“Microsoft Excel is Waiting for Another Application to complete an OLE Action”What is it? Why does it happen? And how to fix it?

Written By:
Patrick Louie

Microsoft Excel is a powerful and versatile application that you can use for many things.

You can use it for bookkeeping, performing complicated calculations, storing data, etc.

And with OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), the number of things you can do with Excel increases.

For example, you can make Excel work with PowerPoint or Word by performing an OLE action.

The thing with OLE though is that it’s not flawless.

Depending on how often you use it (OLE), you may come across this error message once, twice, or more times:

This error occurs when the response to OLE action does not arrive within a certain amount of time.

Think of it as a message that notifies you that your bus will be arriving late.

This error isn’t that annoying when it happens only once or twice while you’re working with your spreadsheet.

But if it happens frequently, it can get annoying really quickly. Imagine getting interrupted by this error every three minutes or so when you’re working.

Not a fun experience huh?

Though when you’re reading this article, you’re probably already experiencing that nightmare scenario.

You went to the internet to find solutions to your problem (which is this OLE action error message frequently appearing). And solutions, I shall give to you.

But first, let’s try to understand why this happens so that you’ll know how to address it the next time it occurs.

Common Reasons Why The Error Message Appears

If you see the OLE action error message appear, it could be because of the following:

  • The DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) protocol is disabled from Excel’s settings. DDE basically allows inter-process communication between various Windows applications
  • One or more of the installed MS Office applications is corrupted
  • Too many activated add-ins (which can conflict with Excel)
  • Some of the activated add-ins may be corrupted
  • The Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker add-in is frequently conflicting with Excel
  • Using the Excel “Send as Attachment” action to attach the sheet to an email.

The above are the common reasons why the OLE action error message appears. Do any of these apply to your situation? Yes? Well, now you know why the error message appears. It’s time to learn how to solve the issue then!

How to Fix the OLE Action Error

There are different ways you can address the OLE action error depending on what caused it.

But first, let’s go with the solution that applies to any situation:

Solution#1: Restart your computer

For the first solution, you’ll be doing the tried-and-true method of restarting your system (a.k.a. your computer).

Oftentimes, this will fix the OLE action error and stop the error message from appearing.

Now, after restarting your computer, check whether the “Microsoft Excel is waiting for another application to complete an OLE action” error still appears.

If it still does, then you may have to do one or more of the following solutions.

Solution#2: Enable the “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)” setting

For the next solution, we’ll be toggling one of Excel’s option settings. Assuming you already have Excel opened, you need to follow these steps:

  • Open the File tab. This will open the File menu.

  • In the File menu, click on Options (which can be found at the very bottom). This will open the Excel Options menu.

  • In the Excel Options menu, select and click on Advanced. Then, navigate the menu until you get to the General section.

  • In this section, you should see the option to toggle the “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)” setting. Toggle it to activate it (make sure that the box is checked). Then, click the OK button.

  • Restart Excel. This should stop the OLE action error message from appearing.

If the error message still appears, the error may be caused by too much active add-ins.

Solution#3: Disable Add-ins

If you have too many active add-ins, the OLE action error message may still appear even after doing solutions 1 and 2. In such a case, you may have to disable your add-ins (or only the ones that you don’t actively use).

To disable add-ins, you have to:

  • Open the File tab. This will open the File menu.

  • In the File menu, click on Options (which can be found at the very bottom). This will open the Excel Options menu.

  • In the Excel Options menu, select and click on Add-ins.

  • You will see a section that lets you manage your add-ins. Select “Excel Add-ins” from the options, then press the Go button.

  • The Add-ins window will pop up. Disable all of the add-ins (or just the ones that you don’t use). Then, click the Ok button.

 

  • That should disable the plug-ins. Restart Excel and see if the error message still appears.

If you suspect that any of the add-ins is corrupted but can’t pinpoint which one, you might want to disable all of them. Also, if the Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker add-in is active, you might want to disable that too as it often causes the OLE action error message to appear.

Solution#4: Reinstall MS Office applications

If you suspect that any of the MS Office applications is corrupted, you will have to reinstall the suspected apps.

Solution#5: Disable Compatibility Mode

If the problem still persists, you may have to disable Compatibility Mode. To do so, you will have to follow these steps:

  • Open the folder where your Excel file is located.
  • Rename the file extension to .exe.

  • Right-click on the file. Then from among the options, select Properties.

  • In the pop-up window, open the Compatibility tab. You’ll see a section where you can set the Compatibility Mode. To disable it, make sure that the box is unchecked.

  • Click the OK button. This should stop the OLE action error message from appearing.

Solution#6: Use other means to attach the Excel file

If the OLE message occurs when you’re trying to attach the workbook via the “Send as Attachment” action, then you may want to attach it via other means. For example, you can attach the Excel file from the email app (e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook). This will avoid the issue of the OLE action error occurring.

Conclusion

In this article, I’ve shown the possible causes of the OLE action error message appearing.

I have also shown you how to address the error.

Did any of the solutions worked for you? Let me know in the comments.