Excel Driver Login Failed External Table is not in the Expected Format

Description

After trying to open an Excel spreadsheet, you receive the following error message:

As a result you are unable to use the existing ODBC link to connect to the spread sheet.

Potential Causes:

• The Excel spreadsheet was created saved as an Excel 2003 Workbook (filename.xls) format.

• The spreadsheet was opened and re-saved in Excel 2007 format Workbook (filename.xlsx) creating a version conflict.

Solution

If the file was saved in the format "Excel 93-2003 Workbook (*.xls)", then the ODBC can correctly read the file as a table.

If the file was saved in the new XML format using "Excel Workbook" in Excel 2007, the external table is actually in XML and not the expected format which is a native Excel table object. Although Excel 2007 successfully opens these files when double-clicked,  just opening the file in Excel is not sufficient to determine if the file can be read using ODBC.

You need to go to your ODBC administrator and add a new entry for the new format of Excel files. When you click on Add, there should be an entry for a Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb) . You may also need to delete your old Excel entry.

The new ODBC DSN should read the new format for the .xlsx file.
Re-link the fields on the label by selecting each one connected to the .xlsx spread sheet, beginning with the database key field and working through the database data fields.