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Sourav1981's avatar
Sourav1981
Copper Contributor
Nov 23, 2025

Excel Security Warning:

Hello Everyone, I am having one strange issue. I am working on a excel which has few Power Queries and around 10 sheets. I have not created any macros. But in VBA Editor there are two VBA Projects. But they do not have any macros in it.

Now the issue is, every time I open this excel file, I have been greeted with the "Security Warning: External Data connections have been disabled". and I need to press the "Enable Content" button every time.

I have tried saving the file as .xlxs (from .xlam) but it didn't solve the issue completely, it does not throw error in some machines still and I have also tried to remove these two projects which has but no luck.

Can someone let me know if this is a known issue? What are possible ways I can remove this warning (only for this file) as technically I am not using any macros. 

Any help would be highly appreciated. Let me know if you need more details.

Thanking you.

 

excel
Formulas and Functions
Macros and VBA

1 Reply

  • GeorgieAnne's avatar
    GeorgieAnne
    Iron Contributor
    Nov 23, 2025

    Hello Sourav1981​ 

    OK the .xlam file extension is used for Excel Add-Ins. It has been a long time since I worked with Add-Ins but these are automated workbooks that are a bit more secure and not really open for user manipulation beyond what the automation allows. It is how you would share a workbook that does a certain function and not have the "Average User" muck it up.

    I would suggest to acquire a digital signature and ask the Add-In developer to digitally sign the add in workbook. And you can also save the Add in workbook in a Trusted Location (maybe OneDrive).

    As I said earlier its been a long time since I worked with add ins and things may have changed. But I think these options are still worth checking into.

    Best of luck!

    GiGi

     

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