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Numbers cannot import as file too large

Hello,

has anyone come across this problem before, I am trying to open an xls document (4.9mb) in numbers 08 (v1.0.3) and I get the message "Import error The document can't be imported because it's too large" . Any suggestions as I have never received this message before and I do not have any microsoft programs on my computer. I have an imac OSX v10.5.8


Many thanks for any help that can be offered,


Tim

Posted on Jun 24, 2011 2:53 AM

Reply
11 replies

Jun 24, 2011 2:59 AM in response to wcli

I'm surprised by the described behavior.

Which is the processor of your computer ?

Which is the physical ram installed ?


An interesting tip is to run "Activity monitor" before trying to work with Numbers.

This way, you will be able to track the memory use as well as the HD one.


Of course, you may install one of the free clones of Office. My preferred one is libreOffice.


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) vendredi 24 juin 2011 11:59:33

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.7

Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community


To be the AW6 successor, iWork MUST integrate a TRUE DB, not a list organizer !

Jun 24, 2011 3:55 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Hi Yvan,


2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Activity monitor when I shut everything else down was showing the following free - 182.45MB; wired - 168.3MB; Active - 438.9MB; Inactive - 231.01MB: Used 840.02MB. Still didn't open up when I only had this safari window, numbers, activity monitor and finder window open. Will try downloading open office or libre office as you recommend. Will definitely reconsider upgrading or continuing with iworks if I cannot open the spreadsheets, I do not want numerous programs on my computer for the one time it doesn't open it. I prefer programs/apps that will deal with all the file types that are similar.

Many thanks for your help,

Tim

Jun 24, 2011 6:29 AM in response to wcli

wcli wrote:

(1) 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Activity monitor when I shut everything else down was showing the following free - 182.45MB; wired - 168.3MB; Active - 438.9MB; Inactive - 231.01MB: Used 840.02MB. Still didn't open up when I only had this safari window, numbers, activity monitor and finder window open. Will try downloading open office or libre office as you recommend.


(2) Will definitely reconsider upgrading or continuing with iworks if I cannot open the spreadsheets, I do not want numerous programs on my computer for the one time it doesn't open it. I prefer programs/apps that will deal with all the file types that are similar.


(1) I have no experience with Numbers on a 1 Gbytes machine.

On my 4 Gbytes one I have quite always 3 Gbytes used.

But it's not the Inactive memory which is meaningful, it's the Available one : the one displayed in green.

User uploaded file

(2) Numbers '08 is a frozen app which had problems with its importers. As far as I know, these ones are solved in Numbers '09.

If you wish to know the behavior of the '09 version,

download the iWork '09 trial

Install it

Ask Software Update to apply the available updaters then try to import your Excel file.


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) vendredi 24 juin 2011 15:29:35

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.7

Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community


To be the AW6 successor, iWork MUST integrate a TRUE DB, not a list organizer !

Jun 24, 2011 9:04 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I missed the Jerrold's message.

I hadn't a large Excel file for tests so I tried to create one exporting a 5.8 Mbytes Numbers document.

Alas, I got a 2.5 Mbytes file.

I replicated several times the main table.

So I got an XL file of 10 Mbytes.

When I opened it in Numbers, the used space was 374 Mbytes + 362 Mbytes of virtual memory.


Maybe it's the second value which may be a problem.


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) vendredi 24 juin 2011 18:04:10

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.7

Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community


To be the AW6 successor, iWork MUST integrate a TRUE DB, not a list organizer !

Apr 5, 2012 10:12 AM in response to wcli

Well Its 3/4 of a year later than the start of this post and I am here with the same issue. Docuyment too large.


But I do not think it is a memory issue.


I have a 2.6 Mb .csv file (with periods for decimal places).

I have 186Mb of free memory available with numbers open (but what the heII are these Safari Web content and QuickLook helper thingies hogging up so much memory?)


It wont open that file.


However it did open a 1.9Mb file. However it warned me that it chopped off anything outside of the 255 column limit and the 65535 row limit. the file had 14000 rows and 30 columns.


So in reality it didnt chop off anything. I suspect that whatever is making Numbers think the spreadsheet was too big on the smaller file, is making the first file fail altogether.


Any ideas?

Apr 5, 2012 10:14 AM in response to Shandor

May you send the csv file to my mailbox (click my bluename to get my address) ?

The late time someone described this behavior, there was a problem linked to the csv file.


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 5 avril 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

Apr 5, 2012 1:41 PM in response to Shandor

As I wrote in the message which I sent you, here the file opens flawlessly but I have 12 Gbytes of RAM in my iMac.

Drag & drop a csv file in a Numbers document was already described. It behaves wrongly on French systems.


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 5 avril 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

Numbers cannot import as file too large

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