CreateRedirectUrlTemplate="/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?new=1"/> –>
<Mapping FileExtension="xlsb" RedirectUrlTemplate="/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?id=|0" NoGetRedirect="TRUE" CreateRedirectUrlTemplate="/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?new=1"/>
<Mapping FileExtension="xlsm" RedirectUrlTemplate="/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?id=|0" NoGetRedirect="TRUE" CreateRedirectUrlTemplate="/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?new=1"/>
</ServerFiles>
ArmgaSys
~ ArmgaSys ~
Thanks, very much for this solution
Thank you, this problem was driving me mad!
Thanks a ton for this! Works like a charm.
Did you activate the Site Collection Feature “OpenInClient”?
The default behaviour of SharePoint is to open Office documents in the Office Web App’s (even if they’re not installed – I know, pretty smart!!).
At the Site Collection Administration page, go to the Features, and Activate “Open in Client Application”
This will fix it as well (and may be safer than mod’ing xml files..)
D
First thing we checked! We have found that OpenInClient does not always solve the redirect problem, hence the mod’ing of XML to correct.
Thank U Very Much… Its worked in a single shot…!!!
Thank You Very Much
[...] Solution to opening DOTM files in Office Web Apps [...]
it’s works!!!
thanx
super !! thanks !!
Thanks a ton. Worked like a charm.
Thank you for this detail information. However I want the other way around!!
Our site requirement is to display the Excel sheet in site itself, instead of downloading it into the client system (For security reason). Please do you have any Idea how can I make it display in site itself and how to get rid of this error!!
We are using Excel web access webpart!!
Thank you!!
Unfortunately, the Excel Service and Excel Web Access service are more difficult to troubleshoot than the issue we have documented in this blog post as there are many installation specific configuration settings which can impact operation of the Excel Service.
Our initial recommendation would be to uninstall the Excel Web server (especially if it was installed by the initial SharePoint configuration wizard) and reinstall / reconfigure the service.
Also, verify the following:
1. The service accounts are correctly configured
2. The Secure Store Service is correctly configured and operational
3. There are no obvious errors being reported in the SharePoint logs
hi all,
unfortunetly…i followed the steps but went in vain….
again my pager is throwing the same error..
any help plz..
regards,
subha
Subha,
Troubleshooting Excel Service issues via a blog post can be very challenging. We recommend closely verifying the following:
1. The service accounts are correctly configured
2. The Secure Store Service is correctly configured and operational
3. There are no obvious errors being reported in the SharePoint logs
If you still are still having issues, we do offer troubleshooting and support services. Our contact details are located at this link
Good stuff..saved me a struggle.
Thank you.
Just a note of thanks.
I rebuilt our sharepoint server and the original build did not have this problem.
Running RTM without Sp1 at the moment and the xml file edit worked.
thx
RR
Thanks for a quick fix about “Unable to process the request”
It worked for me.
Thanks a lot.
Updated solution worked for me.
Thank you,
Ditto…!
Thanks a lot!!!
Thank you so much!
Hi,
I am unable to edit
[Program Files]Common FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions14TEMPLATEXMLserverfilesExcelServer.xml. This is a read only file
THANK YOU!
Funny, the first solution, activating the Open Documents in Client Applications by Default, worked immediately so that Excel files opened for ME, but still not for the users. It was a great stress killer though, because now I knew that SharePoint wasn’t totally messed up. 
I restarted Excel Calculation Services on the server and the user still couldn’t get in. Finally I rebooted the whole SharePoint web server and everything works fine now. Just wanted to throw that out there before people start editing xml files if the first solution doesn’t work completely.
Thanks! “The Solution” worked perfect. Converting .xls documents to PDF was my work around prior to stumbling on this solution.
Thank you!