SharePoint 2010 – Unable to edit cell in Datasheet view – “This cell is read only”

When I try to edit the excel in SharePoint 2010 list in Datasheet view, I see an error saying that “The Selected Cells are Read-only” as shown the image below.

• I have verified user Permissions to the list. User Having Full control permissions to the list
• Checked-out by any one (It is not document library)
• Any Attachments having read-only – NO
• Is current column is default system column? (Like Created, Modified Etc..) – NO

After checking all these details, I found Microsoft Support article about the fix. We have Content Approval enabled in the list and that is blocking DataSheet View edit. By Turning Off the Content Approval, We can fix the error.

Here are the steps to turn off content approvals,

• In the List select Settings
• Select List Settings
• Select Versioning Settings
• In the Content Approval section select No for "Require content approval for submitted items"

Now we can able to edit the items in DataSheet view.

Hope this helps.

SharePoint 2013 error – Unexpected response from server, The status code of response is '500'. The status text of response is 'System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException'.

One of my client using SharePoint standalone machine for 400 people for their internal applications. Everything working as expected but one day all of sudden got an error message saying that,

Unexpected response from server, The status code of response is '500'. The status text of response is 'System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException'.

This error cause due to high memory usage in the server. Verify task manager and check what service taking more time. In my case Search service taking much time. We can fix the issue using options below,

Option 1: Search Service Node Runner.exe

Reduce the Search Service Performance Level with

Set-SPEnterpriseSearchService -PerformanceLevel Reduced

As NoderRunner.exe is the process working on search service, we can limit the memory for NodeRunner.exe. But this is not recommended. We can change the configuration located in “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Search\Runtime\1.0\noderunner.exe.config”

Option 2:  Restart servers

For Temporary solution like users wants to make SharePoint up and Running, Restart the server, so that you can see the error temporarily (You get some time to increase resources or restrict Services to specific value)

Hope this helps to resolve the issue.

Excel Online error - we are sorry we couldn't open your workbook it is possibly corrupt or using a file format is not supported

I am seeing an error when I try to open Excel file in SharePoint Office Excel with error message “Excel Online error - we are sorry we couldn't open your workbook it is possibly corrupt or using a file format is not supported” as shown the image below.

I have verified excel file is corrupt and external data is loading from anywhere. But File looks good and there is no external data loading to the site.

After checking some posts, I found that it is due to protected mode enabled in the excel file. To fix the error, we have follow the steps below.

Download the document and open it in excel

Open the document in excel and uncheck all the options under Protected View. Go to file->options->Trust Center->Trust center settings->click protect view and uncheck all options under protected view. Then upload the document to the library to check if the same issue will occur.

By default, it will open excel file in excel online when storing the excel file in SharePoint online. Save and upload the excel in the Library. Try to open the file in Excel web app.