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Microsoft Excel is waiting for another application to complete an OLE action.

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Monday, June 13, 2016 10:10 PM

Hi all,

I have a user that was opening an Excel document today and received this error message, "Microsoft Excel is waiting for another application to complete an OLE action". System then become unresponsive, was unable to force quite any applications or even view task manager. 

Duplicated this issue twice now, seeing if there are known issues that may be causing this problem. Here is user system specs:

- Surface Pro 4

- Office 2013

- Windows 10 Pro

Thanks,

- Joel

All replies (7)

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 9:27 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote

Hi Joel,

After trying these methods ,how about your problem now?

About collection information, you can try to download and install Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT), which is developed by Microsoft Support teams. Once the tool is installed, you can run it at any time to scan for hundreds of known issues in Office programs.

Regards,

Emi Zhang
TechNet Community Support

Please mark the reply as an answer if you find it is helpful.

If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].

Thursday, June 16, 2016 8:40 PM ✅Answered | 2 votes

Ok, after installing and running the OffCAT tool appears the problem was we were missing some updates that came out July 6th, 2016. But the main offendor was an Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker plugin, conflicting with MS Excel.

Links to Adobe's compatibility matrix here:   https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/compatible-web-browsers-pdfmaker-applications.html

Steps to disable the plugin here:    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2800094

We went the method of upgrading to Acrobat 11+

Thanks again for the help.

  • Joel

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 7:10 AM | 1 vote

Hi Joel,

Depending on the error message, this problem may occur if the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box in Excel options is selected.

When you double-click an Excel workbook in Windows Explorer, a dynamic data exchange (DDE) message is sent to Excel. This message instructs Excel to open the workbook that you double-clicked.

If you select the "Ignore" option, Excel ignores DDE messages that are sent to it by other programs. Therefore, the DDE message that is sent to Excel by Windows Explorer is ignored, and Excel does not open the workbook that you double-clicked.

Please follow these steps to uncheck DDE option in Excel:

Please go to File- Options- Advanced- Clear the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box, and then click OK.

Please try this method first and let me know the result, I'm glad to help you.

Regards,

Emi Zhang
TechNet Community Support

Please mark the reply as an answer if you find it is helpful.

If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 8:40 PM | 1 vote

Hello  Emi,

Thanks for the reply. Ok, I just navigated to the settings menu and verified that the box is unchecked by default. Are there next steps we can try if it appears this setting may not have been causing the problem. I recall last year I ran into an unrelated Office application problem, and was able to collect some diagnostic information.

Is there a method to doing something like this to determine the cause of the issue?

Thanks,

- Joel

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 3:08 PM | 1 vote

Hi Emi,

After trying the methods you described, the Excel program is still hanging/freezing intermittently - and not producing any error prompts or other behavior that might hint at the issue. Once Excel 2013 freezes, the rest of the system becomes unresponsive even after force quitting all running applications in the Task Manager.

Reviewing the event logs from the computer management console, we're unable to see any related issues from the system side that might be contributing to the Excel problem.

I will go ahead and install the OffCAT tool, I have used that in the past to troubleshoot a MS Word issue in Office 2010 on another system.

I will follow up with our findings after that has been completed and the data reviewed. Thank you for your assistance.

- Joel

Monday, June 11, 2018 9:02 PM

d4e666 thanks for the helpful answer.

Monday, March 25, 2019 5:40 PM

For future readers:

The Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT) was removed from the download center in June 2018.  The new tool, as of 03/25/2019, is the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant tool.

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