access export to excel large file

Question

access export to excel large file

Roberto Viquez 0

how to export a file that is larger than 65,000 lines from access to excel?

George Hepworth 23,135 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-09T12:50:27.1+00:00

My first question is why do you need to do this? What business problem are you trying to solve? That might make one approach or another more practical.

2 answers

Your answer

George Hepworth 23,135 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-09T12:50:27.1+00:00

My first question is why do you need to do this? What business problem are you trying to solve? That might make one approach or another more practical.

Answer 1

Export the Access table or query as an Excel Workbook (.xlsx), not the legacy Excel 97–2003 (.xls) format: .xlsx supports 1,048,576 rows per worksheet, whereas .xls stops at 65,536 rows.^1^

Export from Access

Close the destination workbook if it is open in Excel.
In Access, select the source table or query in the Navigation Pane.
Select External Data → Export → Excel.
Choose the destination file.
In File Format, select Excel Workbook (*.xlsx).
If you need every row and field, leave Export only the selected records cleared. Exporting a table or query without formatting exports all underlying fields and records.
Select OK and, if requested, save the export steps for reuse.^2^

After opening the workbook, compare its row count with the Access source count to ensure all records were exported. The .xlsx worksheet limit is 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.^3^

Important exceptions

If the source is an Access report: Access can export reports only to the older .xls format. Instead, export the table or query underlying the report to .xlsx.^2^
If there are more than 1,048,576 records: one Excel worksheet cannot contain them all. Split the Access data into multiple queries/worksheets, or export to a text/CSV file and use Excel for Windows Data → From Text/CSV → Load To → PivotTable Report to analyze the complete dataset through Power Query without loading every record onto the worksheet grid.^1^
If .xlsx is unavailable: confirm that the selected object is a table or query rather than a report. Do not use XML export as a workaround; mapped XML export has its own 65,536-row limit.^4^

References

Answer 2

Hi @Roberto Viquez,

To export more than 65,000 rows from Access, export the source table or query to an Excel Workbook (.xlsx):

Select the table or query in Access.
Go to External Data > Excel.
Select Excel Workbook (.xlsx) and complete the export.

User's image

An .xlsx worksheet supports up to 1,048,576 rows. If you are exporting a report, export its underlying table or query instead, because Access reports can only be exported to the older .xls format.

References:

If you receive any error message, or if I've misunderstood your concern, please share a bit more detail about the issue and your scenario in the comments so I can better assist you.

Thank you for taking the time.