Why am I getting a file format error when opening ADAudit Plus Excel reports?
Issue description
Prerequisites
ADAudit Plus is configured to send scheduled reports in XLSX format.
A valid email recipient is configured for the report.
The receiving system has Microsoft Excel installed.
Possible causes
- The ADAudit Plus service account does not have permission to write to the temporary file path used during report generation.
- By default, the application writes to C:\Windows\Temp, and access issues in this directory may result in incomplete or corrupted Excel files.
In the serverout.txt log file, you may see:
Error: The specified file path not found
This helps confirm the issue is due to inaccessible or un-writable temp paths.
Resolution
Option 1: Grant full control to the service account over C:\Windows\Temp on the server where ADAudit Plus is installed
- Navigate to C:\Windows\Temp.
- Right-click and go to Properties > Security.
Grant Full Control to the ADAudit Plus service account.
Restart the ManageEngine ADAudit Plus service.
If you prefer not to modify C:\Windows\Temp permissions, proceed to option 2.
Option 2: Configure a custom Java temporary directory
Step 1: Edit the wrapper.conf file
- Go to:
<installation directory>\ADAudit Plus\conf Locate and open wrapper.conf (create a backup of the wrapper file first).
Search for the -Djava.io.tmpdir property.
If found:
Change the value to use a custom directory:
-Djava.io.tmpdir=../temp
This creates a temp folder inside the installation directory.
If not found:
Add the line manually under the # Java Additional Parameters section:
wrapper.java.additional.26=-Djava.io.tmpdir=../temp
Ensure the number 26 follows sequentially after the last parameter in the file.
Step 2: Apply permissions
- Create the temp folder in the ADAudit Plus installation directory if it doesn’t already exist.
- Grant Full Control to the ADAudit Plus service account on this folder.
Step 3: Restart the service
- Open services.msc.
- Locate the ManageEngine ADAudit Plus Service.
Right-click it and select Restart.
Once restarted, scheduled reports should generate correctly and open without Excel file format errors.
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