Occasionally I see issues when I am trying to export data from a Dynamics CRM 2011 view to Microsoft Excel.
The error messages may vary, but they may describe not being able to start a process or something.
The Cause
Most of these issues seem to be related to the startup time of Excel, when Excel is not running. The problem does not seem to surface when Excel is already running.
There is some type of timeout involved, like maybe around 10-20 seconds, that Internet Explorer will allow before canceling the operation.
If Excel and the worksheet haven’t completed loading during that time frame, IE will cancel the opening of the worksheet, though Excel will complete it’s startup process.
Attempting the operation again, will usually result in the successful loading of the worksheet.
The startup time for the Excel will depend on menu factors, including the number of add-ins that Excel must load during the startup process. The more add-ins you have, the longer Excel’s load time.
The Solution
There are a couple of solutions to this issue:
1. Start Microsoft Excel before attempting to load the worksheet.
2. When prompted by Excel, select Save, then open the worksheet from Excel manually.
