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License Error 0x8007000E

Excel 0x8007000E Out of Memory: Workbook Hangs or Stops Responding on Large Files

12 min read Updated October 4, 2026 Outlook & Office Applications

Fix it now

Excel has run out of usable memory inside its own process, not on the machine. On a 32-bit build that ceiling is two gigabytes however much RAM the PC holds. Take a copy of the workbook first, then cut the things Microsoft names as the load: recalculation, add-ins, stored views and the printer query.

  1. Copy the workbook to a local folder and work on the copy. Several steps below delete content, and there is no undo once a file has been saved and closed.
  2. Read the build at File > Account > About Excel. Microsoft states plainly that 32-bit Excel has a two-gigabyte memory limitation and that the 64-bit version can use all the physical RAM in the machine.
  3. Set Formulas > Calculation Options to Manual and reopen the copy. Microsoft’s own example of this failure is a sheet of a million formulas that all recalculate when a column is inserted.
  4. Clear the add-ins: File > Options > Add-ins, set Manage to COM Add-ins, click Go, untick everything and restart Excel. Repeat with Excel Add-ins in the same box.
  5. Set the default printer to Microsoft XPS Document Writer and reopen. Excel asks the default printer for page metrics, and a sick queue surfaces as a resource error.
  6. If it is a shared workbook, delete its stored views: View > Custom Views > Delete. Microsoft lists them as a cause.

Windows does record this. The hang is written to the Application log as Application Hang, Event ID 1002, and you can capture the process state from Task Manager > Details > right-click EXCEL.EXE > Create dump file while it is still stalled.

If the workbook opens and stays open, you are done. If it still stalls, the next section explains what is filling the process and which of the documented causes you are looking at.

Why it happens

0x8007000E is Windows error 14, ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY, and its published text is that not enough storage is available to complete the operation. That is a statement about one process, not about the computer. A 32-bit process gets two gigabytes of user-mode address space; on 64-bit Windows an image marked large-address-aware gets four. Physical RAM does not change either figure, which is why Task Manager can show twenty gigabytes free at the moment Excel gives up.

Microsoft groups several messages under the same condition: “Excel cannot complete this task with available resources. Choose less data or close other applications”, “Out of Memory”, “Not enough System Resources to Display Completely”, and a longer message that recommends 64-bit Excel and more RAM in so many words. They are the same fault reported by different parts of the product, and the vendor’s own guidance is that these messages are generic and do not always identify the real cause.

When the allocation fails mid-operation Excel often stops pumping its message loop instead of closing, and Windows writes an Application Hang record, Event ID 1002. Two neighbouring codes turn up in the same investigation: 0x800705AA is ERROR_NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES, and 0xC0000017 is STATUS_NO_MEMORY, meaning not enough virtual memory or paging file quota was available.

Recalculation load, not file size

You have this one if The stall happens on edit, on insert, on sort or on paste rather than on scroll, and the status bar shows a calculation percentage crawling.

  1. Set Formulas > Calculation Options to Manual while you work, and press F9 deliberately.
  2. Find the formulas that recalculate on every change anywhere in the file: OFFSET, INDIRECT, NOW, TODAY, RAND and CELL.
  3. Replace whole-column references such as A:A with bounded ranges or structured table references.

Objects and features loaded with the sheet

You have this one if The file is large for the amount of data in it, and scrolling stays slow even with calculation set to Manual.

  1. Press F5, choose Special, then Objects, and see how many shapes get selected. Pasted rows carry invisible objects with them.
  2. Look at the PivotTables and charts. Microsoft names complex PivotTables and charts with many data points among the contents that exhaust resources.
  3. In a shared workbook, delete stored views under View > Custom Views, which Microsoft lists as a specific remedy.

An add-in is consuming the process

You have this one if The same workbook behaves when the add-ins are off, and misbehaves when they are on.

  1. File > Options > Add-ins, set Manage to COM Add-ins, click Go, and clear the list.
  2. Restart Excel and confirm the stall has gone before changing anything else.
  3. Re-enable one add-in at a time, restarting between each, until the stall returns. Repeat with Excel Add-ins, a separate list in the same dialog.

Something outside Excel is holding the file open

You have this one if The stall is intermittent, moves between files, and started around a security or backup rollout.

  1. Test with real-time scanning paused briefly, which is the check Microsoft suggests, and put it back immediately afterwards.
  2. Disable the preview and details panes in Explorer, in Excel’s Open dialog and in Outlook’s attach dialog.
  3. Install the current Windows and Office updates, then close everything else and retry. A clean boot is Microsoft’s documented way to settle this one.

The workbook has outgrown a 32-bit process

You have this one if The formulas are already efficient, the add-ins are off, and the file still cannot be worked on.

  1. Confirm the build at File > Account > About Excel.
  2. Move that user to 64-bit Excel. It is the only change that lifts the ceiling rather than working under it.
  3. Inventory the add-ins, ActiveX controls and ODBC drivers they depend on first: 32-bit components will not load in a 64-bit process.

Full reference

The two numbers that decide everything

Process User-mode address space
32-bit process, flag not set 2 GB
32-bit process on 32-bit Windows with the large-address-aware flag and 4GT Up to 3 GB
32-bit process on 64-bit Windows with the large-address-aware flag 4 GB
64-bit process Bounded by the machine, not by the address space

Those are Windows figures, and they apply to Excel like any other process. Microsoft’s Excel guidance states the practical consequence directly: 32-bit Excel has a two-gigabyte memory limitation, and the 64-bit version allows all available physical RAM to be used for large files. Everything the workbook holds lives inside that budget – the cells, the calculation chain, the undo stack, every style, every shape, and every add-in loaded into the process.

Where to look for evidence

Where What it tells you
File > Account > About Excel Whether the installation is 32-bit or 64-bit
Task Manager > Details > EXCEL.EXE How much memory the process holds at the moment it stalls
Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application Application Hang, Event ID 1002, with a timestamp you can line up against what the user did
Task Manager > Details > Create dump file A snapshot of the stalled process, which is the artefact an add-in vendor will ask for
Ctrl+End on each worksheet Whether the used range runs far past the real data

Windows Error Reporting can also be told to write dumps automatically, under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps, with DumpFolder, DumpCount and DumpType values and a default folder of %LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps. Microsoft is explicit that this collects a dump after a process crashes; for a process that is merely stalled, take the dump by hand from Task Manager.

Trimming the used range, carefully

A used range that extends thousands of rows past the data inflates a file and slows every redraw. It is worth fixing, but it is not one of the causes Microsoft documents for this message, so treat it as housekeeping rather than as the answer, and never do it to the only copy of a file.

  1. Work on the copy you took at the start.
  2. Select the first entirely empty row below the data, press Ctrl+Shift+Down, then right-click and choose Delete – not Clear.
  3. Do the same for the columns to the right with Ctrl+Shift+Right.
  4. Save, close and reopen. The used range is only rebuilt on save, so Ctrl+End will still look wrong until you do.
  5. Compare the file size against the original before you replace anything.

Before you move an estate to 64-bit

  • Inventory COM add-ins. A 32-bit add-in will not load into a 64-bit Excel, and nothing in Office changes that.
  • Inventory ActiveX controls embedded in workbooks, which have the same constraint.
  • Inventory ODBC and OLE DB drivers used by workbooks and by any Access front-ends those users open.
  • Check line-of-business add-ins with their vendors for a 64-bit build before you schedule anything.
  • Move the users who work with the heavy models first. There is no benefit in moving everybody at once.

When none of it helps

Install the current Windows and Office updates, then test the same file on a second machine with a different printer and no add-ins. If it behaves there, the workbook is not the problem and the machine is. If it stalls there too, the workbook is asking for more than a 32-bit process can give it, and the remaining choices are to make the workbook smaller or to give it a bigger process.

When a licence is the actual fix

Nothing here needs buying while the fix is still tidying the workbook, and most of these files can be brought back under the ceiling for free. The line is crossed when the model is genuinely large and already efficient: a 32-bit Excel will keep hitting two gigabytes however much you trim, and 64-bit is the only change that removes the limit rather than working around it. That is a deployment decision rather than a purchase if the entitlement you hold already covers it, because it is the same product installed differently. Arco can check what your current licences allow, and supply Microsoft 365 Apps for the users who work with the heavy workbooks rather than for the whole organisation. Ask us to look at the add-in inventory first; a 64-bit rollout that strands a line-of-business add-in costs more than it saves.

Every code this article covers

Code What it points at Source
0x8007000E Windows error 14, ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY: not enough storage is available to complete this operation Microsoft Learn
0x800705AA Windows error 1450, ERROR_NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES: insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service Microsoft Learn
Event ID 1002 Application Hang, written to the Application log when Windows finds a window that has stopped responding Microsoft Learn
0xC0000017 STATUS_NO_MEMORY: not enough virtual memory or paging file quota is available to complete the operation Microsoft Learn
Excel cannot complete this task with available resources Excel reporting the same shortage in its own words; the full text continues “Choose less data or close other applications” Microsoft Learn

Confirm the fix worked

  1. Reopen the workbook, set calculation back to Automatic and press F9; a full recalculation completes without stalling.
  2. Watch EXCEL.EXE in Task Manager during that recalculation and confirm the memory figure settles rather than climbing to a ceiling.
  3. Refresh the Application log after an hour of normal work and confirm no new Event ID 1002 has been written for EXCEL.EXE.
  4. Re-enable the add-ins you intend to keep, restart, and confirm the file still opens.
  5. Have the person who reported it work in the file for a day before you close the ticket, because this failure is cumulative rather than instant.

Questions people ask about this

I have 32 GB of RAM. How can Excel be out of memory?

Because the limit is the process, not the machine. A 32-bit process is capped at two gigabytes of user-mode address space, four on 64-bit Windows if the image is marked large-address-aware, and Microsoft states the practical figure for 32-bit Excel as a two-gigabyte memory limitation. Task Manager will show plenty of free RAM at the moment Excel gives up, and that is expected rather than contradictory.

Does moving to 64-bit Excel cost anything?

Not necessarily. It is the same product installed differently, so if your entitlement already covers it this is a deployment job rather than a purchase. The cost appears when you are on an old perpetual version you would have to replace anyway, or when a 32-bit add-in you depend on has no 64-bit build and its vendor wants paying for one.

Why does the file open on a colleague’s machine but not on mine?

Compare three things in this order: the build shown at File > Account > About Excel, the COM add-in list, and the default printer. Those are the three that differ most often between two machines running what looks like the same Office.

Is there a published maximum workbook size?

Not one that predicts this. The practical limit is what fits in the process alongside the calculation chain, the formatting and the add-ins, so a file that opens on Monday can fail on Friday after a few hundred more rows. Microsoft’s guidance is written around what the file contains rather than how many megabytes it is.

The hang leaves nothing to send to the add-in vendor. What can I collect?

There is something to collect. Windows writes an Application Hang record, Event ID 1002, and while the process is still stalled you can right-click EXCEL.EXE in Task Manager’s Details tab and choose Create dump file. That dump is what a vendor needs to see which of their calls is not returning.

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