Unable to import from older format .xls Excel files

Scenario

An import into IFP from an older Excel format (1997-2003) .xls file no longer works. After selecting the file IFP is unable to determine the sheet names and shows this error:

Importing via an AutoTask results in the following error:

There was a problem while running the AutoTask.
Failed to connect to the source data.
Path : \\path\to\file.xls
Type : Excel, Table: SheetName$
Details:
Unexpected error from external database driver (1).

Cause

A security update from Microsoft (released October 10^th, 2017) affected the driver IFP uses to read these older format files. Read this Microsoft blog post for full details. As an update to that blog post indicates, Microsoft have also released an update that fixes the problem, on 14^th November 2017.

Solution

To confirm this is the issue, open the file in Excel and re-save it in the newer .xlsx (2007-) format and try and import that newer format file instead. This should succeed.

Where the import is via an AutoTask we recommend stepping through the AutoTask, selecting the newer format file at the Select data to import stage and running the import at the Run Data File Import stage (we don't recommend saving the AutoTask with these new settings unless you will need to repeat the import a number of times before your system is patched with the update from Microsoft).

In the short term, re-saving the file as the newer .xlsx will let you continue importing. Systems that are patched up to at least 14^th November 2017 should no longer be experiencing this issue. We will also change to a different driver in a future release of IFP.