Add-in Ribbon won't stay in Excel

[Former Member]

Hi,

I wonder if anybody had similar experience and any solution to this.

Normally the S&OP / IBP ribbon will appear in Excel at launch, on occasion when Excel disabled the Add-in, user can enable it back manually with File / Options / Add-in / Manage - COM Add-in.

For a small number of our users, every time when they open up Excel, the S&OP Add-in ribbon is disabled by default, so they have to go through the path every time to enable it.

Is there a way to make sure the S&OP Add-in button stays enabled at launch of Excel?

Thank you.

Yee Ann

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Yee Ann,

Just saw the same thing with a colleague running Office 2013 on Windows 8.1 - he's the first to experience it here at SAP.

With my colleague we fixed the situation (for now) by switching the load behavior from 0 to 3 in the registry (the installer should set it to 3 - haven't figured out how it became 0 yet). Other tips may be found in note http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1645616.

To modify the registry:

• regedit.exe
• Navigate to path Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\FPMXLClient.Connect
• Right-click on LoadBehavior, select Modify
• Change value from 0 to 3

We'll keep an eye on it to see if we can understand what caused the situation.

Cheers,

Cora

[Krishna1 · Accepted solution]

Very nice fix

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Cora,

I have checked a couple of computers, in some cases,  I couldn't find the file FPMXLClient.Connect from the path that you gave me.

Is it possible that there's a second location where this file can be saved as?

Thank you.

Yee Ann

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Yee Ann,

It probably depends on whether you install for your user or for all users and whether it's a 32-bit or 64-bit Office... Could you try searching the registry for Key FPMXLClient.Connect?

Edit -> Find (or Ctrl+F:)

It needs to be an entry under Excel > Addins (there'll be several more under Word and Powerpoint and Software). But there could be more entries even with Excel > Addins in the path - to be on the safe side, set all their LoadBehaviors to 3.

Cheers,

Cora

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Cora,

I get the below options under Navigate to path Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\

I cannot find FPMXLClient.Connect there.

Am I checking it correctly?

Computer Details:

1. System type: 64-Bit

2. Windows 7 Professional SP1

Regards,

Aditya G

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Aditya,

Are you sure the Add-In is installed?

Kind regards,
Cora

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Cora,

I am using the add-in since > 3 months now, last upgraded on 01.30.2015 to 3.0.2.2. The add-in does not disappear for me but for business users.

Regards,

Aditya G

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Aditya,

And those screen shots are both from your computer or from the business user's? Try looking under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or simply search for FPMXLClient.Connect.

Regards,

Cora

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Cora,

The screenshots are from my computer and from business users (just checked their machines). Cannot find the same under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Tried searching for this "FPMXLClient.Connect", we could find but none had "Load Behavior" under them.

Regards,

Aditya G

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Aditya,

Sorry, I can't make sense of that. At least the computer that works should have this registry entry under the Excel-Add-Ins node somewhere in the registry (might be different, depending on how you installed - current user / all users). If there's no such entry, first of all, the add-in shouldn't be loaded and second a de-install/re-install should create that entry.

Regards,

Cora

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Cora,

I found the FPMXLClient.Connect under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432NODE\MICROSOFT\OFFICE\EXCEL\ADDINS

Should I maintain it here?

Regards,

Aditya G

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Aditya,

If the load behavior has the wrong value, by all means, correct it and see if that solves the issue.

Regards,
Cora

[Former Member]

Hi,

One of our users having similar kind of issue and she has followed the exact steps but it didn't get solve.

The LoadBehavior was already set to 3 under FPMXLClient.Connect and was never 0 but still the IBP icon disables every time.

Please help

[Former Member]

Hi Isita,

Please go to this MobileDocs share and download the document "Troubleshooting IBP Add-In Installation Issues.pdf". Hopefully one of the measures there will fix the issue.

Kind regards,
Cora

[former_member244885]

Hi Cora,

The document you referenced mentions an attached "EPMAddinCleaner.zip" file.

Could you please send that to me?

[Former Member]

Dear Jon,

The issues where left-over registry entries cause trouble have been solved - I haven't had a case where the registry cleaner helped in a long time. What are the symptoms you are seeing?

Cheers,

Cora

[former_member244885]

On our citrix server we uninstalled the add-in, uninstalled Excel 32-bit, installed Excel 64-bit, installed the add-in.  Most, but not all, users are now having to manually enable the add-in with each launch of Excel / EPM through Citrix (File / Options / Add-in / Manage - COM Add-in...).  In comparing the registry of my local (64-bit) EPM installation vs. the registry on the Citrix Server, I'm seeing a lot of discrepancies.

[Former Member]

I've seen issues with uninstalled/reinstalled Excel before. In those cases the issues were caused by left-over registry entries from the previous Excel installation, not left-over registry entries from EPM/IBP. Have you tried using the AddinManager.exe for those users?

[former_member244885]

Yes, we've looked at that.

Our environment is running via Ctirix, so AddinManager/Excel/EPM are only on the Citrix Server.

We seem to be missing Excel\Addins\FPMXLClient registry entries in various locations.

[Former Member]

I understand that - still the AddinManager could give different results, depending which user you use to log on with - just like you get an IBP ribbon for some users...

[former_member244885]

I'm not sure I'm following along.  Are you suggesting that I allow my end users log onto the Citrix server itself, or that I publish the AddinManager to end users?

I'm not sure either are an option.

The root cause of my issue is that the registry is a mess.  If there's an app out there to help with the registry cleanup, I'd love to give it a try.  Do you have a direct link for the cleaner referenced in the PDF?

[Former Member]

That may be my fault, as I don't know much about Citrix...

When you say the registry is a mess, is it the FPMXL* entries  that worry you or the Office entries? What does the registry look like when you uninstall IBP? Because what the EPM registry cleaner does is it cleans up any FPMXL* entries that are left over after the uninstall. It will not clean up anything else and it must not be run while IBP is installed. If that is what you feel you need, I'm happy to send the file to you.

And yes, I was expecting the end users to have access to the AddinManager on their Citrix window - they obviously have access to the IBP installation folder, since they can run the add-in. Can they not access that folder in the Windows Explorer and run it? Maybe with your guidance and just to see if it helps?

[former_member244885]

Excel is published via Citrix, and then Excel has access to its add-in's.  I have FPMXL discrepancies between the version installed on citrix and another installation on my laptop.  There are many FPMXL* discrepancies both Excel and not Excel.  I have hundreds of end users and asking them to run something as technical as AddinManager is not reasonable. 

I need to fix this for all users from the back end.

Please do send me the registry cleaner.

Thanks,

Jon

[Former Member]

I've uploaded it to the "How To" Mobile Docs folder. Please uninstall, call the cleaner, "Scan", and - if it finds anything - select those and click "Clean Registry". If it doesn't find anything, it won't do any cleaning.

[former_member244885]

Thanks!