SharePoint 2010 offers a wide variety of features that make our work lives easier, but now and again, SharePoint can still be less than kind to users.

Challenge:

When I was trying to open an Excel 2007 spreadsheet once, this error came up unexpectedly:

And then:

Which was as follows:

Hmm. So I started investigating to determine the source of the problem, gathered all of the solutions I found to be potentially relevant, and finally got my Excel Service up and running. If you are experiencing any of the above errors, hopefully, the information below will help you to find the solution to your problem.

Solution:

Possible Causes:

1. The SharePoint 2010 Excel Services Application has not started properly.
2. The Security Token Service Application is not started properly.
3. The Excel Service account does not have permission for the SharePoint content database.

Resolutions Checklist:

Step 1: Go to Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage service applications -> Verify that the Excel Services Application and Security Token Service Application have started.

Step 2: Go to Central Administration -> System Settings -> Manage services on server -> Verify that Excel Calculation Services has started.

Step 3: Go to Central Administration -> Security -> Configure service accounts -> select Service Application Pool – SharePoint Web Services Default if you are using out-of-the-box SharePoint Excel Service; if you have created a new application pool for your Excel Service, select it instead.  Note the service account currently being used.

Step 4: Verify that your service account includes the db_owner role in the SharePoint content database of that Web application. You can do this in SQL Management Studio on your SQL Server or using the following PowerShell commands to grant permission to your service account:

• On the SharePoint Server, click Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products -> SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
• Enter these commands:

   1: $w = Get-SPWebApplication -Identity http://portal

   2: $w.GrantAccessToProcessIdentity("domainserviceaccount")

Step 5: Provision the Excel Services Application running these PowerShell commands:

   1: $excel = Get-SPExcelServiceApplication

   2: $excel.Provision()

Step 6: Open IIS Manager on the SharePoint Server, and verify that SecurityTokenServiceApplicationPool has started.

Step 7: Reset IIS

Notes:

• This blog post only applies to SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise.
• This blog post was written with the out-of-the-box SharePoint Excel Services Application in mind and may not cover problems from customizing Excel Service.

See also:

• Excel Services 2010 Error – “The workbook cannot be opened.” [stack exchange]