Excel Services: Unable to process the request

Error

This error message appeared in a SharePoint 2010 farm/environment when trying to use Excel Services to display a Excel spreadsheet in SharePoint 2010.

Excel. Unable to process the request. Wait a few minutes and try performing this operation again.

After reviewing the Events and log files and finding error messages such as these:

 

Event Viewer: Event 5239, Excel Services Application. There was an error in communicating with Excel Calculation Service (server address on port 32843, standard port for web services address ending with /ExcelService*.asmx) exception: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive.

Issue

The issue was that the web site used for the SharePoint Web Services had the ASP.NET Impersonation Authentication method enabled.

Solution

The solution is to disable the ASP.NET Impersonation again.

Go to IIS Manager (Start, Administrative Tools, Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager). Expand the Sites node on the server running the Excel Services Service Application. Choose the Authentication icon in the IIS area. Choose ASP.NET Impersonation in the list and disable it using the action link on the right hand side.

IIS Manager, Authentication settings for the SharePoint Web Services.

Ref : Stefan Johansson

Cannot view list in Datasheet View

I recently had to install Office 2010 64bit on my computer to work with some extremely large Excel spreadsheets. I noticed today that when I tried to open one of the SharePoint list in datasheet view, it came up with the following error:

The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view for one or more of the following reasons: A datasheet component compatible with Windows SharePoint Services is not installed, your browser does not support ActiveX controls, or support for ActiveX controls is disabled

This is a known compatibility issue between Office 2010 64bit and SharePoint. Microsoft has a workaround for this issue.

Install KB2266203 from Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2266203

After installing the fix, the problem was resolved immediately.

File Conversion in Process, Converter Failed To Save File

On some machines, when a user opens an Excel file from SharePoint and checks out for edit and -does not- use the local drafts folder, you see a dialog with “File Conversion In Progress”, then “ConverterFailed To Save File” message, but the file is checked out to the user and will not open in the Excel. It never opens the application and I’m returned to the document library. If I already have the application it doesn’t generate the error.

The fix is to do the following:

– Open Word
– Click the Office button (Top-left in the window)
– Click Word Options
– Click Resources
– Click the Diagnose button
– Click through the wizard until it’s finished
– Close all browser windows

That’s fixed all of our issues.