Error "An unexpected error occurred opening the workbook" Publishing Workbook

Issue

When publishing a workbook or data source with extracted data, the following error might occur:

Unexpected error opening packaged workbook.

Additionally, the following might appear in the Tableau Server log:

Possible ZipBomb detected.

Environment

Tableau Server
Extracted data source

Resolution

Option 1

Simplify the data source before publishing by removing joins or hiding unused fields, especially fields with repeating data, and re-extracting.

Option 2

Change or disable the zipbomb protection threshold.

Confirm that Tableau Server is on a recent version.
Open Command Prompt as an Administrator and navigate to the Tableau Server bin folder.
- Run the tsm configuration set Options. For additional information about option names, see Options in Tableau Help.
- (2018.1 and earlier version of Tableau Server) Run the following commands:
```
tabadmin stop
tabadmin set [option-name value]
tabadmin config
tabadmin start
```

Possible option-name values:

Disable ZipBomb detection: native_api.Zip_Bomb_Detection false
Raise the compression ration threshold: native_api.Max_Allowed_Compression n

Note: n can equal any number, the default is 100, to raise threshold try a higher number such as 200 or 1000.

Raise the threshold for file size checked: native_api.Min_Written_Bytes_Threshold n

Note: n can equal any number, try something such as 10000048576.

Cause

Malware protection is triggered by a data source that contains repeating data or other redundancies. The redundancy leads to a compression ratio which resembles a malware attack.

Additional Information

This issue is typically seen with very large data sources with multiple table joins and/or a large number of null or repeating data.

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