From the Maximo Support Desk - Avoid The "Out of Memory" Error When Downloading Maximo Table Data To Excel

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"Wait, what? You're using Excel with Maximo?"

Don't tell anyone else, but our clients are using applications in their everyday work that are not IBM products!  Yes, I know, as unbelievable as this sounds, it's true.  On a more serious note, I just wanted to give a tip on how to resolve a relatively harmless issue that appears to some Maximo users that I talk to.  If you're reading this, then you might already know that there is a Download function in many Maximo applications that allows you to create an Excel spreadsheet from your current table query results on the List tab.  That's good.  Sometimes, you might see an error message that indicates, "Out of Memory", when you use this Download function.  That's not as good.

As with many other functionalities in Maximo, you can configure the options and properties for this.  The summary, and resolution, in this case is that you can change or limit the number of records that can be downloaded to Excel from a List Tab query.  Yay, Maximo!  Here's all you need to do to avoid memory errors, and ensure that you're not downloading more rows than Excel can handle, either.  

Perform the following steps to configure:
1. Go To System Configuration | Platform Configuration | System Properties
2. In the Global Properties section click Filter
3. In the Property Name field enter "webclient.maxdownloadrows" and press Enter
4. Expand the details for the webclient.maxdownloadrows property
5. In the Global Value field enter the desired number of rows
6. Save the record
7. Click the checkbox for the row (webclient.maxdownloadrows) to select it
8. In the Select Action field click the drop-down arrow and then click Live Refresh
9. Click OK

NOTE: The default behavior of Maximo is to download ALL data rows in the table.  In the System Properties application the default value appears as "-1"; this is not a literal value.  If the value of "-1" is applied in the System Properties application as described below, the result will be that ALL data rows in the current table will be downloaded.  It's also important to note that the number of rows that get downloaded will also be limited by the Excel application.  (Excel is not an IBM product)

There is a more straightforward, knowledge-base document that has been published, which might be useful if you just want to forward the URL to your struggling co-worker who has encountered this error.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21684803

Tom Richardson is an IBM Maximo Support Engineer and frequent contributor to the Asset Management Blog community.  For a complete index of links to his articles, visit
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