Launch Excel error in Power automate desktop

[Anonymous]

Whenever I run the flow which contains 'Launch Excel' action, I am getting the error saying that

'Failed to open Excel document '(Excel launching error.)'.

I updated my PAD to its latest version, still I am facing this issue.

Please suggest me a solution. Without resolving the issue, I cannot go ahead with the flow.

[fraenK · Accepted solution]

This is typically a problem with Excel. If a restart doesn't help, then try to repair your Office installation.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I did repair of Office installation, after that it came once or twice, and again when I execute, I am getting the same issue. Is there any solution for this? 

Really fed up with the error message. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

[fraenK]

Did you have any older version installed before? Then you would need to use the Office removal tool to clean your Windows and reinstall the newer version again.

[Anonymous]

I am using Microsoft Office 365 Pro plus. Is it fine or latest version available?

[fraenK]

That's fine. My question was regarding any version which was installed before like Office 2016...

[Anonymous]

I am using this office laptop from feb 2021, so I am not aware of this.

[fraenK]

If a full repair doesn't help, then you'll need to clean and reinstall Office.

[Pmorg73]

I am having the exact same problem. Up until Sunday Laucnh excel worked fine. now it is completely broken for me.

I log in to another Laptop with my MS account it works, so as this thread suggests it must be my excel install. As always though we have an off site IT department so getting this fixed will be a nightmare.

Keen to see any solutions that come up here.

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

Initially I did Quick repair, it was not working, then I did Online repair, then it worked.

Hope it should work without any error for a long run.

Thank you so much for your feedback, it really helps a lot.

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

Thanks for your feedback

[Anonymous]

For those who continue to have this issue after installing updates-- I found a clumsy workaround by adding a "Terminate process" action prior to launching excel.  You can specify process by: "Process name" and make the Process name: "EXCEL".  This will quit any background processes of the Excel program and viola- works every time.

[jjameson]

I began having issues after I upgraded my OS to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 10 Home.  I don't know whether that has anything to do with it.  Since then I have uninstalled PAD and reinstalled it.  I've also performed the Quick Repair and Online Repair for my MS Office 365 subscription and nothing has worked so far.  Any ideas on what I can try next to get the Launch Excel to work?

[Pmorg73]

My problem fixed itself when we ran the latest windows update. it was one of the large updates that our IT department had not run across the computers. Make sure you have all the updates and then try again?

[Anonymous]

I think re-installation should work or online repair. For me, Online repair worked and I did not have such issues after that. I will let you know if I know any ways to fix it.

[jjameson]

I have been waiting a few months for a solution.  For kicks and grins, I decided to uninstall PAD, perform a reinstall of the Windows 10 Pro O/S and then reinstall PAD.  This corrected the issue.  Upgrading from 10 Home to 10 Pro caused the issue but reinstalling 10 Pro corrected it. I don't know that I would have had to uninstall/reinstall PAD since I had done so numerous times after the upgrade. I'm guessing there was some type of pointer error that occurred during the upgrade to 10 Pro that was corrected with the reinstall.  Hope this helps if you've run into this same issue.

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

This is caused by OneDrive still accessing the Excel file, which then deems the file to be 'open'.

This causes the error 'Active workbook retrieval error'.

SOLUTION

- Terminate OneDrive

- Launch Excel

- Launch OneDrive

[MartinPedersenP]

This is still an issue

In my case the error is present when I use auto sync in Excel.

I can open the workbook from my file explorer without any issues, but when I try to use the PAD excel instance I get the same error.

I have multiple people looking into my workbooks, so I need to have auto sync enabled and if I close onedrive it will be disabled.

[Anonymous]

Did you try the above? 

[MartinPedersenP]

Yes I did

OneDrive needs to be running, for auto sync to be enabled