Troubleshooting: Excel
Excel keeps crashing
If Excel is continuously crashing, try the following. After each, check if the issue is resolved.
- Run Excel in safe mode: press and hold Ctrl when starting the program, holding until you are prompted to start in safe mode. Alternatively, open Windows' Run tool and type "excel.exe /safe". Click OK.
- Disable graphics acceleration: in Excel, click File > Options > Advanced. Scroll down to Display Settings and check the box by Disable Graphics Acceleration. Click OK and restart Excel.
- Uninstall and re-install Excel.
Excel file won't open
If you're having issues opening files in Excel, try the following. After each, check if the issue is resolved.
- Open Excel and go to File > Options > Advanced. Under the General header, uncheck the box by "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)", and click OK.
- Repair Microsoft Office: on a PC, right-click Start and go to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall Programs. Select Microsoft Office and click Change. Click Online Repair, then Repair. Restart your computer.
- If the file is corrupted or you suspect it is: open Excel and click File > Open. Navigate to the folder that contains the corrupted file and select it. Click the arrow next to Open and click Open and Repair. Choose Repair to recover as much of your data as possible.
Excel keeps freezing
If Excel is continuously freezing, try the following. After each, check if the issue is resolved.
- Run Excel in safe mode: press and hold Ctrl when starting the program, holding until you are prompted to start in safe mode. Alternatively, open Windows' Run tool and type "excel.exe /safe". Click OK.
- Restart your computer if you haven't done so since Excel started freezing.
- Close all applications that you don't currently need (e.g. internet browsers, music applications, MS Word).
Excel files not saving
If you are having issues saving Excel files, try the following. After each, check if the issue is resolved.
- Try saving the file under a new file name.
- Try saving the file as a different Excel file type. Go to File > Save As. Select a different file format from the Save as Type list. If you are using Excel 2007 or later, try .xlsx or .xlsm instead of .xls.
- Try saving your workbook to a different location, e.g. a local hard drive or network drive.
If the previous steps do not help, try moving the worksheets to a new workbook:
- Add a new placeholder sheet to your current workbook. (You will need this because there needs to be at least one sheet left after moving your all sheets to another workbook.)
- Group all the worksheets you want to transfer. You can do this by selecting the first worksheet, holding Shift, and selecting the last worksheet, excluding the placeholder.
- Right-click the selected sheets and click Move or copy.
- In the To Book list, select (New Book). Click OK.
Updated 9 months ago