Recently started using shared workbooks in Excel 2013.  The problem happens when a user is trying to access the workbook over VPN.  When the workbook is shared it takes much longer. When we unshare it, it opens up in seconds.  Just as a test I created a new workbook opened it over VPN. opened in 11 seconds.  Shared it, closed it, opened it again, over 30 seconds.  Unshared it tried again and it opened in ~11 seconds again.  Shared it tried again, over 30 seconds. I deselected the options under Personal View and that has not made a difference. No add-ins are active.  The one file they are trying to open is almost 5mb.  My test file was only 10k which weirdly is growing as I share and unshare it without adding any new information to it.  

Why would a shared file take much longer to open rather than an unshared file?  What is Excel doing when it opens and closes a shared file that is different than a regular file?

Hi,

This is a normal issue in different versions of excel, and the reason of it is different.

According to your description, you create the file with 10kb, but you still spend more to open the shared file over network.

As far as I know, Office File Validation (OFV) might cause this issue, this a new security feature (an add-in) released in Office 2010. It verifies that a particular binary file complies with the applications expectations. Office File Validation can help prevent unknown binary file format attacks against Microsoft Office 97-2003 file formats. You can refer to this link:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/archive/2011/09/29/office-file-validation-causes-slow-opening-of-excel-files-from-network.aspx

For excel 2013 you can try to modify registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation

REG_DWORD: EnableOnLoad

Value: 0

You can also read this article about shared workbook open slowly, you can refer to this link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2807742

Shared function in network, when several users open the shared workbook it create multiple temporary files at the same time. When you open a shared workbook in network, you should receive and read the temporary files at the same time, so you take more time to open the shared file.

Hope its helpful.

Regards,

Thanks for the response.  It's particularly bad over VPN.  It's usable in the office.  I assume that registry entry doesn't exist and I had to add it?  I did, rebooted and it's still not any better.  

I did see that article about 2010, but wasn't sure if it still applied to 2013 as well.  

Hi jjancel,

The article about 2010, you can refer to this article. And it's applied to 2013, you can try the workaround and get more information about this issue. This issue is normal and occurred in different version.

And the issue also might be related to Internet Explorer performing a search of network drives and your local area network and any disconnected network drives or LAN search issues will hang the loading of your Excel spreadsheet. Here is how to stop Excel from browsing your LAN / Network drives when you open an Excel spreadsheet on your local hard drive:

1.Start Internet Explorer

2.Go to "Tools" menu

3.Go to "Internet Options"

4.Go to "Security" tab

5.Go to "Local Intranet"

6.Click on "Sites" button

7.Uncheck "Automatically detect intranet network"

Please try this method,hope it's helpful.

Regards,

Thanks, looks like I had that already unchecked in IE, and it doesnt' seem to have made a difference.  It's just amazing that sharing a document makes it take that much longer to open.  

Hi jjancel,

According to my previous reply, the principle of shared function in network is that when several users open the shared workbook it create multiple temporary files at the same time. When you open a shared workbook in network, you should receive and read the temporary files at the same time, so you take more time to open the shared file.

Regards,