Excel Dropdown List Suggestion Stopped Working!

It’s about the dropdown list auto-suggest / autocomplete feature in Excel Data Validation (where typing a few characters used to filter or auto-complete from the dropdown list), so far I understand.

Here some Informations:

• In Excel 365 (subscription), Microsoft added dynamic dropdown autocomplete (suggestions as you type in Data Validation lists).
• In Excel 2021 perpetual (Professional Plus, retail/volume license), this feature was backported in some builds, but it’s not guaranteed and can disappear after an update — especially if Office updated or rolled back internally.
• Updating drivers doesn’t usually touch Excel, but Windows/Office updates can.

Things to Check

1. Confirm the feature is still in your build
• Go to File → Account → About Excel.
• Your version (16.0.19029.20136) corresponds to an Office 2021 channel update.
• Microsoft sometimes enables/disables features across builds. If it vanished everywhere, it’s likely the feature was removed from your channel.
2. Classic Autocomplete vs. New Suggestion
• Classic Excel only autocompletes within the same column above (not from dropdown lists).
• The new “suggest as you type in dropdowns” is a new Excel feature, not part of Excel 2021’s guaranteed feature set.
3. Repair Office
• Go to Control Panel → Programs → Microsoft Office 2021 → Change → Online Repair.
• This resets registry keys in case something got corrupted.
4. Check if it’s just sheet-specific
• Try creating a new workbook → add a Data Validation dropdown → see if suggestion works.
• If it works there but not in old files → maybe workbook corruption or conflicting macros.
5. Workaround
• If the feature is truly gone in Excel 2021, only Excel 365 will keep receiving those “modern convenience” updates.
• Alternatives:
• Use ActiveX Combo Box or Form Control Combo Box (has autocomplete).
• Use VBA with Application.OnKey or Worksheet_Change to simulate autocomplete.

At the end…

If it suddenly stopped across all sheets, the most likely reason is that an Office update removed it from Excel 2021 builds.

This “suggestions in dropdown” feature is not officially supported in Excel 2021, only in Excel 365.

If nothing works, you can use VBA to create a VBA snippet that restores the dropdown list autocomplete functionality in Excel 2021 (so it behaves as before).

Hope I was able to help you with this info.