Not Enough Resources to Delete Rows and Columns

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 25, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


1

Harvey has a large Excel worksheet, cuurently 700 columns and 1000 rows. It has formulas in about 600 of those columns, some of which refer to other worksheets held on the server. In total there are about 420,000 formulas in the worksheet. He needs to delete some rows and columns, but Excel gives an error message that he does not have enough resources. Harvey has Googled the problem and tried all the suggested solutions but still has the problem. He wonders if there are any thoughts as to how he can remove the columns and rows.

Tracking down and correcting this type of problem can be frustrating, as it could be caused by any number of things. (Microsoft isn't that great on providing helpful information in some of its error messages; this particular message is a prime example.) There are a few things you can try that are quite easy.

  • Close all workbooks you have open except for the one in which you are trying to do the deletions.
  • Turn off automatic calculation before you attempt to do the deletions.
  • Delete rows and columns one row and column at a time, rather than deleting large numbers of rows and columns at once.
  • Clear the contents of the columns and rows instead of deleting them. Save after the clearing and then try to delete the previously cleared columns and rows.
  • Restart your system, open Excel before anything else, and try to do the deletion.
  • Try opening the workbook on a different machine or in a later version of Excel.
  • Use Save As to store the workbook on a local drive, then open the new version of the workbook and do the deletions.

If these suggestioins don't work, then you'll need to continue with the trial-and-error process. You can find some good information on possible solutions on this page:

https://www.add-ins.com/support/out-of-memory-or-not-enough-resource-problem-with-microsoft-excel.htm

The advice on the page is particularly good if you suspect that the resource issue is related to a misbehaving add-in.

You might also check to see if you are pushing the limits imposed on Excel by Microsoft. You can find information on these limits here:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Data-Model-specification-and-limits-19aa79f8-e6e8-45a8-9be2-b58778fd68ef

Note that this page also provides access to a "workbook size optimizer." You might find this tool helpful in reducing the size of your workbook and thereby freeing up resources.

Finally, it could be that your workbook is slightly corrupted. (I've had this happen to me with much smaller workbooks.) The best solution in this case is to copy the data from the worksheet to a new workbook. Don't copy or move entire worksheets; you need to copy the actual data. You might even try to save your workbook as a CSV file and then load the CSV file into a different workbook. You will lose formatting in this manner, but everything else should come across just fine.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (407) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Working In Feet and Inches

Your chosen occupation may require that you work with linear distances in feet and inches. Excel can do this, to a ...

Discover More

Negatives in Pie Charts

Pie charts are a great way to graphically display some types of data. Displaying negative values is not so great in pie ...

Discover More

Replacements Use an Incorrect Foreign Language Character

When using Find and Replace, it is possible that you might notice some surprising results when the replacements are done. ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Ensuring Standard Units During Data Entry

Need to make sure that information entered in a worksheet is always in a given unit of measurement? It's not as easy of a ...

Discover More

Mouse Scroll Wheel Doesn't Work when Editing Formulas

Using your mouse to select cells for inclusion in a formula can be an exercise in futility on some systems. Here's why ...

Discover More

Preparing Data for Import into Access

When importing Excel information into Access, you need to be concerned with the condition of the data. Here's how to make ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 7?

2023-03-25 17:25:18

Tomek

A problem in saving as CSV is that you lose all the formulas. What is saved are results of these formulas saved as values.

Instead, you may try one of other formats that Excel recognizes; ones that come to mind are:
.xlsb - Excel binary workbook,
.xml - XML Spreadshee 2003 (not just XML data - Excel will likely reject such attempt),
.ods - Open Document Spreadsheet.

You can experiment with other formats including old .xls. Depending on how complex your spreadsheet is and whether the formulas used are specific to the newer version of Excel, you may lose some functionality and possibly formatting. If it works however, it may remove some of the demand on resources.

As for lost formatting, you can restore it from the original file to the fixed one by using Format Painter.


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.