I have searched and searched to find a solution to a .xll excel add-in not working correctly.
The add-in is proj.xll (https://github.com/jbuonagurio/proj.xll)
The instructions simply say to;
Copy proj.xll to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns.
Go to Excel Options, Add-ins, Manage Excel Add-ins. Click Browse, and select proj.xll.
After doing that I load my spreadsheet and get this error;
The file format and extension of 'proj.xll' don't match. The file could be corrupted or unsafe. Unless you trust its soruce, don't open it. Do you want to open it anyway?
I click yes and I get cells with "LËÝbÉÜRichcÉÜPEL" etc gibberish text in them.
Some websites indicate that a .dll file is missing which is needed by the add-in, but I am unsure what dll file that is, how to find out what dll file I need and where to put the dll file if I do find it.
I have tried to get this add-in to work on multiple computers and different versions of excel installed.
If anyone could offer assistance that would be fantastic.
Thanks,
You can use dependency walker (here) to inspect the generated xll and to look for missing dependencies. Also be sure that the xll is in the same architecture (64 vs 32 bits) than excel.
See also : "addin.XLL is in a different format" issue, cannot open the xll I created by myself
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Related
Since upgrading to Excel 365, my company has been having all sorts of trouble with VBA-supported Excel workbooks crashing or not functioning properly. The issues have popped up in various workbooks and various departments, including seemingly simple VBA workbooks. I've discovered a fix (see below) but it's not sustainable.
The Issues
The various issues we have experienced are listed below. Note, these issues only occur when you open a file in Excel 365 desktop. The same files, when opened in the Excel 365 browser app or in Excel 2016 will work fine. Also, all these issues happen at random. A user may have been working in a file for weeks and then the next time they open the file they get one of these errors.
"Can't find project or library" errors even when we are using the standard set of libraries and basic VBA. Then when you open the VBA Editor window, all the VBA screens are essentially frozen up and the library list is inaccessible.
Excel hard crashes or locks up when opening these files and enabling VBA. Note, the crash only occurs when the VBA is enabled. If you open a file without enabling VBA, it will work fine (though obviously you can't use any of the code).
The file opens seemingly fine, but the VBA doesn't work and once again, everything is locked up when you access the VBA editor window.
"unhandled win32 exception occurred" error
when executing a command, getting an error 32809 which seems to indicate the compiled VBA has been corrupted
The Fix
Opening the VBA Editor window, then selecting Debug -> Compile VBAProject seemingly fixes the issue. I've yet to experience any of the above issues where the file had been manually compiled this way. The problem with this is that every time you add code to a file or any time you add a new tab to a file, you have to go in and perform this manual compile again.
Yes, apparently adding a single tab in a file changes the workbook structure enough that it is necessary to compile again. The Compiled VBAProject selection will be greyed out. But adding a tab (or adding new VBA) will un-grey it and require another manual compile or the problems start occurring again.
This fix also works to repair files where the above issues are occurring. To fix those files, you can:
Make sure "Disable Trusted Documents" and "Disable VBA macros with notification" are toggled on in your security settings so that VBA doesn't automatically run when you open a file.
Open the file with the errors but do not enable the VBA.
Go to the VBA Editor window, select Debug -> Compile VBAProject.
Save the file, close it, reopen it, enable the VBA, and everything works fine again.
But again, this isn't sustainable because all my users will have to remember to go compile VBA any time they add a new tab to a workbook.
Help?
Has anyone found a more sustainable fix to this issue? Is there a bug with the Excel 365 Desktop automatic compiler that Microsoft is working on?
I think I perhaps found an answer in this thread:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/814ac2ce-ab45-45dc-8c6a-8ef0775d189a/excel-64bit-crashes-when-activating-macros-but-excel-32bit-does-not?forum=exceldev&prof=required
Per that thread – “the cause is that Excel does not correctly save the compile state of the VBA code and 64 bit Excel cannot recover from that issue when opening the afflicted Excel file (32 bit usually can). A fix was released for only Excel 2016 and not for other versions". That would indeed confirm that it is a bug within Excel and explains why we only see the issue with 365 64 bit Excel.
That also explains why my manual compile fix works. Based on the article I found, there is a more sustainable fix. You can change Excel’s registry and force VBA to compile accurately.
To implement the permanent fix:
Open the start menu and type “reg” and select the “Registry Editor”
Navigate to: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\options
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type ForceVBALoadFromSource, and then press Enter.
In the Details pane, right-click ForceVBALoadFromSource, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
I have a workbook that was saved yesterday afternoon, and was working perfectly. I have opened it this morning, and none of the modules in the VBE are 'found'. Visually I can see them all sitting there.
When trying to open any of these modules to edit the code, the windows are greyed out, as below.
When I try exporting the code modules, I get the 'Module Not Found' errror.
Does anyone know a) why this has happened, and b) how can I fix this?
I thought initially it was the instance of my Excel, so have restarted the PC.
Any help is appreciated!
I managed to find a workaround to this problem, so sharing the solution in the event that someone else comes across a similar problem.
It seems that the VBA Project got corrupt somehow. Below, find some suggestions and workarounds in trying to solve something similar in the future.
This is what worked for me. Convert the .xlsm file to a .xls file. You can do this by changing the file extension when renaming the file.
You can also try to convert to .zip file type, and then convert back to .xlsm. Note: convert COPIES of your original, just in case.
Other suggestions (as Chris Nelisen suggested) are:
Export your VBA modules regularly
Save different versions as you are building
My workaround, works perfectly:
Open Excel in safe mode (pressing and holding Ctrl while you start
the program, or by using the /safe switch (excel.exe /safe) when you
start the program from the command line)
Open corrupted workbook (from safe mode, File->Open-> navigate)
Do not enable macro if asked
Make sure macro is present (Alt+F11) - not necessary
Save as new workbook
Close safe mode excel
Open saved workbook as usual
This is a well-described issue, and it exactly matches what I have just experienced (even including the fact that I haven't been versioning recently).
My file has an xlsb suffix. Resaving with a different suffix did not work for me on the same PC, but I emailed the file to another PC, opened it, saved as xlsm, sent it back to the original machine and it now works fine again. I can even re-save with my preferred xlsb suffix and it still works.
I've also run this script to make a backup of my modules:
Sub ExportVbaModules()
'Acknowledgements to Andy Pope [ozgrid thread 60787]
Dim objMyProj As VBProject 'if error, go to VBA editor - tools - References - Microsoft Visual Basic-Extensibility5.3
Dim objVBComp As VBComponent
Set objMyProj = Application.ActiveWorkbook.VBProject
For Each objVBComp In objMyProj.VBComponents
If objVBComp.Type = vbext_ct_StdModule And objVBComp.Name <> "" Then
objVBComp.Export "C:\Users\MyName\VbaBackups\" & objVBComp.Name & ".txt"
End If
Next
End Sub
The And objVBComp.Name <> "" stops it from erroring when it encounters a corrupted module but turned out not to be necessary as the 'fixed' file contained no corrupted modules.
Since that export routine is so fast (40 modules / 100kb saved in <1s) I will be assigning it to a button on the ribbon with a better naming convention for the files it creates.
I copied my .xslm file from my PC to my OneDrive account.
I open the file on my iPad OneDrive account and then export to Excel for iOS. The file opens and says links and macros are disabled. I then save a copy of the file back to the OneDrive account. I go back to my PC and open the file from OneDrive. I re-establish the links.
The macros are from a backup. This is an issue if you aren't backing up your macros.
Do you have this file on OneDrive?
If yes, I was facing that issue, and resolved restoring the last save. If you open OneDrive site (onedrive.live.com), find the file, and select Version History. Download the penultimate.
When this happens on 64 bit Excel, I simply open the exact same file in 32 bit Excel and the macros re-appear.
When this happens on 32 bit Excel, I simply open the exact file in 64 bit Excel and the macros re-appear.
Try to open the excel file in repair mode and save as the file one more time.
Open and Repair
I tried everything suggested and nothing worked. I could only see the module when I opened my VB editor. It was not available through the view macros ribbon shortcut. I was unable to export the module or copy it to a new workbook.
What finally worked for me was emailing it to myself, downloading it through my 365 outlook account via a web browser, and then the code was there.
I created a simple vba addin that colors cells based on their value, and I created a function that calls it with a shortcut then I saved it as an Excel addin and added it to Excel.
The problem is the addin works fine when I add it the first time, but when I open a new Excel file, I need to disable and enable the addin for it to work.
Update: I tried it on another computer and it works, but it shows an error that when I ignore it works fine. I am adding screenshots for the error and code
Error Message
Code
Sometimes, Excel will open workbooks in another Excel Application. This second application can sometimes face some issues with addins. You should double-check that the new file is opened in the same Excel Application. By looking at the task manager:
In this example, I'm using Window 10 and you can see that Book3.xlsx is in a different Excel Application than Book2.xlsx and Book1.xlsx
EDIT:
This question could also be of interest to you. The accepted answer reads:
This problem results from security patch in KB31152, released in July 2016. According to private communication with Microsoft software engineers:
"With this update, we changed the behavior of Excel so that it will
not load certain file types (including .xlam) when they are untrusted.
The easiest workaround is to find the add-in that is causing you
trouble, right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer, and checking
Unblock"
An easier approach is to simply place the add-in in a Trusted Location
(in Excel, go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings
Trusted Locations), such as the following folder, and load it from there:
C:\Users\%USER NAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
EDIT2:
And don't forget the option of just restarting your computer just to make sure that the problem is still there.
I have Office 2007.
Each time I launch Excel, or open an existing file, it tries to access some old file and I get the following error pop up:
'E:\xyz.txt' could not be found. Check the spelling of the file name, and verify that the file location is correct.
If you are trying to open the file from your list of most recently used files, make sure that the file has not been renamed, moved, or deleted.
Please help on this.
Thanks in advance!
Maybe you have an old add-in still active?
Developer > Add-Ins
if you see any custom add-ins, deactivate them and see if the problem remains.
Alternatively you could check in the VBA window what xla / xlam files are active and see if the file you mention is hiding somewhere in the code thereof
So I'm having to run someone else's excel app on my PC, and I'm getting "Can't find Project or Library" on standard functions such as date, format, hex, mid, etc.
Some research indicates that if I prefix these functions with "VBA." as in "VBA.Date" then it'll work fine.
Webpages suggest it has to do with my project references on my system, whereas they must be ok on the developer's system. I'm going to be dealing with this for some time from others, and will be distributing these applications to many others, so I need to understand what's wrong with my excel setup that I need to fix, or what needs to be changed in the xls file so that it'll run on a variety of systems. I'd like to avoid making everyone use "VBA." as an explicit reference, but if there's no ideal solution I suppose that's what we'll have to do.
How do I make "VBA." implicit in my project properties/references/etc?
-Adam
I have seen errors on standard functions if there was a reference to a totally different library missing.
In the VBA editor launch the Compile command from the menu and then check the References dialog to see if there is anything missing and if so try to add these libraries.
In general it seems to be good practice to compile the complete VBA code and then saving the document before distribution.
I had the same problem. This worked for me:
In VB go to Tools » References
Uncheck the library "Crystal Analysis Common Controls 1.0". Or any library.
Just leave these 5 references:
Visual Basic For Applications (This is the library that defines the VBA language.)
Microsoft Excel Object Library (This defines all of the elements of Excel.)
OLE Automation (This specifies the types for linking and embedding documents and for automation of other applications and the "plumbing" of the COM system that Excel uses to communicate with the outside world.)
Microsoft Office (This defines things that are common to all Office programs such as Command Bars and Command Bar controls.)
Microsoft Forms 2.0 This is required if you are using a User Form. This library defines things like the user form and the controls that you can place on a form.
Then Save.
I have experienced this exact problem and found, on the users machine, one of the libraries I depended on was marked as "MISSING" in the references dialog. In that case it was some office font library that was available in my version of Office 2007, but not on the client desktop.
The error you get is a complete red herring (as pointed out by divo).
Fortunately I wasn't using anything from the library, so I was able to remove it from the XLA references entirely. I guess, an extension of divo' suggested best practice would be for testing to check the XLA on all the target Office versions (not a bad idea in any case).
In my case, it was that the function was AMBIGUOUS as it was defined in the VBA library (present in my references), and also in the Microsoft Office Object Library (also present). I removed the Microsoft Office Object Library, and voila! No need to use the VBA. prefix.
In my case, I could not even open "References" in the Visual Basic window. I even tried reinstalling Office 365 and that didn't work. Finally, I tried disabling macros in the "Trust Center" settings. When I restarted Excel, I got the warning message that macros were disabled, and when I clicked on "enable" I no longer got the error message.
Later I re-enabled all macros in the "Trust Center" settings, and the error message didn't show up!
Hey, if nothing else works for you, try the above; it worked for me! :)
Update:
The issue returned, and this is how I "fixed" it the second time:
I opened my workbook in Excel online (Office 365, in the browser, which doesn't support macros anyway), saved it with a new file name (still using .xlsm file extension), and reopened in the desktop software. It worked.
Even when all references are fine the prefix problem causes compile errors.
What about creating a find and replace sub for all 'built-in VBA functions' in all modules,
like this:
replace text in code module
e.g. "= Date" will be replaced with "= VBA.Date".
e.g. " Date(" will be replaced with " VBA.Date(" .
(excluding "dim t As Date" or "mydate")
All vba functions for find and replace are written here :
vba functions list
For those of you who haven't found any of the other answers work for you.
Try this:
Close out of the file, email it to yourself or if you're at work, paste it from the network drive to your desktop, anything to get it to open in "protected mode".
Now open the file
DON'T CLICK ANY ENABLE EDITING OR THE YELLOW RIBBON
Go to the VBA Editor
Go to Debug - - Compile VBA Project, if "Compile VBA Project" is greyed out, then you may need to click the yellow ribbon one time to enable the content, but DO NOT enable macros.
After you click Compile, save, close out of the file. Reopen it, enable everything and it should be OK. This has worked for me 100% of the time.
In my case I was checking work done on my office computer (with Visio installed) at home (no Visio). Even though VBA appeared to be getting hung up on simple default functions, the problem was that I had references to the Visio libraries still active.
I found references to an AVAYA/CMS programme file? Totally random, this was in MS Access, nothing to do with AVAYA. I do have AVAYA on my PC, and others don't, so this explains why it worked on my machine and not others - but not how Access got linked to AVAYA. Anyway - I just unchecked the reference and that seems to have fixed the problem
I've had this error on and off for around two years in a several XLSM files (which is most annoying as when it occurs there is nothing wrong with the file! - I suspect orphaned Excel processes are part of the problem)
The most efficient solution I had found has been to use Python with oletools
https://github.com/decalage2/oletools/wiki/Install and extract the VBA code all the modules and save in a text file.
Then I simply rename the file to zip file (backup just in case!), open up this zip file and delete the xl/vbaProject.bin file. Rename back to XLSX and should be good to go.
Copy in the saved VBA code (which will need cleaning of line breaks, comments and other stuff. Will also need to add in missing libraries.
This has saved me when other methods haven't.
YMMV.