There are some common problems that can occur when reading or writing a Microsoft Excel file.
- Ensure the Microsoft Excel file is not open in Excel.
- Ensure the Microsoft Excel file is not password protected. This module does not currently support password-protected files.
- If the file is too large, it may fail to load into memory. You can try several possible workarounds:
- switch to the 64-bit version of FME;
- divide the file into separate files (if the workbook contains many sheets that do not reference each other);
- export the file into CSV and then read it using the CSV reader.
Max Features to Read
The schema is determined either through Feature Type parameters or by scanning x features of the feature type, where x is defined by the Max Features to Read parameter in the Workbench Navigator. The schema is useful for defining the schema which may be used by writers when generating a workspace, but it is ignored on read.
Therefore, features beyond the Max Features to Read might return values that do NOT comply with the schema. (If this is an issue, you can re-add a reader with a larger value for Max Features to Read or manually edit the attribute types in the Attributes tab of the parameters dialog).
Permissions Do Not Act as Expected
If permissions do not seem to be working correctly – for example, you cannot delete columns in generated Excel sheets despite setting the Delete Unlocked Columns permission – your cells may still be locked (since this is the default for all cells in new Excel sheets).
For more information, please refer to Locked Versus Unlocked.