No Intelligent Life: SharePoint Datasheet View Error - "The selected cells are read-only"

Saturday, May 16, 2009

SharePoint Datasheet View Error - "The selected cells are read-only"

The other day when editing a list in the datasheet view in MOSS 2007 I got "The selected cells are read-only" error. I found a few posts that indicated that not all of a lists data types are supported in datasheet view, but that wasn't my problem because I only had single line text, number and currency data types.

The problem was that I needed folders in my list and although I could edit the datasheet at the root level, I got the read-only error whenever I tried to edit the datasheet within a folder.

On one of my VPC images I had no problems and then I spotted the little Access icon in the top left hand corner of the datasheet. Comparing this to the VPC image where I was getting the error I noticed that the Access icon was missing. On this VPC Office 2007 was installed EXCEPT for Access. So I just installed Access and the error went away.

Please note that the datasheet view does require the Office Web Components to be installed on the CLIENTS for datasheet view to work at all. What I haven't checked yet is whether clients needs Access 2007 in order to edit cells when in a folder of a list. When I find out I'll update this post.

7 comments:

riddy22 said...: Thanx.
Exactly what i'm looking for...; September 11, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Unknown said...: Hi

My problem was duw to multiline text box.
i.e.
Enhanced rich text (Rich text with pictures, tables, and hyperlinks)

When I changed this to Rich text (Bold, italics, text alignment) it started working.

Regards,
Neeraj; January 27, 2010 at 5:02 AM
Yogesh Ghare said...: HI,

This could also happen if you have selected "Require content approval for submitted items?" to "Yes".
in list setting page.

Thanks,
Yogesh Ghare; May 6, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Unknown said...: Thank you!!! I've been looking at this issue for hours.; July 16, 2010 at 7:08 PM
Caty said...: Brilliant!
I had Access installed, but I had not opened it beffore so it needed to do some extra configurating.
After ininializing Access and re-opening the browser session I was able to enter datata in the Title field which was previously locked.
Thanks!; January 25, 2012 at 1:45 PM
ruth said...: Permissions can cause this too.

My ADMIN account has Full Control permissions and the datasheet works fine.

A normal user has Full Control inside a folder and the datasheet view doesn't work.
Turns out the users need basic list permissions (I created a new permissions level) set at list level only to be able to edit AND add new rows in a datasheet.; May 3, 2012 at 11:17 AM
A.R.Ebhi said...: Apparently, Microsoft came up with a solution with a Hotfix for Office SP3.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598128

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598126; February 28, 2013 at 2:39 PM