Excel VBA SaveAs sometimes works, sometimes fails; no idea why - excel

I have used this macro for years on a server based solution, moving over to Sharepoint and I have changed the locations but am hitting a wall. All the code is doing is saving the file as a different name, and then saving it again back as the original name; oddly it only ever fails on the first part, never the second; and often it works all the way through, and then other times when trying to do the first saveas it fails. It also always seems to work if there is no existing filename on the first, its when overwriting that it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I would kill the file first, but Kill doesnt seem to work with Sharepoint either so that has stopped me doing that to solve the issue. When it fails I get one of two messages but mostly "Run-time error 1004: Method 'SaveAs' if object'_Workbok;failed". But as I say, I can hit it 10 times in a row and it be fine, then suddenly it wont work anymore and I know I am the only person in the file so its not that someone else has it open or anything like that. I have looked at several chains with this error code and they all seem to suddenly say they worked it out because a DIM was in the wrong place or a filename was wrong etc etc, I cannot seem to find such issue, certainly as it works 50% of the time.
ThisWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
"https://x.sharepoint.com/sites/Company/Shared Documents/F-Drive/FUND ADMINISTRATION/Monthly Reporting/" & (ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Misc Data").Range("J3").Value) & "/Factsheets_Presentations_" & (ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Misc Data").Range("J3").Value) & ".xlsm", _
FileFormat:=52, CreateBackup:=False
ThisWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
"https://x.sharepoint.com/sites/Company/Shared Documents/F-Drive/FUND ADMINISTRATION/Monthly Reporting/Factsheet & Presentation Generator.xlsm", _
FileFormat:=52, CreateBackup:=False

Related

Excel error '1004' : Document not getting saved

I have a macro enabled excel file (loading large set of data) which is supposed to save a light version and a complete version of itself at one of my desktop location. This is done through referencing a cell in excel where complete path for those files are provided.
Error Image
The file was running fine for a while but all of a sudden started throwing 'Error 1004: Document not saved' on running the macro and not able to save the document. When I try to debug it, it stops at the 'ActiveWorkbook.Save' command.
ActiveWorkbook.Save
ChDir _
SharedDriveLocation
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
SharedDriveLocation & "Service Level Report.xlsm" _
, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbookMacroEnabled, CreateBackup:=False
I have already enabled all the trusted macro settings for the file. Nothing related to naming convention of file (already checked). Can someone please help understand if this could be excel version issue or something else? This file originated from someone else but I changed myself as the author of it. Assuming that has nothing to do with it.
Today I have had the same error. I found that in my case the file name wasn't correct. I put in full path name folder that doesn't exist.
Probably in your case is the same - incorrect Fullpath.
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
SharedDriveLocation & "Service Level Report.xlsm"
Try to change
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
SharedDriveLocation & "/" & "Service Level Report.xlsm"

SaveAs to SharePoint

I am using the following to save a file to s SP folder
wbCO.SaveAs Filename:=strFile, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook, CreateBackup:=False
The path and file name are all valid and correct so this is not the issue.
strFile = "https://xxx.sharepoint.com/sites/xxx/Shared Documents/Properties/PropertyName/PropertyName_16_Apr.xlsx"
I am getting an odd issue where the file saves with the stated filename but I get a 1004 error saying document not saved.
I have had thsi file working at times and then sometimes it doesn't and I'm guessing it's because it is saving to SP which I always have issues with when using.
I am running this on a Windows platform but it ultimately needs to work on a Mac platform. I know the majority of the code is working but the SaveAs line falls over so help with this would be useful too!
TIA

Excel (Mac) 2020 version ... Contant Error 400 messages ... any idea why?

I am trying to export a sheet within a workbook as a CSV file. I cannot see any export functions for a sheet. After casting around, it seem that a work around involves creating a new workbook, pasting there and saving that as a CSV.
When I use the .copy method on my sheet, Excel creates a new workbook.
I can access that new workbook in the code below, but the SaveAs line is generating an error 400. I have permissions to write to the folder. Excel simply gives the error message 400. No other indicators. Searching online talks about missing modules (or similar) but mine is a new install and using what I take to be standard methods.
Dim TempWB As Workbook
Dim fileName As String
fileName = ActiveWorkbook.Path & "/theCSV.csv"
Sheets("theCSV").Copy
Set TempWB = ActiveWorkbook
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
TempWB.SaveAs fileName:=fileName, FileFormat:=xlCSV, CreateBackup:=False, Local:=True
TempWB.Close SaveChanges:=False
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
Thanks
#Ken White Thanks for that ... bad coding on my part ...
I changed the variable name and still saw the 400 error messages.
Then I thought, this being MS etc., are they playing lip service again towards Mac compatibility. From my Mac I used an RDS link to a W10 PC running Excel ... no errors!!! These errors seem to relate to code being run on a Mac rather than the via code itself.
Within the RDS, I have a mapped drive directly to my Mac and ran the code using the mapped drive ... i.e. I was writing directly to my Macs folders from Excel in the RDS ... no problems. It does not seem to be an OS permissions thing.
For me, this is a work around, if you have a RDS/VM available.

Macro gives error when updating connections - but only sometimes

My macro opens up a couple of files, then updates Connections in one of those files. These connections are all pulls from website html tables. The macro worked just fine for a while. Now, when I run the macro, I get this error:
Run-time error '1004':
Application-defined or object-defined error
When debugging, the error points to the first connection update line of the macro (Advanced2). Here's the code:
Workbooks.Open (ThisWorkbook.Path & "\TheFormulaFinal V5.xlsm")
Workbooks.Open (ThisWorkbook.Path & "\WebScraper.xlsx")
Windows("WebScraper.xlsx").Activate
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("Advanced2").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("DVP").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("PrSolu").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("Misc").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("NF Project").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("OppTot").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("PlrTot2").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("TeamTot").Refresh
ActiveWorkbook.Connections("RotoGuru").Refresh
Sheets("PlrTot2").Select
However, the very odd thing is that if I close the two files my code opened (WebScraper and TheFormula V5) without saving, then run the exact same macro, the next time it works! I suspect it has to be some kind of time-related error. I have turned off all background connection refresh as well as any kind of refresh upon file open, so none of these connections should ever update unless they are manually called to do so. I tried using Application Wait to add some time after the WebScraper file opened, and/or after the first refresh, but no avail. I also tried adding some dummy activities after the WebScraper file is activated to see if the file needed some time to load the connections, but also no luck.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
Workbooks.Open function returns reference to opened workbook. You can use this reference instead ActiveWorkbook.
Dim wb As Workbook
Set wb = Workbooks.Open(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\WebScraper.xlsx")
wb.Connetions("Advanced2").Refresh
...

ExportAsFixedFormat fails sometimes

I have a spreadsheet with forms and macros that worked until recently. The first time I saw the described behavior was the first time I tried using this particular function in Excel 2016 (Windows 10), though I'm not sure that's the cause.
The issue I'm having is with the following line
Worksheets("Label Template - 100X150").ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _
Filename:=pdfFilePath, Quality:=xlQualityMinimum, _
IncludeDocProperties:=False, _
IgnorePrintAreas:=False, OpenAfterPublish:=True
Which comes from the following macro:
Sub PDFLabelsSheet()
'On Error GoTo errHandler
'enter name and select folder for file
strFile = "Labels_PrintGroup-" & lstPrintGroup.Value _
& "_" _
& Format(Now(), "yyyy-mm-dd\_hhmm") _
& ".pdf"
strFile = ThisWorkbook.Path & "\" & strFile
Worksheets("Label Template - 100X150").Visible = True
UnprotectTab "Label Template - 100X150"
pdfFilePath = Application.GetSaveAsFilename(InitialFileName:=strFile, _
FileFilter:="PDF Files (*.pdf), *.pdf", _
Title:="Select Folder and FileName to save")
If pdfFilePath <> "False" Then
Worksheets("Label Template - 100X150").Select
Worksheets("Label Template - 100X150").Range("A1").Select
Worksheets("Label Template - 100X150").Range("A1").Activate
Cells.Activate
Worksheets("Label Template - 100X150").PageSetup.FirstPageNumber = 1
Worksheets("Label Template - 100X150").ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF, _
Filename:=pdfFilePath, Quality:=xlQualityMinimum, _
IncludeDocProperties:=False, _
IgnorePrintAreas:=False, OpenAfterPublish:=True
End If
exitHandler:
ExecutionEnd
Exit Sub
errHandler:
MsgBox "Something went wrong, a PDF could not be created", vbCritical
Resume exitHandler
End Sub
I've tried permutations of the ExportAsFixedFormat function, changing it to Worksheets("name"), (number), ActiveSheet.... etc.
Prior to executing this particular Sub, the worksheet is unhidden and unprotected. I've tried setting the entire range as PrintArea, I've tried selecting and activating the range to be exported as well.
The most frustrating part is it works sometimes. I've gone as far as putting in code that spits out every property of the PageSetup collection to make sure that something is not blowing things up since the output depends so strictly on the page setup.
When I navigate to this worksheet manually and choose the export function from the file menu, I get the same error. If I click around in that worksheet for a bit the Export function as well as the Macro work.
The PDFLabelSheets Sub does get called from another Sub (invoked by a form's button press) which compiles a boatload of data into this tab, though I've ruled it out as the culprit as successive runs of just the PDF code will succeed then fail without running the other code.
I’ve recently solved a problem that was similar in the following ways:
It involved the failure of the ExportAsFixedFormat, Type:=xlTypePDF
statement
The statement failed with no error message; it simply
stopped the execution of the VBA code
The failure was inconsistent,
and the conditions for failure or success were not obvious
Below is a summary of how I solved it; perhaps this will suggest some useful approaches you can use.
My Excel VBA code was running under Windows 7 as an unattended, end-of-day scheduled task in the background, usually when no one was logged in. Most of the time the code would work, but sometimes it would not. I could not capture the screen after a crash, and capturing the various window contents did not help: there was no useful diagnostic text. I finally tried logging program execution milestones to a disk file, reopening and closing the file for each milestone, so no text would be lost if the program subsequently crashed. That isolated the problem to the ExportAsFixedFormat statement but did not diagnose the problem.
I finally tried having the VBA code save a copy of the workbook just prior to the point of failure. I was hoping that, on re-opening the copy, I’d be able to see what was wrong. That did not help. However, I did notice something strange when comparing the .xlsm files saved on successful and unsuccessful executions – the former were just a little larger.
Digging into the .xlsm files (which are really .zip files), I noticed that, in the xl\printerSettings subfolder, the printerSettings1.bin file was larger after successful runs. Using the SysInternals Strings utility to inspect the .bin files, I found that, in the unsuccessful runs, this file contained only the name of the default printer on the home computer where I had developed the application, which was not the office computer where it was executing. On the successful runs, the .bin file also contained the name of the default printer in the office.
This was the critical difference. In that office, the main computer executes the Excel program shortly after the end of the working day. Ordinarily, during the day this computer prints to a laser printer (set as the default printer) attached to another computer on the network, and that other computer is turned off at the end of the working day. Therefore, depending on accidents of timing, sometimes the end-of-day Excel program would see a valid, available default printer, sometimes not.
Some Excel commands, including the command to save as a .pdf, work properly only when the active printer is valid. There is a similar observation at can't set PageSetup.Orientation = xlLandscape from MS Project, concerning assignments to the fields of .PageSetup. In my case, failing to work properly meant crashing without generating any error message.
I later discovered that my problem was not simply the unavailability of the default laser printer over the network; it was also caused by something irregular about the printer definition. I had added code to log the VBA property Application.ActivePrinter; just prior to a crash, it was returning the value “unknown printer (check your Control Panel)”, rather than containing the name of the printer. When I re-installed the default printer, Application.ActivePrinter always returned the proper printer name, whether or not that printer was available for use, and the program stopped crashing.
My problem was a true Heisenbug – it disappeared whenever I re-ran the Excel workbook at random times. That ultimately turned out to help me confirm its diagnosis. Running unattended, sometimes there was no valid printer. When I logged into my account and ran it attended, either it was during the business day or else LogMeIn temporarily assigned my home printer as a valid default printer. This finally made sense of the fact that the program failed only when it wasn’t being closely observed at the time of execution.
In summary, I’d look at inconsistent printer availability and irregular printer installation as possible underlying causes of failure to consistently export .pdf files using Excel VBA.
Frogrammer-Analyst's analysis is great, but the error is not that ambiguous. You will not have this issue if you login to the server using the user that is running the unattended script. But if you sign out and then try rerunning your script unattended you will see that no printers are mapped and {ExportAsFixedFormat} fails for PDF and or XPS formats.
I have found a solution for my case. A true headeache. Maybe it can help others:
Try uncheking the "PDF/A compliant" option under Options dialog when you export as PDF. After that, run the VBA code again.
For my, it was the solution.
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