Hello! Yes I know, the subject is common, but unfortunately, even reading every discussion and solution, Excel is still freezing. Well, I work in an offline market, where I generate huge spreadsheets with data (txt) and basic cell formatting, with a menu with hyperlinks that I pull. The table never exceeds 800KB, however, sometimes, even without any external data connection, without formulas, when I copy (or any of the vendors or customers), the table freezes, and paralyzes all other Excel files.How do I solve this? I don't solve it, I copy a random file from my computer, and that makes it cancel the action in excel, and unlock it.I have already applied all possible usability solutions, but the error persists! This is already driving me crazy.Does anyone have any idea what the solution to this may be? (making tables smaller and without usability is out of the question).My office Microsoft 365***The attached file cannot be used, reused, or shared, and serves only as a functionality experiment.

renankzz First of all, here is some information that you can also go through. I will look through your file later and also inform you about it, as far as I can. Excel not responding, hangs, freezes or stops workinghttps://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/excel-not-responding-hangs-freezes-or-stops-working-37e7d3c9-9e84-40bf-a805-4ca6853a1ff4?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us Thank you for your understanding and patience NikolinoI know I don't know anything (Socrates)

renankzz After a few minutes of clicking around and doing calculations on the file, I couldn't replicate the problem on myself. I tried it in Office 2016. Microsoft Excel is by far the most widely used spreadsheet for Windows and almost always works smoothly. Sometimes it happens, however, that Excel freezes when it starts or suddenly stops responding when opening a file. Often the problem is not caused by Excel itself, but by additionally installed add-ins or macros or software installed afterwards. Virus scanners and Windows updates are also known sources of error. However, an incorrectly saved Excel table can also cause Excel to hang. The following solution strategies usually lead to success if Excel does not work as desired. Start Excel in Safe Mode Turn off add-ins Virus scanner problems Problems with other programs that use Excel Change the Windows default printer Repair Microsoft Office Recompile macros Update Excel Try out Microsoft Office Repair from the Control Panel beforehand, then check for updates and then scour the other options. Thank you for your understanding and patience I would be happy to know if I could help. NikolinoI know I don't know anything (Socrates) * Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps please, as it will be beneficial to more Community members reading here.

NikolinoDE First of all, thank you so much for your response. I'll be trying those steps, and reply again to you, to solve this trend. But thanks again for your precious time dedicated to my problem!

I bought XL 2016. It is not the 360 version or any pay as you go monthly subscription version.I have my computer set to automatic updates which seems to be constantly updating. I think it seems to update and restart every week.It has had the bug that causes it to freeze for no reason since Day1. Your problem is not likely because of the complexity of your interactions with data feeds or the other factors you describe. If you open a new simple workbook, just type data from page to page, eventually it will just freeze. It will not give you a not responding error, or crash. It simply will not add a character as you try to type.Here is a "solution" if you can call it that: when it freezes, click on the "+" Tab to add another sheet to the workbook. Randomly click on a call (yes it always allows me to add a sheet and the cursor and typing will be active in this new sheet). Pick a random cell on the new sheet and type a few random characters in a cell - it can just be gibberish. Then return to the sheet from which you came by changing Tabs (yes it always allows me to do change back to the original sheet). Then continue as if nothing happened and it will allows you to type or do whatever you were doing before it froze. NOTE: when you click to return to your original sheet upon which you were working it may do one of two things: One, it might just continue as normal. Two, if you have another XL workbook open on the computer, the first action you take when you return to the original worksheet may cause the other open workbook to pop to the top of your desktop as if you clicked on that second XL app that you have open on the computer in the background. If this happens you simply minimize it and you will be working back on the sheet that originally froze in the other workbook. This 100% all the time works for me.XL2016 is just buggy and that is all.FYI: I work in a laptop not a network. I don't link to external data feeds. I don't take in many spreadsheets from others; I mainly create 99% of the spreadsheets on which I work. I'm in Windows 10 and I have a HP gaming computer with plenty of RAM (but I have zero games on it and it has never been used to game. I don't have any antivirus from third parties but rather rely on Windows security. (I do have a free SuperAntiSpyware but not a version that allows you to integrate apps. It is more of a version that you can periodically scan for problems and clean out cookies). I do always have Chrome / Excel / Word / Windows Explorer / PdfPro open in multiple incidents with many files and many Tabs active in each - especially many incidents of Chrome all having many many tabs in each incident. And my excel sheets do have many formulas, pasted pictures, formatting, and sometimes Design Forms from the Developer Tab in XL e.g. check boxes, voting boxes, drop down lists. I do not have any other apps that freeze, crash, or cause other incidents of themselves to pop forward on my desktop.I hope this helps you as a fix not a solution for you. The real solution to freezing needs to come from MSFT who created this buggy version. I have been using XL since before 2000 and have never had such problems as freezing ever before this 2016 version.

Microsoft is dropping the ball. My spreadsheets keep on freezing and sometimes freezing the whole computer. At one point, I couldn't even activate "Ctrl", "Alt","Delete". Nothing was responding. I had to manually power down my whole PC. Its ridiculous. We're paying so much money for this crap and they want to blame it on other applications or antivirus software, etc. I have three PCs (connected by a KVM switch),since I have two jobs, plus a personal PC, and they all have the same "Microsoft" problem, so it's not an isolated PC issue. Get that thumb out of there and and fix your bugs.

Excel freezing for no reason | Microsoft Community Hub

7 Replies

Grubbbee
Copper Contributor
Feb 04, 2022
renankzz I googled this a bit more and prelimnary results was that this forum offers the solution:

https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/b62o09/sometimes_when_i_clear_a_filter_excel_kinda/

I noticed a specific sheet was the worst, so I removed all conditional formatting. Hope it helps!
Jose_Balboa_Excel
Copper Contributor
Jan 10, 2022
Microsoft is dropping the ball. My spreadsheets keep on freezing and sometimes freezing the whole computer. At one point, I couldn't even activate "Ctrl", "Alt","Delete". Nothing was responding. I had to manually power down my whole PC. Its ridiculous. We're paying so much money for this crap and they want to blame it on other applications or antivirus software, etc. I have three PCs (connected by a KVM switch),since I have two jobs, plus a personal PC, and they all have the same "Microsoft" problem, so it's not an isolated PC issue. Get that thumb out of there and and fix your bugs.
- NikolinoDE
  Gold Contributor
  Jan 10, 2022
  Jose_Balboa_Excel
  I can very well imagine how annoying it can be if you are prevented from continuing in the middle of your project. I can very well imagine how angry it can make you if you don't have the time for "such nonsense".
  Nevertheless, every error correction always takes place after the error has been found.
  The error can be varied, just as varied as the possibilities that Excel provides as a spreadsheet.
  Therefore, I always ask for patience in advance, even if I know that this is actually not an option in such cases where an error occurs.
  
  If I may recommend ....
  Run Inquire to see if some formulas or links have errors.
  Even if the updates are set to automatic, please update again manually. Some upgrades are displayed as updates, but it is not always set so that no matter which updates are carried out.
  Perform an Office repair immediately after the updates.
  The next step would be to start in safe mode and restart immediately afterwards.
  If none of this helps either ... the last thing you could do is update the graphic drivers and readjust the monitor analysis. Sometimes the monitor analysis is smaller than that of the graphic map with the result that the graphic map analysis is set very high, but the monitor has problems displaying it. Especially with Excel, where the processor performance is concentrated on the calculations (mostly Excel is set so that all processors concentrate on the calculation), the whole PC can freeze.
  
  If may notice, I've been using Excel 2016 Pro for years with an HP laptop without any previous problems with recognizing the software itself.
  With my little Excel experience so far, most of the errors I have seen so far (and there are quite a few) excel is not itself the problem. But that's just my humble experience.
  
  * I am not an employee of Microsoft and have no dependency in any form whatsoever with or on microsoft, am a simple user like you who just wants to help.
  
  Thank you for your patience and time.
  
  NikolinoDE
  I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
NikolinoDE
Gold Contributor
Nov 27, 2020
renankzz
After a few minutes of clicking around and doing calculations on the file, I couldn't replicate the problem on myself. I tried it in Office 2016.

Microsoft Excel is by far the most widely used spreadsheet for Windows and almost always works smoothly. Sometimes it happens, however, that Excel freezes when it starts or suddenly stops responding when opening a file. Often the problem is not caused by Excel itself, but by additionally installed add-ins or macros or software installed afterwards. Virus scanners and Windows updates are also known sources of error. However, an incorrectly saved Excel table can also cause Excel to hang.

The following solution strategies usually lead to success if Excel does not work as desired.

    Start Excel in Safe Mode
    Turn off add-ins
    Virus scanner problems
    Problems with other programs that use Excel
    Change the Windows default printer
    Repair Microsoft Office
    Recompile macros
    Update Excel

Try out Microsoft Office Repair from the Control Panel beforehand, then check for updates and then scour the other options.

Thank you for your understanding and patience

I would be happy to know if I could help.

Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

* Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps please, as it will be beneficial to more Community members reading here.
- renankzz
  Copper Contributor
  Nov 27, 2020
  NikolinoDE First of all, thank you so much for your response. I'll be trying those steps, and reply again to you, to solve this trend.
  
  But thanks again for your precious time dedicated to my problem!
  - GXL2016isBuggy
    Copper Contributor
    Mar 19, 2021
    I bought XL 2016. It is not the 360 version or any pay as you go monthly subscription version.
    I have my computer set to automatic updates which seems to be constantly updating. I think it seems to update and restart every week.
    
    It has had the bug that causes it to freeze for no reason since Day1. Your problem is not likely because of the complexity of your interactions with data feeds or the other factors you describe. If you open a new simple workbook, just type data from page to page, eventually it will just freeze. It will not give you a not responding error, or crash. It simply will not add a character as you try to type.
    
    Here is a "solution" if you can call it that: when it freezes, click on the "+" Tab to add another sheet to the workbook. Randomly click on a call (yes it always allows me to add a sheet and the cursor and typing will be active in this new sheet). Pick a random cell on the new sheet and type a few random characters in a cell - it can just be gibberish. Then return to the sheet from which you came by changing Tabs (yes it always allows me to do change back to the original sheet). Then continue as if nothing happened and it will allows you to type or do whatever you were doing before it froze. NOTE: when you click to return to your original sheet upon which you were working it may do one of two things: One, it might just continue as normal. Two, if you have another XL workbook open on the computer, the first action you take when you return to the original worksheet may cause the other open workbook to pop to the top of your desktop as if you clicked on that second XL app that you have open on the computer in the background. If this happens you simply minimize it and you will be working back on the sheet that originally froze in the other workbook. This 100% all the time works for me.
    
    XL2016 is just buggy and that is all.
    
    FYI: I work in a laptop not a network. I don't link to external data feeds. I don't take in many spreadsheets from others; I mainly create 99% of the spreadsheets on which I work. I'm in Windows 10 and I have a HP gaming computer with plenty of RAM (but I have zero games on it and it has never been used to game. I don't have any antivirus from third parties but rather rely on Windows security. (I do have a free SuperAntiSpyware but not a version that allows you to integrate apps. It is more of a version that you can periodically scan for problems and clean out cookies). I do always have Chrome / Excel / Word / Windows Explorer / PdfPro open in multiple incidents with many files and many Tabs active in each - especially many incidents of Chrome all having many many tabs in each incident. And my excel sheets do have many formulas, pasted pictures, formatting, and sometimes Design Forms from the Developer Tab in XL e.g. check boxes, voting boxes, drop down lists. I do not have any other apps that freeze, crash, or cause other incidents of themselves to pop forward on my desktop.
    
    I hope this helps you as a fix not a solution for you. The real solution to freezing needs to come from MSFT who created this buggy version. I have been using XL since before 2000 and have never had such problems as freezing ever before this 2016 version.
NikolinoDE
Gold Contributor
Nov 27, 2020
renankzz
First of all, here is some information that you can also go through. I will look through your file later and also inform you about it, as far as I can.

Excel not responding, hangs, freezes or stops working
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/excel-not-responding-hangs-freezes-or-stops-working-37e7d3c9-9e84-40bf-a805-4ca6853a1ff4?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

Thank you for your understanding and patience

Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

Forum Discussion

Excel freezing for no reason

7 Replies

Resources