Summary :

Oct 08, 2011 If that has somehow been set to a disk image or a CD/DVD location, you'll get that 'not enough space' message. The same may occur if the download target location is set to a non-available drive. This can happen when aliases are used and things have been copied (migrated) from another drive. Formatting can cause Excel workbooks to become so large that they do not work correctly. Frequently, Excel hangs or crashes because of formatting issues. Method 1: Eliminate excessive formatting. Excessive formatting in an Excel workbook can cause the file to grow and can cause poor performance.

Microsoft Office is world-famous assistance for work. It includes many practical programs, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Even Microsoft Outlook is available as a part of the Microsoft Office suite.

However, people complained they run into the error message: There is not enough memory or disk space and don’t know what to do.

Message Saying There Is Not Enough Memory or Disk Space

Three of the most frequently used Microsoft programs are definitely: Microsoft Word (used to deal with word information), Microsoft Excel (used to organize and collect data in tabular form), and Microsoft PowerPoint (a useful tool for making a presentation). When you are trying to open the programs or perform an action in them, you may probably end up in failure; a prompt window will show up to prevent you from continuing what you are doing: There is not enough memory or disk space.

So what does the insufficient memory or disk space error mean? What causes this error to occur? How to fix there is insufficient memory Word or Excel? In the following content, I will answer these questions one by one.

MiniTool Solution is a software development company with a high reputation and it can help you solve almost every problem you can think of about computer, disk, and data.

The error message: There is insufficient disk space to complete operation may appear when you are copying files/folders. How to fix it properly?

Many people ask for help since the Excel or Word has insufficient memory; you can browse the examples in Microsoft Community and other forums.

Causes for Insufficient Memory or Disk Space

Many people reported they see the insufficient memory or disk space when opening Word 2016 Word. Till now, the not enough disk space problem is confirmed to show up on Office 2010, Office 2013 and Office 2016.

Our team made a study on the cause of this problem after investigating various users’ reports and find some common factors to trigger the problem in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Word 2016 Insufficient Memory or Disk Space

1. One: the Normal.dotm file is corrupted.
2. Two: the font cache is corrupted.
3. Three: the permissions on the font folder are not enough.
4. Four: the Office installation is broken.
5. Five: an Add-in has problem.

One: the Normal.dotm file is corrupted.

In general, the default font styles will be loaded automatically while you're opening Word. However, if the Normal.dotm file is damaged somehow, this process can’t be completed; then, the insufficient memory error will get thrown.

The easy way to fix the problem under such circumstances is forcing Windows to create a new .dotm file.

Two: the font cache is corrupted.

As mentioned in the previous cause, the font styles are loaded by default when opening Microsoft Office utilities. In fact, they are stored as cache in a font folder on Windows. Sometimes, the font folder may get damaged; then, you’ll receive the not enough memory/disk space error because the fonts used by the file you’re trying to open are included in that corrupted folder.

The easy way to eliminate the error is creating a .bat file that is capable of refreshing your font cache.

Three: the permissions on the font folder are not enough.

Similarly, if users don’t have the necessary permissions to access the corresponding font folder, they won’t be able to open the file.

In this case, you must gain enough permission before opening it by:

• Creating a new policy through Registry Editor
• Making use of a series of Powershell commands

Four: the Office installation is broken.

The error message will appear on your PC screen whether the install of Microsoft Office is incomplete or crippled (this may result from an AV scan).

If this is the root reason for causing the error, you should solve it by invoking Programs and Features to repair the Office installation.

Five: an Add-in has problem.

If any errors occurred on an Add-in, the Microsoft Word insufficient memory will be caused. Till now, several Word Add-ins are found to be responsible for the problem.

If this is the situation, you need to work things out by identifying the problematic Add-in and remove it from your list.

You may run into the following messages that indicate this error in Word:

• There is not enough memory or disk space to update the display.
• There is not enough memory or disk space to run Word.
• There is not enough memory or disk space to run the grammar checker.
• There is not enough memory or disk space to complete the operation.
• There is not enough memory or disk space to repaginate or print this document.
• There is not enough memory or disk space to display or print the picture.
• There is insufficient memory or disk space. Word cannot display the requested font.
• …

Excel Insufficient Disk Space

The error occurs frequently when users try to copy a large volume of data in the Excel sheets or add formulas to a very large worksheet area.

What’s the root reason for causing this? It’s actually the limitations built in Microsoft Excel.

• The memory of each Excel’s instance can’t be more than 2 GB (gigabyte).
• The source cells number should be less than 32,760 when you’re using a smart fill option.
• The maximum number of line feeds per cell is 253.
• The total number of rows and columns on a worksheet can’t be more than 1,048,576 and 16,384.
• A cell can’t contain characters more than 32,767. While the characters in a header or footer should be less than 255.

You may run into the following messages that indicate this error in Excel:

• Not enough system resources to display completely.
• There is not enough disk space. Free enough disk space, and then try again.
• Not enough memory to run Microsoft Excel. Please close other applications and try again.
• Excel cannot complete this task with available resources. Choose less data or close other applications.
• There isn't enough memory to complete this action. Try using less data or closing other applications. To increase memory availability, consider using a 64-bit version of Microsoft Excel or adding memory to your device.
• Microsoft Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough available memory or disk space. To make more memory available, close workbooks or programs you no longer need. To free disk space, delete files you no longer need from the disk you are saving to.

Fix There Is Not Enough Memory or Disk Space Error

First, please make sure your computer has enough memory or free disk space left. If not, you should delete unnecessary files and folders from the hard disk.

How to free up disk space:

• Delete data directly (retrieve deleted files on PC).
• Use Diskpart (recover data lost by DiskPart Clean).
• Use Command Prompt (recover files using CMD).
• Turn to Disk Cleanup (Disk Cleanup empty your Downloads folder).
• …

How to recover files lost when you are trying to get more memory and free disk space? Definitely, you need MiniTool Power Data Recovery, which enjoys a very good reputation in the industry.

Here’s a file recovery tutorial you should follow.

Step one: acquire a license for MiniTool Power Data Recovery and download the setup program of it. (If you don’t trust it, you can get the Trial Edition to experience first.)

Step two: run the setup program to finish software installation and launch it at the end of the process.

Step three: select This PC from the left pane if the drive contains lost files still exist. Otherwise, you should select Hard Disk Drive.

Step four: determine which partition contains the missing files; then, double click on it to start to full scan.

Step five: more and more files will be found while the scan is processing. Please browse the found items carefully and select the data you really want. (You should wait till the end of the scan to see the best recovery result.)

Excel 2008 For Mac Keeps Saying Not Enough Memory Available

Step six: click on the Save button located in the bottom right corner. Then, choose a storage path for the files you have selected in the previous step and click on the OK button to confirm.

Now, you should wait for the recovery process to complete automatically.

FYI: what if your hard disk is corrupted and you can’t boot PC successfully? Please read this page to know how to recover data:

In the following content, I will provide other useful ways to fix the error in both Word and Excel when it is caused by other problems.

There Is Insufficient Memory Word

1. Fix 1: rename Normal.dotm file.
2. Fix 2: rebuild the font cache.
3. Fix 3: gain necessary permissions.
4. Fix 4: repair the Microsoft Office installation.
5. Fix 5: remove the Add-ins.

Fix 1: rename Normal.dotm file.

The action of renaming the Normal.dotm file will force Microsoft Word to create a new file when you launch the program the next time; thus, the problem could be solved if it’s caused by a corrupted Normal.dotm file.

1. Open Windows Explorer. (How to fix when Windows Explorer has a problem?)
2. Open Local Disk (C:).
3. Find and open the Users folder.
4. Look for the folder with your username. Then, open it.
5. Navigate to the AppData folder (which is not visible by default).
6. Open Roaming, Microsoft, and Templates in older.
7. Click View from the menu bar.
8. Check File name extensions in the Show/hide area.
9. Right click on the dotm file.
10. Choose Rename.
11. Add .old after Normal.dotm and press Enter.
12. Choose Yes to confirm the change.

If you can't see the AppData folder, please read the How to fix when you can’t find the AppData folder part in this post carefully.

Fix 2: rebuild the font cache.

1. Open up a Run dialog box by pressing Start +R or through other ways.
2. Type notepad and hit Enter.
3. Copy & paste the content listed below.
4. Click on the X button and choose Save in the pop-up window.
5. Give it a name with the extension of .bat.
6. Click Save.
7. Right click on the .bat file and choose Run as administrator.
8. Wait for the process to complete.

Fix 3: gain necessary permissions.

1. Open Run dialog.
2. Type powershell and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
3. Type Get-acl C:Windowsfontsarial.ttf | Set-Acl -path c:windowsfonts*.* and hit Enter.
4. Type Get-acl C:Windowsfontsarial.ttf | Set-Acl -path c:windowsfonts and hit Enter.
5. Wait for the commands to finish.

Fix 4: repair the Microsoft Office installation.

1. Open up a Run dialog box by pressing Start +R or through other ways.
2. Typecpl and click OK.
3. Look for Microsoft Office from the list in Programs and Features window.
4. Right click on Microsoft Office and choose Change.
5. Choose Yes if there’s a User Account Control window appears.
6. Check Quick Repair under How would you like to repair your Office programs.
7. Click on the Repair button at the bottom and click Repair again in the confirmation window.
8. Wait for the process to complete.

Fix 5: remove the Add-ins.

1. Open the problematic program.
2. Go to File > Options.
3. Select Add-ins from the left-hand side of Word Options.
4. Select Word Add-ins after Manage from the right panel and click Go.
5. Uncheck all the options related to Add-in and click OK.
6. Repeat step 2.
7. Select COM Add-ins from the dropdown list of Manage and click Go.
8. Repeat step 5.
9. Close the program and open the Word file which triggered the previously.
10. If the error doesn't appear, please check the options you unchecked in step 5 and step 8.

Once you can confirm which Add-in causes the error, you should select it in the Add-in menu and click Remove.

Other fixes:

• Turn off the Automatic Spelling Checking and Grammar Check.
• Reset the Registry Entries of Word.
• Run Microsoft Fix-It or Troubleshooting.
• Create SaveZoneInformation policy in Registry Editor.

There Is Insufficient Memory Excel

1. Fix 1: select cells gradually.
2. Fix 2: update drivers & disable hardware graphics acceleration.
3. Fix 3: divide an Excel file into different workbooks.
4. Fix 4: set to manage paging file size automatically.

Fix 1: select cells gradually.

• Please do the same for the following section of cells when you choose only part of the entire range you need to be filled.
• To make sure you won’t reach the limit, please select the last row of the previously filled section when you move on to the latter segments (the second, third, etc.).
• Just repeat this process to reach the end of the selection needed.

Fix 2.

Step 1: update drivers.

1. Open Microsoft Excel.
2. Select File, Account, and Office Update one after another.
3. Click Update Now.
4. Wait for it to complete.

Step 2: disable hardware graphics acceleration.

1. Click File, Options, and Advanced.
2. Look for Display area from the right panel.
3. Uncheck Disable hardware graphics acceleration.
4. Click OK.

Fix 3: divide an Excel file into different workbooks.

It’s a good choice to separate your big Excel files into a few workbooks and then open them in different instances of Excel. This reduces the possibility of getting the error caused by reaching the 2GB limitation for a single workbook.

Fix 4: set to manage paging file size automatically.

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Select System and Security.
3. Click System.
4. Select Advanced system settings from the left sidebar.
5. Keep Advanced tab selected. Click Settings under the Performance area.
6. Shift to Advanced tab.
7. Click Change… under the Virtual memory area.
8. Check Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
9. Click on the OK button in all Windows to confirm changes.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, There is not enough memory or disk space is a common error on Windows. You may probably run into it when opening Word/Excel or other Office programs. The error will also occur suddenly when you’re performing actions in the programs.

In the previous parts, I have covered the possible reasons for leading to the error. Then, I have provided several solutions for fixing it yourself. Please read the above content carefully to solve your problem.

There Is Not Enough Memory or Disk Space FAQ

• Open File Explorer and look at the Devices and drives section.
• Open Disk Management and look at the capacity & free space of each drive.
• Open Settings -> choose System -> go to Storage option -> look at the Storage layout.

Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Symptoms

When you work with a Microsoft Excel file, you receive one of the following messages:

Cause

The above memory error messages can be generic and don't always identify the real cause of the issue. However, if your file is large or contains a large number of features, it is possible you are running low on available memory resources.

Before we explore the more common reasons for the memory errors, it good to understand Excel's limitations. See the following resources for more information:

If you are not hitting a resource limitation, these are the most common resolutions.

Resolution

Follow the provided methods in this article to resolve the available resource error message in Excel. If you have previously tried one of these methods and it did not help, go to another method from this list:

Method 1: Contents of the spreadsheet

The first thing to determine is if the error is specific to one workbook (or others created from the same template). Typical actions that cause memory error messages are:

• Inserting a row or column
• Sorting
• Performing calculations
• Copy and pasting
• Opening or closing the workbook
• Running VBA

If you are seeing the error when performing any of the above actions, it's time to look to determine what is going on in your file. These will be addressed in the sections below.

Calculations

If you are inserting rows and columns, performing calculations, or copying and pasting and receive the message, it can be tied to formulas having to recalculate.

Consider this scenario:

You have a spreadsheet with 1 million formulas on a sheet and you insert a new column. This will force Excel to recalculate all the formulas in the spreadsheet adjusting for the new column that you inserted. It is possible, depending on the complexity of your spreadsheet, bitness of Excel, and how the spreadsheet is built, and what formulas are used, that you receive the out of resources error.

The following articles address how to optimize performance with calculations:

Other Spreadsheet Elements

Other areas that can cause the memory issues are excess shapes, complex PivotTables, macros, and complex charts with many data points. The following article walks through identifying and fixing these issues.

Custom Views in a Shared Workbook

If you are using the feature Shared Workbook (Review Ribbon > Share Workbook), cleaning out the Custom Views may help with available memory. To do this;

1. On the View Ribbon
2. Custom Views on the dialog choose Delete

Deleting Custom Views doesn't delete anything in the spreadsheet, it does delete the print areas, and filters. These can easily be reapplied.

If your issue is not resolved after you clean up the file, go to method 2.

Excel 2008 For Mac Keeps Saying Not Enough Memory Foam

Method 2: Verify/install the latest updates

You might have to set Windows Update to automatically download and install recommended updates. Installing any important, recommended, and optional updates can frequently correct problems by replacing out-of-date files and fixing vulnerabilities. To install the latest Office updates, click the link specific to your version of Windows and follow the steps in that article.

Operating system updates:

Office updates:

For more information about Office updates, see Office downloads & updates.

If your issue is not resolved after you install the updates, go to method 3.

Method 3: Add-ins interfering

Check the Add-ins that are running, and try disabling them to see if Excel is working properly. Follow the directions in the following article to disable the add-ins.

If you find that Excel is no longer giving you the error after you remove the add-ins, then it is recommended to contact the manufacturer of the add-in for support.

If your issue is not resolved after you remove the add-ins, go to method 4.

Method 4: Test disabling Preview/Details Pane in Windows 7

If you are running Windows 7, try disabling the preview and details panes in Windows. You will have to disable them in three locations.

Windows Explorer:

1. Right click on Start button
2. Click Open Windows Explorer
3. Click Organize | Layout
4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane

Excel:

1. Click File | Open
2. Click Organize | Layout
3. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane Outlook:
4. Open a new e-mail
5. In the 'Include' group on the Ribbon, click Attach File
6. Click Organize | Layout
7. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane

Excel 2008 For Mac Keeps Saying Not Enough Memory Upgrade

If your issue is not resolved after you turn off preview and details panes, go to method 5.

Method 5: Test a different Default Printer

When Excel launches, it uses the default printer to help render the file. Try testing with the 'Microsoft XPS Document Writer' as the default printer and see if we continue to get the error. To do this;

1. Close Excel
2. Open the printer and faxes window (XP) or Devices and Printers (Vista, 7, 8, 10)
3. Right-click the 'Microsoft XPS Document Writer' printer
4. Click Set as Default

If your issue is not resolved after you change your default printer, go to method 6.

Method 6: Test without Antivirus

Antivirus can sometimes cause problems by continuously trying to scan the Excel file or something in the file. Many times the memory error will be random and will be found with any spreadsheet. Test this by shutting off the antivirus temporarily, or by not having Excel files scanned. In some cases, the AV will need to be removed.

If your issue is not resolved after you turn off antivirus, go to method 7.

Method 7: Test with 64-bit version of Excel

Working with large Excel files can use the memory available to the 32-bit Excel application. In any 32-bit application there is a 2-GB limitation.

If your processes need to use more than 2 GB's, then you need to carefully consider moving to Microsoft Excel 64-bit version. The 64-bit version will allow all available physical RAM on the machine to be used. If you are interested in researching 64-bit versions, see 64-bit editions of Office 2013.

If your issue is not resolved after testing on 64 bit, go to method 8.

Method 8: Other applications are consuming the computer's memory and not enough is being allocated to Excel

Does the message clear up for some time after you reboot or shut off some of your applications? That's probably a good sign this is your issue, follow the steps to shut down some of the extra applications running on your computer.

More Information

Additional article

If the information in this article did not help resolve the error in Excel, select one of the following options:

• More Microsoft online articles:Perform a search to find more online articles about this specific error
• Help from the Microsoft Community online:Visit the Microsoft Community and post your question about this error
• Contact Microsoft support:Find the phone number to contact Microsoft Support