I have a pretty simple file now that was built on a basis of an old complex file with a lot of links. In this testing file, Alpha (link) there is only 1 value, which refers via formula to 1 value of another workbook. The second workbook (Beta) (link) is completely new, except I added there one value.
Issue: when I'm opening workbook Alpha, I have a lot of popups that appear after the button in "Update links" window was clicked, or when I trigger "Enable Content". Popups like this (screen 1, screen 2) with links to other strange old workbooks and with old paths. I can't understand where should I start searching for reasons of this if I already broke all links in the workbook Alpha, which were there, cleaned up all macro were contained, and have only one link to a fresh workbook Beta (which have no connection with links you can see in popups).
Thank you for taking a look.
Some links are hard to find. They can be in formulas, conditional formatting, named ranges, etc.
If you want to speed up the search, you may want to use a 3rd party tool. Long-time Excel MVP Bill Manville wrote a VBA add-in that finds links in the worbook. It's available for free here: https://www.manville.org.uk/software/findlink.htm
It has saved me hours of time in many situations.
Finally, after all those weeks I've found out the answer: the reason was in hidden names, which you can't see through the usual Name Manager. I've found them and removed via Document Inspector (images):
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The problem
I have eight Excel documents that are stored on a Sharepoint site. One of those documents (“receiving file”) contains formulas/cell references to the other seven documents (“source files”) on Sharepoint.
Everything works when the references are created.
Once the workbooks are saved and closed and then reopened, the receiving file no longer updates the values from the source files.
The files are synced in Windows Explorer and opened in the desktop version of Excel. Also, all eight files are opened at the same time.
The reference will first look something like this
='[Source file.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A$1
After closing and reopening, the references will look like this
='https://somecompanyname.sharepoint.com/sites/SitefortestingExcelreferences/Shared Documents/[Source file.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A$1
If I now change a value in the source value, the change will not appear in the receiving file.
What I tried so far
Setting “Calculation” to “Automatic.
Click “Calculate Now” and “Calculate Sheet”.
Double-click into the cell with the reference and hit enter.
In “Data > Queries & Connections” click “Refresh all”
In “Data > Queries & Connections > Edit Link” I clicked on update values. It did not help. However, I tried to rebuild a simple system with just two files and a single reference, and here it did work
Starting from point 5) I programmed a little macro that updates all links in all open workbooks (it did not help either):
Option Explicit
Sub UpdateAllConnections()
Dim wbWorkbook As Workbook
For Each wbWorkbook In Application.Workbooks
wbWorkbook.UpdateLink Name:=wbWorkbook.LinkSources, Type:=xlExcelLinks
Next wbWorkbook
MsgBox "Update complete.", vbInformation, "Complete"
End Sub
If I remove the path to SharePoint, so the formula looks like this
='[Source file.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A$1
It works again (until I save and reopen).
I found the following on Microsoft Answers (about OneDrive but it's probably the same issue):
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/excel-value-links-not-updating-on-onedrive/e48a7680-71e6-4a77-9eb1-e03ec7f0e3e0
I contacted the official O365 support desk and they told me this is built into the connection between Excel and OneDrive.
They have received thousands of complaints and there is no fix for it.
No option to tell Excel/Office/OneDrive to link to local copies of files on 1D by default.
No fix is planned as this is not how MS envisions how Excel/1D should be used.
My question
Any suggestions? Are there any tools in Excel that can be used to update the linked cells automatically or manually? Might SharePoint settings prevent the update?
If not, since removing the file path to SharePoint seems to work is there a way (using VBA) to remove the full file path from all cell references, so
='https://somecompanyname.sharepoint.com/sites/SitefortestingExcelreferences/Shared Documents/[Source file.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A$1
becomes
='[Source file.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A$1
I could probably loop through all cells and simply replace the path with nothing, but that would only work if I know the file path beforehand and if all the files are stored in the same SharePoint folder.
I had the same issue and here is my workaround: I can open the source file on the Sharepoint site by clicking ... and then Open in App (as opposed to Open in Browser) The referecence cell in the receiving file will become ='[Source file.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A$1 again and get automatically updated.
My workaround would be to consolidate external links onto a single sheet, and manually or use a macro to copy / hard paste to another identical page that you use for the links.
Just run the macro when you have the workbook open on your desktop to update the values.
Even simpler, you could also have a sort of database with linked values in a column and hard copies pasted into another column. This would be simpler than two identically sized sheets.
BUT, you could also go crazy and have named ranges like quarterly_total_formula and an analogue somewhere else called quarterly_total_valueonly and then write a macro to iterate over each with a for each looking for things "LIKE" *_formula and hard paste each result into the complementary *_valueonly spot... but then you'd need a macro to check that they were all paired... and by that point you might as well not waste your time in Excel and develop in Power BI, Tableau, RMarkdown, or heck learn Adobe Illustrator or work directly in HTML.
I have an Excel file on SharePoint.
Multiple people edit said file.
Offline and online.
Excel unfills all calculated cells (VLOOKUP and MATCH) that depend on other sheets in the same workbook at random.
So if you would open or reload that file, suddenly all the cells that use VLOOKUP or MATCH would be blank.
Upon further investigation nobody changed anything or deleted anything.
It just happens randomly.
Now it has happened 2 weeks ago and just today.
I have an interim solution that is to go to a cell with a formula, hit return, then click „overwrite all cells in this column with this formula“ and then click undo to prevent custom cell content to be overwritten.
Everything is back to normal afterwards.
I talked to a colleague, he has the exact same issue also totally at random.
He also encountered this on files that are not being edited by multiple people but himself.
So it is not dependent on the file itself.
Could the language play into this problem?
On some PCs Excel is in English and on some in German.
=IFERROR(IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(D185,Sheet1!$B$3:$D$616,3,FALSE)),(VLOOKUP(D185,'Sheet2'!$B$3:$D$22200,3,FALSE)),(VLOOKUP(D185,Sheet1!$B$3:$D$616,3,FALSE))),"")
Seems like your sheet isn't calculating upon open. See if this link is of use to you.
https://superuser.com/questions/448376/what-is-the-excel-hotkey-to-re-calculate-all-formula-in-sheet
Also check your program settings and see if auto-calculate sheets is enabled. Don't know from the top of my head where it is located.
Alternative create a small vba function to force recalculate on workbook open.
Getting Excel to refresh data on sheet from within VBA
My question is about issues with linked formulae in Excel spreadsheets.
I have a complicated structure of linked Excel Spreadsheets updated each month for Financial reporting.
The problem I have is that I will often update the values in source files. The links feed through correctly. Then I save all the files with the updated values in source and target files.
The problem arises when I reopen the files at a later time Excel forgets the revised figures. Then I need to go back and open the source files to make it pick up the new values again.
This problem is getting worse and worse, happening more and more for no apparent reason.I seem to spend half my time re-opening source files to update the linked values.
It seems like the Internal Table that Excel keeps for links is remembering old values and not saving the new one ones when I update the table.
So my question is this - how do I stop Excel doing this, how do I force it to remember the new linked values when they change in the source sheet and stop it from reverting to previous remembered values ?
To be clear, every time I do this I save everything in sight, but it makes no difference.
I have also tried to relinking to a different copy of a file and then linking back. This works sometimes, but not always.
If you're not getting this warning every time you open the 'target' workbook:
...then there's a good chance the problem is that, at some point, automatic update of external links was disabled.
To re-enable it:
On the Data tab, in the Connections group, click Edit Links
Click the Startup Prompt button
Choose the 1st or 3rd option.
Close & save all open workbooks and try it again.
If you chose the third option in step 3, all links should update automatically.
If you chose the first option in step 3, you will be asked if you want to update the links.
More Information:
Office.com : Control when external references (links) are updated
(edited a day later - see end)
Not sure what's happening here but it's occurring in a few workbooks I'm working with. Over time additional "Phantom" worksheets (or workbooks) appear as shown in the picture. Sheet13, Sheet14, Sheet15 etc are Phantoms and I have no idea how to get rid of them.
What I've tried so far:
1) Searching Google/Stackoverflow no joy but could be a terminology problem
2) Created SUBS to loop through ALL worksheets and workbooks but the only things it finds are the single workbook and the legitimate worksheets.
3) Creating code within one of the phantoms, which is possible. I created a simple SUB on workbook open within Sheet13 to return the name of the sheet or workbook, but no matter what code is there I get
Run Time Error '429':
ActiveX component can't create object
4) Changing properties on the phantoms. The properties for each phantom exactly mirror each other and mirror ThisWorkbook. If I make a change to one, say KeepChangeHistory to False, this is mirrored in ALL phantoms and ThisWorkbook. If I make the change back to True in another phantom, again ALL phantoms and ThisWorkbook are updated.
5) Checked links (greyed out). Tried F5 -> special -> objects "No Objects found".
I've basically tried everything I can think of and searched the internet over the past week before posting this here, as a last resort.
Does anyone have ANY idea what could be causing this (I'm leaning towards some bad object handling somewhere), but also HOW to remove them completely so the only things listed are the actual, real, worksheets?
Thanks for reading.
edit
It affects more than just this workbook (it's happening in 3 different workbooks), it is also getting worse over time. I have saved archived versions of all workbooks. If I go back a month, there are 2 "phantoms", if I go back 2 weeks there are 8 "phantoms" and if I look at one from just last week there are 13 "phantoms". This is one of the reasons I'm assume some poor object handling, likely related to ThisWorkbook is going on. Anyway, I'm going to take Rory's advice and create a new Workbook with NO phantoms and try and figure it out from there. Just want to thank Rory and Mark for taking the time to respond with ideas, it is appreciated.
Well, I guess the simplest answers are the best. What I didn't mention in the question is that each workbook I've worked on that has this problem is uploaded to a 3rd party application, which is, in turn, sent to a second 3rd party application (bespoke apps written by others).
The second application creates 1 or 2 of these "phantoms". I choose to work slightly differently to other developers and I actually use the output from the second application to make changes/fixes, then format that workbook and reupload to application one.
Over time, more and more "phantoms" appear, 1 or 2 per run through this process.
In the end, absolutely nothing to do with Excel, poor code (at least mine!), badly handled objects or anything else.
Thanks again to Rory and Mark for attempting to help. Maybe next time I'll actually start with the mindset of "I'm sure this ISN'T my fault!" and go from there!
I had exactly the same problem. I was reaching the Sheet41111. I used the option Book Inspection in the Information Menu, then I selected remove hidden objects and it luckily worked.
See the image attached, my excel is in Spanish so maybe the option is not really called "Book inspection" in the English version.
Hope it is useful
Pd- Unhide the legitimate sheets because it will delete all hidden sheets. I suggest trying it in a copy of the book. enter image description here enter image description here
I have a presentation used for our new employee orientation that lists when specific forms are due. For example, Health Insurance form must be turned in 60 days from hire date. I would like the date to automatically update to be 60 days from the current date each time the presentation is ran.
I currently have a text box linked to an Excel spreadsheet which has a formula =NOW()+60. This works great, but it still does not update unless you first double click on the text box to activate/open the Excel spreadsheet, which then refreshes to the current date and updates the correct future date.
This is not a workable solution however because in the first place there are about 6 different instances (embedded in over 100 slides) of these future dates that need to be double clicked and updated, and in the second place, I am not running the presentation myself, but instead a subject matter expert is, who is NOT technically savvy enough to even double-click text boxes to force a refresh.
I am hoping find code that would either insert a future date automatically directly into the PowerPoint text box -or- open and refresh the linked Excel objects each time the PowerPoint is opened.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
If you have to doubleclick to get the formula to refresh, it seems likely that the spreadsheet is embedded, not linked. If you link the info instead, you'd only need to open the Excel file and save again to force the date to change, then open the PPT, which'd see the updated Excel file and update the links.
PPT will open/close Excel once per link; if you have lots of links, this can be quite time-consuming, but for six instances, I doubt it'd be bad.
This could also be done in code, but then you'd need to turn it the code into an add-in and install it on the end-user's PC to give them a one-click solution. If they can't be trusted to doubleclick the dates to update them, I'm not sure you'd want to teach them how to run macros embedded in the presentation itself. If creating an add-in is a possibility, give a shout and I'll make a couple suggestions on how you could do the coding.