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FME and Microsoft Office on a 64-bit system

Liz Sanderson
Liz Sanderson
  • Updated

Symptom

If 32-bit FME and 64-bit Office drivers are installed, the reader will fail with the message, “Provider error ‘External table is not in the expected format.’” In addition, you will see the following messages in the log files:
 MS Excel Reader: Unable to find provider 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0', falling back to 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0'. The 2007 Office System Driver might be missing from your system; follow this link for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=23734 MS Excel Reader: Connection failed. Connection string `Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Users\\Documents\testing.xlsx;Extended Properties="Excel 8.0;IMEX=1;HDR=YES"'. Provider error `External table is not in the expected format.'

If 64-bit FME and 32-bit Office drivers are installed, it will fail with the message “Plugin 'MDB_ADO' was loaded, but a reader could not be created. Error was #1: A fatal error has occurred.'” In addition, you will see the following messages in the log files:
 Trying to find a DYNAMIC plugin for reader named `MDB_ADO' Loaded module 'MDB_ADO' from file 'E:\apps\FME\plugins/FME_ADO.dll' FME API version of module 'MDB_ADO' matches current internal version (3.7 20111219) ADO Provider not installed or not compatible with FME architecture. Try installing Microsoft Access Database Engine (x64); follow this link for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=13255

Cause

In order to read Microsoft Access databases (and Microsoft Excel files using the deprecated ADO reader), FME requires drivers supplied by Microsoft. These must match the architecture of FME - 64-bit or 32-bit. If the drivers do not match, FME cannot use them. Note that the new Excel reader does not have this limitation.

Resolution

In either case, the solution is to install the appropriate drivers - either 64-bit or 32-bit, depending on the installed version of FME. The Office redistributable is available at https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=54920. Please be sure to choose the correct file - the 64-bit version has the suffix “x64”.


Unfortunately, this may conflict with your installed version of Microsoft Office. In this case, either Office or FME must be replaced with the correct version. FME 2012 and higher supports Excel and Access Database formats in the 64-bit version.

For more information about 32-bit vs 64-bit installations of FME Desktop on Windows, please see Which version of FME Desktop for Windows should I install?

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