Excel “External table is not in the expected format.”

Question

I\'m trying to read an Excel (xlsx) file using the code shown below. I get an \"External table is not in the expected format.\" error unless I have the file already open in

Answer 1

I recently saw this error in a context that didn't match any of the previously listed answers. It turned out to be a conflict with AutoVer. Workaround: temporarily disable AutoVer.

Answer 2

This can also be a file that contains images or charts, see this: http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/resolving-error-external-table-is-not-in-expected-format

The recommendation is to save as Excel 2003

Answer 3

I had this problem and changing Extended Properties to HTML Import fixed it as per this post by Marcus Miris:

strCon = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" & importedFilePathAndName _
         & ";Extended Properties=""HTML Import;HDR=No;IMEX=1"";"

Answer 4

Thanks for this code :) I really appreciate it. Works for me.

public static string connStr = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + path + ";Extended Properties=Excel 12.0;";

So if you have diff version of Excel file, get the file name, if its extension is .xlsx, use this:

Private Const connstring As String = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + path + ";Extended Properties=Excel 12.0;";

and if it is .xls, use:

Private Const connstring As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & "Data Source=" + path + ";Extended Properties=""Excel 8.0;HDR=YES;"""

Answer 5

I have also seen this error when trying to use complex INDIRECT() formulas on the sheet that is being imported. I noticed this because this was the only difference between two workbooks where one was importing and the other wasn't. Both were 2007+ .XLSX files, and the 12.0 engine was installed.

I confirmed this was the issue by:

• Making a copy of the file (still had the issue, so it wasn't some save-as difference)
• Selecting all cells in the sheet with the Indirect formulas
• Pasting as Values only

and the error disappeared.

Answer 6

(I have too low reputation to comment, but this is comment on JoshCaba's entry, using the Ace-engine instead of Jet for Excel 2007)

If you don't have Ace installed/registered on your machine, you can get it at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=13255

It applies for Excel 2010 as well.