I am trying to import an xls file for aerial imagery into my map. I'm working on ArcMap 10.5.1. I've never had a problem before but today have received the error message:
"Could not add the specified data object to the map.
General function failure
Unexpected error from thte external database drive (1)."
I downloaded the driver located here:Download 2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components from Official Microsoft Download Ce...
mentioned in other similar posts but that did not fix the problem.
Thoughts?
Solved! Go to Solution.
After playing around a little bit, I have discovered that ArcGIS will now only accept .xlsx files, not.xls. Hopefully that will be your fix too.
~ natalie
I am having this problem too. Just a few weeks ago everything was working fine with opening excel (Microsoft 2016) files (as .xls) into ArcMap, and now I am getting the same error. I looked through my update history and saw that Microsoft performed a series of updates on 10/10/17, so Im guessing they are the reason things are just now going haywire. Any ideas?
After playing around a little bit, I have discovered that ArcGIS will now only accept .xlsx files, not.xls. Hopefully that will be your fix too.
~ natalie
Yup. Saving my .xls to xlsx did the trick. thanks!
You guys got it.
Open the .xls file in Microsoft Excel, save it as a .xlsx, and install the 2007 Office System driver (if it is not already installed).
Alternatively, open ArcToolbox and navigate to System Toolboxes > Conversion Tools > Excel > Excel To Table geoprocessing tool to import the .xls file as a table.
If you guys want a simpler solution that doesn't need you to download any extra drivers, you can save your .xls or .xlsx as a .csv file. ArcMAP should be able to use .csv files with no problem.