Unanswered

Excel Opening in Background Even Though "Make Instance Visible" is On, Causing Read-Only Issue

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Ukiman1014

I am opening Excel from a network drive. Upon opening, it appears for a split second then disappears. It functions fine in the flow (reading/saving), but the problem is if the flow has an issue and does not get to properly close Excel, then there is no way for me to close it. I can kill the task, but then, because it is a network file, it becomes "orphaned", meaning the server thinks I still have it open. Then the next time the script runs the file is opened read-only. I then have to wait for an inordinate amount of time until the server decides it's no longer open and closes it. How can I prevent this, and why is it not staying visible? If it stayed visible, I could manually close it.

Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2305 Build 16.0.16501.20074) 64-bit
Power Automate Desktop version 2.33.96.23172
Windows 11 Enterprise
Version 22H2
OS build 22621.1992
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22644.1000.0

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

All responses (2)

Answers (0)

Sort by

MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

I'm not sure why it's doing that, but let's just work around it.

From the time the bot opens, put an OnBlock Error around the entire rest of the flow, to the point where it is supposed to save and close. In the OnBlock Error, use Go to Subflow, and in that new Subflow just put "Save and Close Excel" or just "Close Excel" if you don't want it to save on an error.

This should at least solve your issue for now, and then I would just otherwise contact support to see if they have more guidance.
Ukiman1014 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Thanks! I will use OnBlock Error to make sure Excel is closed if any errors occur.