Can't close Excel completely using win32com on Python

Question

This is my code, and I found many answers for VBA, .NET framework and is pretty strange. When I execute this, Excel closes.

from win32com.client import DispatchEx
excel = DispatchEx('Excel.Application')
wbs = excel.Workbooks
wbs.Close()
excel.Quit()
wbs = None
excel = None # <-- Excel Closes here

But when I do the following, it does not close.

excel = DispatchEx('Excel.Application')
wbs = excel.Workbooks
wb = wbs.Open('D:\\Xaguar\\A1.xlsm')
wb.Close(False)
wbs.Close()
excel.Quit()
wb = None
wbs = None
excel = None  # <-- NOT Closing !!!

I found some possible answer in Stack Overflow question Excel process remains open after interop; traditional method not working. The problem is that is not Python, and I don't find Marshal.ReleaseComObject and GC. I looked over all the demos on ...site-packages/win32com and others.

Even it does not bother me if I can just get the PID and kill it.

I found a workaround in Kill process based on window name (win32).

May be not the proper way, but a workround is:

def close_excel_by_force(excel):
    import win32process
    import win32gui
    import win32api
    import win32con

    # Get the window's process id's
    hwnd = excel.Hwnd
    t, p = win32process.GetWindowThreadProcessId(hwnd)
    # Ask window nicely to close
    win32gui.PostMessage(hwnd, win32con.WM_CLOSE, 0, 0)
    # Allow some time for app to close
    time.sleep(10)
    # If the application didn't close, force close
    try:
        handle = win32api.OpenProcess(win32con.PROCESS_TERMINATE, 0, p)
        if handle:
            win32api.TerminateProcess(handle, 0)
            win32api.CloseHandle(handle)
    except:
        pass

excel = DispatchEx('Excel.Application')
wbs = excel.Workbooks
wb = wbs.Open('D:\\Xaguar\\A1.xlsm')
wb.Close(False)
wbs.Close()
excel.Quit()
wb = None
wbs = None
close_excel_by_force(excel) # <--- YOU #@#$# DIEEEEE!! DIEEEE!!!

Try adding the line `excel.DisplayAlerts = False` before the call to `wbs.Open(...)` and see if that helps. — srgerg, Apr 19 '12 at 03:41
The quicker, cleaner, easier answer is here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18421814 — Tom, Feb 08 '18 at 16:15
Force closing the Excel process is not a good idea, since the user might have other Excel files open that they do not want closed. — Chris Collett, Mar 15 '22 at 13:10

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 18 '13 at 13:25

13

Try this:

wbs.Close()
excel.Quit()
del excel # this line removed it from task manager in my case

answered Nov 18 '13 at 13:25

ROJI

131
1
5

1

del excel does not remove the Excel process from the task manager – Heetola May 26 '15 at 14:16
Try changing wbs.Close() to wbs.Close(False) to close the workbook without saving. – Jonathan Kunze Mar 31 '17 at 16:30
This is going to close **all** open workbooks, even ones your application didn't open. Try [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/71499881/10792235) instead. – Chris Collett Mar 16 '22 at 15:32

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 19 '20 at 17:13

What worked for me was making sure to de-reference any variables that you assigned along the way like so:

import win32com.client as win32

fileDirectory = 'Hello World.xlsx'

#excelFile = win32.Dispatch('Excel.Application')
excelFile = win32.gencache.EnsureDispatch('Excel.Application')

excelFile.Visible = True
excelFile.DisplayAlerts = True

wb = excelFile.Workbooks.Open(fileDirectory)
ws = wb.Sheets("Sell")

ws.Range("D1").Value = "Hello World!"
ws = None

wb.Close(False)
wb = None

excelFile.Quit()
excelFile = None

It worked with either Dispatch format.

Paul · Answer 3 · 2022-08-27T16:27:47.523

I have found that killing an Excel process through win32com is not always that reliable. These include excel.Application.Quit(), and del excel as suggested above.

I found the only way to make sure it is dead is to physically kill the EXCEL.EXE process:

import psutil

def kill_excel():
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
        if proc.name() == "EXCEL.EXE":
            proc.kill()

Downside is that this script will obviously kill all excel process currently running. IF you can live with this, then this is not a bad option.

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 15 '12 at 19:36

3

I have this in my files that use Excel:

self.excel.Application.Quit()

edited Nov 15 '12 at 19:36

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Aug 07 '12 at 16:33

Aaron S

711
2
10
23

2

and are you using DispatchEx, or Dispatch, and it really close or keeps running? because in fact when I close it seems to be closed but, it keeps alive when i see the task manager – sacabuche Aug 08 '12 at 17:42
Oops sorry about that. I'm using EnsureDispatch which might make the difference. It's totally closed afterwards. – Aaron S Aug 08 '12 at 18:54

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 09 '20 at 06:06

Python should handle the lifecycle of the COM object. Just set excel = None. See this for reference:

# CH9 says: Python manages COM lifetimes automatically for you; when your excel 
#           variable is no longer used, Excel automatically closes. In Python,
#           the simplest way to remove this variable is to assign it to another 
#           value. If you use the following code, notice that Excel vanishes 
#           from the screen; it knows there are no longer any programs referring to it.

src:

http://www.icodeguru.com/WebServer/Python-Programming-on-Win32/ch05.htm#:~:text=xl%20=%20None

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 01 '22 at 03:13

2

To any newcomer from search engine:

In my trial, this answer says right Python should handle the lifecycle of the COM object... . Just set excel = None and the Excel.exe PID will be closed automatically now or after a while. If you still find the Excel.exe existing for a long time, call python gc collect.

import gc
gc.collect()

answered Apr 01 '22 at 03:13

Kn.Bk

21
4

the only thing that works so far, thanks! – nmz787 Nov 15 '22 at 21:28

Chris Collett · Answer 7 · 2023-02-22T21:58:10.470

Most of the other answers leverage killing Excel entirely. Problem is, this will close any other instance of Excel that might have been opened.

To get the workbook you opened to actually close, you need to close and delete your workbook (return value from excel.Workbooks.Open).

import win32com.client

excel = win32com.client.Dispatch('Excel.Application')
workbook = excel.Workbooks.Open(r'your\excel\file.xlsm')
# Do whatever you need to with the workbook
workbook.Close(False)  # or workbook.Close(True) if you want to save it
del(workbook)

This can be wrapped up in a try ... except ... block to ensure that it gets closed even if there was an error. For example...

import win32com.client
import logging

excel = win32com.client.Dispatch('Excel.Application')
workbook = excel.Workbooks.Open(r'your\excel\file.xlsm')
try:
    some_function_to_use_workbook(workbook)
    workbook.close(True)
except Exception as error:
    logging.error(error)
    workbook.close(False)
finally:
    del(workbook)

If for whatever reason you REALLY need to kill Excel and close all open workbooks, then you'll need to force close all workbooks, quit the application and delete the excel object.

import win32com.client

excel = win32com.client.Dispatch('Excel.Application')
workbook = excel.Workbooks.Open(r'your\excel\file.xlsm')
# Do whatever you need to with the workbook
workbook.Close(False)
del(workbook)
excel.Workbooks.Close()
excel.Application.Quit()
del(excel)

Tyler · Answer 8 · 2023-03-27T09:35:03.363

After numerous failed attempts, this is the method that finally worked for me:

import pythoncom, win32com.client, psutil

# For testing purposes, choose whether the Excel process will stay open or not.
method = 'good'

# Start and stop Excel instance.
if method == 'bad':
    excel = win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch('Excel.Application')
    excel.Application.Quit()
elif method == 'good':
    pythoncom.CoInitialize()
    excel = win32com.client.dynamic.Dispatch('Excel.Application')
    excel.Application.Quit()
    excel = None
    pythoncom.CoUninitialize()

# Check if Excel is still open, and if so, give the option to close it.
for proc in psutil.process_iter():
    if any(procstr in proc.name() for procstr in ['EXCEL']):
        print(
            'Excel process found. Close?\n[Y/N]: ',
            end=''
        )

        answer = input()

        if answer.lower() == 'y' or answer.lower() == 'yes':
            for proc in psutil.process_iter():
                if any(procstr in proc.name() for procstr in ['EXCEL']):
                    proc.kill()
        else:
            quit()

I haven't tested this script with Workbooks but my understanding is that you'll also need to close and set them equal to None before excel.Application.Quit() is called.

Can't close Excel completely using win32com on Python

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