Support Article
Export to Excel from summary view reports raises sporadic error
SA-8098
Summary
'Export to Excel' from Summary View reports raises error "Unable to read file". The error is raised by the launched Excel process and occurs sporadically.
The user runs IE11 browser in IE5 compatibility mode and has MS Excel 2010 installed.
Error Messages
"Unable to read file"
Steps to Reproduce
1) Open PRPC in IE 11 running in IE5 compatibility mode.
2) Generate a SummaryView Report.
3) Click "Export to Excel."
Root Cause
Fiddler trace shows that HTTP transactions, both HTTP request and response, of the successful Excel launch versus the one failing due to error, are identical.
The header of the HTTP response instructs IE browser to process the response body as an Excel file:
The body of the response is an ASCII string representing an HTML TABLE element:
This HTTP response directs browser to launch Excel, convert HTML into .XLS type document, after asking the user for permission to convert, and display the document.
At no point the PRPC client side is involved in this process, proving that this is a Microsoft issue.
Resolution
The recommended course of action is to address the issue with Microsoft for resolution.
Published June 12, 2015 - Updated October 8, 2020
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