Microsoft Office Excel Cannot Access the File 'C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot\Timesheet\App_Data\
Template.Xlsx'

Microsoft Office Excel cannot access the file 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Timesheet\App_Data\Template.xlsx'

Try this:

1. Create the directory

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\Desktop

(for the 32-bit version of Excel/Office on a 64-bit Windows computer) or

C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Desktop

(for a 32-bit version of Office on a 32-bit Windows computer or a 64-bit version of Office on a 64-bit Windows computer).

2. For the Desktop directory, add Full control permissions for the
   relevant user (for example in Win7 & IIS 7 & DefaultAppPool set permissions for user IIS AppPool\DefaultAppPool).

Original post with answer:

• Excel 2007 automation on top of a Windows Server 2008 x64

Microsoft Excel cannot access the file on Windows Server 2012

So I came across this Microsoft Blog. Although this is very weird that why you need to create the Desktop folders but it works. In case the link gets removed see the Answer Below

Resolution
************ ·

A “Desktop” folder seems to be necessary in the “systemprofile” folder in the location C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\ to open an Excel file ·

Create the “Desktop” folder for Windows 2008 Server (x64) under the location C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile ·

And for a 32 bit Windows 2008 Server create the “Desktop” folder under the location C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile ·

After creating the folder the SQL Server jobs should execute successfully

C# Error: Microsoft Excel cannot access the file '...'. There are several possible reasons

Unsupported

The short answer is that trying to programatically manipulate an Excel document using the Automation API is not supported outside of a UI context. You will come across all sorts of frustrations (for example, the API is permitted to show dialogs - how are you going to click on "OK" if it's running on a web-server?).

Microsoft explicitly state this here

Microsoft does not recommend or support server-side Automation of Office.

So what do I use?

I would recommend using the OpenXML SDK - this is free, fully supported and much faster than the Automation API.

Aspose also has a set of products, but they are not free, and I've not used them.

But I HAVE to do it this way

However, if you absolutely have to use the COM API then the following might help you:

HERE BE DRAGONS

The big problem with automation in Excel is that you need to ensure you close every single reference whenever you use them (by calling ReleaseComObject on it).

For example, the following code will cause Excel to stay open:

var range;
range = excelApplication.Range("A1");
range = excelApplication.Range("A2");
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(range)
range = Nothing

This is because there is still a reference left over from the call to get range "A1".

Therefore, I would recommend writing a wrapper around the Excel class so that any access to, e.g., a range frees any previous ranges accessed before accessing the new range.

For reference, here is the code I used to release COM objects in the class I wrote:

Private Sub ReleaseComObject(ByVal o As Object)
    Try
        If Not IsNothing(o) Then
            While System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(o) > 0
                'Wait for COM object to be released.'
            End While
        End If
        o = Nothing
    Catch exc As System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
        LogError(exc) ' Suppress errors thrown here '
    End Try
End Sub

Cannot access excel file

There is a detailed MS knowledge base article titled Considerations for server-side Automation of Office. Some key excerpts:

• User Identity: Office applications assume a user identity when the applications are run, even when Automation starts the
  applications. The applications try to initialize toolbars, menus,
  options, printers, and some add-ins based on settings in the user
  registry hive for the user who launches the application. Many services
  run under accounts that have no user profiles (such as the SYSTEM
  account or the IWAM_[servername] accounts). Therefore, Office may not
  initialize correctly on startup. In this situation, Office returns an
  error on the CreateObject function or the CoCreateInstance function.
  Even if the Office application can be started, other functions may not
  work correctly if no user profile exists.

• Interactivity with the desktop: Office applications assume that they are being run under an interactive desktop. In some
  circumstances, applications may need to be made visible for certain
  Automation functions to work correctly. If an unexpected error occurs,
  or if an unspecified parameter is needed to complete a function,
  Office is designed to prompt the user with a modal dialog box that
  asks the user what the user wants to do. A modal dialog box on a
  non-interactive desktop cannot be dismissed. Therefore, that thread
  stops responding (hangs) indefinitely. Although certain coding
  practices can help reduce the likelihood of this issue, these
  practices cannot prevent the issue entirely. This fact alone makes
  running Office Applications from a server-side environment risky and
  unsupported.

Obviously, as has been pointed out in the comments, using the SYSTEM account is a mistake. You would need to run the service under an account that has a user profile.

But even when you fix that, the other bullet point will kill you. Office applications do indeed assume they are running under an interactive desktop. My advice is to abandon attempting to automate Office from a service. Use a library like Aspose instead. Or run the process on an interactive desktop.

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