ESRI Maps for Office 2.1.1 crashes Microsoft Excel 2010

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10-07-2013 10:38 AM
HeathBrackett1
Occasional Contributor II
Today I updated ESRI Maps for Office 2.1.1.  When I reopened Microsoft Excel, the ability to even sign in was not allowed (everything on the ESRI Maps tab was greyed out).  I then noticed that the ArcGIS Connection setting in the ESRI Maps Configuration was blank.  So I entered www.arcgis.com (which is the default configuration) and upon entering that information, Excel crashed and closed.  I cannot update the configuration setting. 

Our agency uses Microsoft Excel 2010 (32-bit) with Windows 7 (64-bit).  I would strongly recommend that people do not update ESRI Maps for Office 2.1.1 at this time.

Heath
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14 Replies
ScottBall
Esri Regular Contributor
Hi Heath, thanks for bringing this to our attention. Our QA team is attempting to reproduce this issue.

In the meantime, have you tried to uninstall Esri Maps for Office and re-install it? It sounds like you attempted to upgrade directly from 2.1 to 2.1.1 (a workflow we support); perhaps you might have better luck uninstalling first. Let me know if this helps or if you still experience the issue.

Also - does the user attempting to complete the install have administrator permissions on the computer with Esri Maps for Office?
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HeathBrackett1
Occasional Contributor II
Hi Scott,

I had a chat with an analyst yesterday (ESRI Incident #1202165).  A complete uninstall and then download and install from the website worked for me.  But this is not an ideal situation.  Unfortunately, he decided to come to the conclusion that the problem is ours. 

So here's more background.  Yes, the problem arose from upgrading directly from V2.1 to V2.1.1 via the prompt in Excel.  I am an administrator on my machine, but the problem was brought to my attention by employees who are not administrators.  They were able to walk through the update process, but then were thwarted by a lack of an ability to sign in (as I mentioned previously).  I will also note that PowerPoint was not affected by this issue, only Excel.

I'm now attempting to get the users that have not attempted to upgrade to uncheck the "Check for Updates" box in Excel.  Our agency will be sticking with V2.1 for now.  But there is some buggy behavior that should be resolved.

Heath
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Lars_ElmkærChwastek
Occasional Contributor
I had the same problem and a total uninstall and re-install of Esri Maps for Office also worked for me. The last 10 times I opened Excel and signed in on ArcGIS (before uninstall/re-install), I was prompted with a software update, and "would I like to install it?". I said yes every time, however nothing happened. Could these two things be related somehow?

Kind regards
Lars
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ScottBall
Esri Regular Contributor
Hi, thanks for the additional feedback regarding this problem. We believe we have identified the issue in the installer and we are working to provide an updated software package. We don't have a release date at the moment but it shouldn't be long.
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable
Any update on this? Im doing a Corporate presentation on Maps for Office for our city staff and it just keeps crashing out on me? Same situation 64 bit Win7 and 32bit Office2010. Fresh install of 2.1.1

Powerpoint allows me to sign in, but after re-install Excel still crashes, all options under the esri tab remain greyed out with no option to sign in.
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ScottBall
Esri Regular Contributor
Any update on this? Im doing a Corporate presentation on Maps for Office for our city staff and it just keeps crashing out on me? Same situation 64 bit Win7 and 32bit Office2010. Fresh install of 2.1.1

Powerpoint allows me to sign in, but after re-install Excel still crashes, all options under the esri tab remain greyed out with no option to sign in.


Hi Shaun -

Have you previously used Maps for Office, or is this the first time you've tried to install it on that particular computer?

I ask because we have identified some problems regarding upgrades. In particular, previously saved custom location types were causing errors in the upgrade for some users. This issue has been fixed and will be included in version 2.1.2 which we will be releasing in the coming weeks.

I'm not familiar with issues related to first-time installs. You may want to contact support to work through those issues if this is indeed a brand new installation.

Scott
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EmilyKochert
New Contributor
I am having the same issue with a brand new install.  I tried uninstalling, restarting my machine, and re-installing with the same results.  Are there any workarounds for this?
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RichardDaniels
Occasional Contributor III
If you will be 'deploying' the Maps for Office package to your users and they DON'T have admin on their computers then you should tweak the msi so that the 'check for updates' option is turned off after installation (i.e., in Excel you will find this setting in File | Esri Maps). If you have access to an MSI editing tool like Orca, just go to the Property Table and change the "CheckboxForUpgrade" properties valu to 0, ensure ALLUSERS is set to 1. Other option would be to just go to the Upgrade Table and change the versionmin number to a large value like 3.0 so an upgrade never can occour.

just saying...
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable
Hi Shaun -

Have you previously used Maps for Office, or is this the first time you've tried to install it on that particular computer?

I ask because we have identified some problems regarding upgrades. In particular, previously saved custom location types were causing errors in the upgrade for some users. This issue has been fixed and will be included in version 2.1.2 which we will be releasing in the coming weeks.

I'm not familiar with issues related to first-time installs. You may want to contact support to work through those issues if this is indeed a brand new installation.

Scott


Yes the issue persists after a re-install and restart. The first time it occurred was on 2.1.1, and that was my first time installing the add on. I do have admin rights on my computer, but it usually prompts me to sign in with my admin acct whenever I am installing anything. Normally I am running along as just a user. Id really like to get this presentation put together for out City Staff, but as it stands right now its a no-go. I will have to set up a support ticket I suppose...
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