The workbook cannot be opened error in SharePoint 2013

by

In this SharePoint 2013 tutorial, we will discuss how to fix the error “The workbook cannot be opened” which comes when you try to open an excel document in the browser itself.

The full error message comes as below:

The workbook cannot be opened.

The workbook cannot be opened error in SharePoint 2013
The workbook cannot be opened

The error usually comes if the account that is running Excel Services does not have proper permissions to the Content Database.

According to MSDN, When you upload an Excel workbook to a SharePoint library, the workbook is stored as blobs in the Content Database.

When you choose to open this in Excel Services, the account running Excel Services needs to retrieve and reassemble the workbook. If the account running Excel Services lacks proper permissions, “The workbook cannot be opened”.

Through PowerShell, you can set permission to the account like below:

Open SharePoint 2010/2013 Management Shell (Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft SharePoint 2010/2013 Products).

Then write the below command and press enter.

$w = Get-SPWebApplication –Identity http://YourWebApplicationURL
$w.GrantAccessToProcessIdentity("Domain\AccountName")

You may like the following SharePoint tutorials:

After this, you should not get the error The workbook cannot be opened.

>