Releasing an Excel file

[Kyleb91 (Kyle Brown)]

Hi Guys,

Having some trouble with an .xlsm file that I am copying/editing in a flow.

If the flow fails, the file becomes locked to the bot and I cannot subsequently delete or edit the file as it’s ‘still in use’.

Is there any way to ‘release’ the file so I can retry etc. It is subsequently preventing the process from running again…

Interestingly if I run a separate success flow fully, that one becomes editable/deletable again.

Any help would be appreciated!

[dmccammond (Derek McCammond)]

Hello Kyle,

It sounds like an instance of Excel is still in the background and is write locking the file. If you go to Task Manager and end the task, that should allow you to delete it.

[beesheep (Eduardo Bernabe Sacahui Diaz)]

You can use Kill process after you close and before you restart your process, it is also a good practice.

regards.

[Kyleb91 (Kyle Brown)]

That’s great mate, didn’t think to do that; coincidentally, would you envisage this also being the case had the Excel been a Workbook?

Many Thanks

[dmccammond (Derek McCammond)]

Oh yeah, definitely. It’s because Excel will sometimes give up so it does not matter how you are dealing with it on the UiPath side. I’ve even had it where Excel will freeze and then UiPath will get stuck waiting for it.