Hi,I don't know if anybody else has ever seen this issue, I've been an Excel user for 20+ years and it's the first time - I literally sat and watched Excel automatically undo all of my changes for the last 15 minutes (as if I had Ctrl + Z stuck down) over all 5 spreadsheets I had open. I didn't save afterwards, and when I reopened, the file came back correctly as if the undos had never happened.It happened directly after I accidentally created a circular reference, which I tried to correct by right clicking, and hitting paste special values.I'm subscribed to Microsoft 365 - Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2206 Build 16.0.15330.20260) 64-bit.Any/all insights would be much appreciated.Thanks,Helena

HelenaDavidson exactly the same thing has just happened to me. It was more of an issue for me because this was an "auto-save" SharePoint file, so I couldn't just elect to not save it. I also had problems with restoring a previous version (error message along the lines of I needed to save unsaved changes first. I saved it, closed it, re-opened it and tried to restore again but same message). In the end, I went back to an earlier copy with a different name and re-started from there. I was able to reproduce the behaviour by repeating the amendments but eventually cleared it by saving a fresh copy immediately before taking the action that caused the circular reference, which I then resolved, like you, by pasting values. The other feature I noticed, after the repetitive "Undo" of all my work, was that some formulae had not re-calculated (I had to go into editing the formula and press enter before it re-calculated). All very mysterious and presumably a subtle bug within Excel. Sadly, no one else seems to have encountered it yet, so little chance of a fix but truly very scary! Like you, I'm a very experienced user of Excel and I'm sure it wasn't just a silly mistake by me. The only thing remotely like it I've ever experienced is when Windows decided that it thought I was repeatedly pressing the down arrow key, which was only recovered by pressing the power button long enough to force a shutdown. Possibly a driver error. I toyed with the idea that this repeated Undo might be a repeated CTRL Z being processed but there's no evidence that it was still repeating after finishing all the Undo actions and finding you with the same experience after the same actions very much suggests an Excel bug.My About info shows: Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2209 Build 16.0.15629.20196) 32-bit. Not sure why 32-bit as it's always been auto installed on a 64-bit system.

HelenaDavidson This just happened to me, I received a circular reference warning and before I could fix it, I was stuck watching excel automatically undo all the changes I made (in several workbooks) for the past 20 minutes. I was not able to re-do, and could only open a previous version, and try again. I have never had this happen to me before. I see some others have had a similar issue, but I haven't seen a root cause. I certainly don't want to go through this again. Any one else been successful in finding out what caused(s) the automatic undos?

cg1975slimshegsy I am a long time user of Excel. 30+ years.I have been very satisfied with it until about 6 months ago I started having issues when I have been working on several different pages in a work book, then when I go and copy data (right click, copy then paste), from an existing document all of a sudden Excel automatically un-does all the work done on all the pages. This is very frustrating and anoying as I receive no indication of how many documents this 'un-do' may have been applied to - as I may have 3-more workbooks open at one go. Trying to remember to manually save before doing this copy and past function seems to be the only way to try and control how many times it may happen. I would like to know if someone has found a solution or Microsoft can respond with an answer.

HelenaDavidson We have a spreadsheet that is automatically updated by a utility. It creates circular references every day, and the spreadsheet has to be edited and tweaked up to make it pretty everyday regardless of whether there are circular references or not. You have to open it, fix all the circular references, save it, and close it. Then when you open it again, you can work like normal without issue. If you leave a circular reference or don't get them all fixed before Excel checks for them again (I don't know if there is a timer for this or something else triggers it), all your changes will all get backed out and you have to start over. Based on the other comments, I agree that it's caused by the circular references and whatever process Excel uses to find them. I hope it gets fixed too.

HelenaDavidson - My colleague has the same problem. Upon researching I found out that undo stack seems to apply across workbooks. Right now, we are testing to open a new excel in a traditional way from the start menu in windows to launch excel then pressing alt key to open a new instance. the immediate benefits is that you will have a separate undo stacks.

Excel automatically undid changes | Microsoft Community Hub

15 Replies

JS4269
Copper Contributor
Dec 01, 2023
I see this problem has been around for a while. It is occurring to me several times a week. The very first time it happened, it was associated with a circular reference problem. However, in more than a dozen occurrences since then a circular reference was not present. What is present for all occurrences is I get the Excel could not copy to the clipboard error. The clipboard error pops up for each and every undo Excel does as it works its way through the undo stack.
- PeterKey
  Copper Contributor
  Dec 01, 2023
  JS4269 that's an interesting observation, I've only had it in the context of a circular reference on a particular operation and I now try desperately to avoid such references and immediately correct them if they should occur.
  I do hope that Microsoft are listening on this as your experience sheds new light on this old problem, which certainly deserves their urgent attention as it's devastating to lose all your work.
  - JS4269
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 22, 2024
    PeterKey
    Here's a trigger I found for the unintentional roll back of all changes. I can recreate the problem using this trigger once the problem has occurred for some reason. However, after a reboot, this problem trigger doesn't work again until the roll back changes problem happens for some other reason. Here is the sequence:
    - Select some cells and Ctrl-C to copy
    - Move cursor to upper left cell in desired paste location
    - Right click mouse and move cursor to the right click menu paste options (My usual choice here would be to paste formulas so as to preserve formatting).
    
    Excel then attempts to execute the various paste options (without a mouse click, i.e., the paste preview Excel does) as I move to the paste formulas option. Usually this works ok, but when the problem occurs, Excel appears to hang at one of the previews, and will not paste the formulas when I click the mouse. It then starts rolling back all changes. Thinking back, this series of operator interface is a trigger for all events of this problem that I can recall. I played with this a little bit and found I could fairly reliably recreate the problem using this sequence once the problem has occurred. Unfortunately, I could no longer trigger the problem after a reboot.
    
    It appears Excel is getting lost when changing the paste previews rapidly, perhaps aborting a preview to start the next preview as the mouse is moved (the recalc time of the spreadsheet is not short). Regardless of the change roll back problem, Excel has an obvious bug in this paste preview code as it acts very quirky in this scenario even if it doesn't roll back changes.
    
    One of the quirks which always occurs in this scenario is Excel partially changes from select cells to select objects. Excel will stop highlighting the selected cell, but the formula bar will update as the selected cell is changed, even though it is not highlighted. F2 will enter edit mode normally. To get the selected cell to highlight again, I have to turn on select objects and then turn it off - this restores normal cell selection highlighting.
RonnW
Copper Contributor
Sep 14, 2023
HelenaDavidson We have a spreadsheet that is automatically updated by a utility. It creates circular references every day, and the spreadsheet has to be edited and tweaked up to make it pretty everyday regardless of whether there are circular references or not. You have to open it, fix all the circular references, save it, and close it. Then when you open it again, you can work like normal without issue. If you leave a circular reference or don't get them all fixed before Excel checks for them again (I don't know if there is a timer for this or something else triggers it), all your changes will all get backed out and you have to start over. Based on the other comments, I agree that it's caused by the circular references and whatever process Excel uses to find them. I hope it gets fixed too.
- MarkB-MCT-alum
  Copper Contributor
  Sep 14, 2023
  I thought I was going crazy - when there were things in other workbooks I had opened were Undone when a circular reference happened in a different one. I hope there is a fix soon that maybe asks with a dialog box before it magically undoes whatever - also not undoing things from the other open workbooks / worksheets
slimshegsy
Copper Contributor
Sep 07, 2023
I had same issue several times yesterday. I feel it is related to circular reference but not sure. It happens when i copy and paste as value.
- Cg1975
  Copper Contributor
  Sep 13, 2023
  cg1975slimshegsy
  I am a long time user of Excel. 30+ years.
  I have been very satisfied with it until about 6 months ago I started having issues when I have been working on several different pages in a work book, then when I go and copy data (right click, copy then paste), from an existing document all of a sudden Excel automatically un-does all the work done on all the pages.
  
  This is very frustrating and anoying as I receive no indication of how many documents this 'un-do' may have been applied to - as I may have 3-more workbooks open at one go.
  
  Trying to remember to manually save before doing this copy and past function seems to be the only way to try and control how many times it may happen.
  
  I would like to know if someone has found a solution or Microsoft can respond with an answer.
Angela_Hanes
Copper Contributor
Jul 24, 2023
HelenaDavidson This just happened to me, I received a circular reference warning and before I could fix it, I was stuck watching excel automatically undo all the changes I made (in several workbooks) for the past 20 minutes. I was not able to re-do, and could only open a previous version, and try again. I have never had this happen to me before. I see some others have had a similar issue, but I haven't seen a root cause. I certainly don't want to go through this again. Any one else been successful in finding out what caused(s) the automatic undos?
- PeterKey
  Copper Contributor
  Jul 24, 2023
  Angela_Hanes I sympathise with your frustration but have never established a trigger for this error, only that I could reproduce the problem by creating the circular reference again. Fortunately, I’ve had no repeat of the issue.
BethA47
Copper Contributor
Jun 02, 2023
Same problem. I can make changes, but as soon as I hit enter, they revert right back. I'd love a solution in which I could actually use Excel as intended...
Emerson_Urbano
Copper Contributor
Apr 13, 2023
HelenaDavidson - My colleague has the same problem. Upon researching I found out that undo stack seems to apply across workbooks. Right now, we are testing to open a new excel in a traditional way from the start menu in windows to launch excel then pressing alt key to open a new instance. the immediate benefits is that you will have a separate undo stacks.
PeterKey
Copper Contributor
Nov 01, 2022
HelenaDavidson exactly the same thing has just happened to me. It was more of an issue for me because this was an "auto-save" SharePoint file, so I couldn't just elect to not save it. I also had problems with restoring a previous version (error message along the lines of I needed to save unsaved changes first. I saved it, closed it, re-opened it and tried to restore again but same message). In the end, I went back to an earlier copy with a different name and re-started from there. I was able to reproduce the behaviour by repeating the amendments but eventually cleared it by saving a fresh copy immediately before taking the action that caused the circular reference, which I then resolved, like you, by pasting values. The other feature I noticed, after the repetitive "Undo" of all my work, was that some formulae had not re-calculated (I had to go into editing the formula and press enter before it re-calculated). All very mysterious and presumably a subtle bug within Excel. Sadly, no one else seems to have encountered it yet, so little chance of a fix but truly very scary! Like you, I'm a very experienced user of Excel and I'm sure it wasn't just a silly mistake by me. The only thing remotely like it I've ever experienced is when Windows decided that it thought I was repeatedly pressing the down arrow key, which was only recovered by pressing the power button long enough to force a shutdown. Possibly a driver error. I toyed with the idea that this repeated Undo might be a repeated CTRL Z being processed but there's no evidence that it was still repeating after finishing all the Undo actions and finding you with the same experience after the same actions very much suggests an Excel bug.
My About info shows: Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2209 Build 16.0.15629.20196) 32-bit. Not sure why 32-bit as it's always been auto installed on a 64-bit system.

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Excel automatically undid changes

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