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Dacrim's avatar
Dacrim
Copper Contributor
Jan 03, 2026

STOCKHISTORY function

The STOCKHISTORY function intermittently returns #CONNECT! errors in Microsoft Excel 365. The same formulas sometimes return valid historical monetary data and other times return #CONNECT! without any changes to the workbook. Recalculating, refreshing, or reopening Excel may temporarily resolve the issue. The problem affects multiple symbols simultaneously, suggesting a service-side or backend problem rather than a formula syntax issue. Example formula: STOCKHISTORY("EUR/USD", start_date, end_date). Is this a known issue or a service degradation? Are there any recommended workarounds? Is there any known issue preventing access from Spain or Office 365 accounts? It was working without problems until two days ago.

 

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1 Reply

  • Surya_Narayana's avatar
    Surya_Narayana
    MCT
    Jan 07, 2026

    hi Dacrim​ You’re definitely not the only one seeing this. When STOCKHISTORY returns #CONNECT! intermittently across multiple symbols, it usually points to a temporary connectivity or backend data service issue, rather than anything wrong with the formula or workbook.

    The fact that:

    • the same formulas sometimes work and sometimes fail,
    • multiple symbols are affected at the same time, and
    • reopening or recalculating Excel temporarily resolves it,

    strongly suggests that Excel is having trouble reaching the underlying market data service at certain times.

    There doesn’t appear to be any known restriction related to Spain or specific Microsoft 365 account types. If it was working fine until a couple of days ago, this is most likely a service-side degradation or throttling rather than a regional or licensing problem.

    Workarounds that may help in the short term:

    • Force a full refresh (Ctrl + Alt + F5)
    • Switch calculation to Manual and back to Automatic
    • Split large date ranges into smaller STOCKHISTORY calls
    • Use IFERROR to handle temporary failures gracefully

     

    Retry via helper cell logic

    You can wrap STOCKHISTORY in an IFERROR that retries or falls back:

    =LET(

        result, IFERROR(STOCKHISTORY("EUR/USD", start_date, end_date), ""),

        IF(result="", "RETRY", result)

    )

    Then trigger a refresh manually or via a macro.

    Manual refresh strategy

    • Select the range
    • Press Ctrl+Alt+F5 (requery external connections)
    • Or toggle calculation mode (Manual → Automatic)
      These sometimes force a fresh service call.

    Split calls into smaller date ranges

    If the service is occasionally overloaded, shorter ranges reduce the request size.

    Example:

    • Instead of one big range, break:
      • Jan–Mar
      • Apr–Jun
      • etc.

    This often helps stabilize intermittent backend timeouts.

     

    If the issue persists, it may be worth raising a support ticket and including the timeframe when the errors started, since that can help Microsoft correlate it with any backend service events.

    Hopefully this stabilizes soon, the formulas themselves look fine.

     

     

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