Forum Discussion
Excel selects wrong cell
Hello,
I am here to report on what seems to be a common issue...
After working for a few minutes in excel, when I go to click on a cell, the wrong cell actually gets selected, and it is usually several cells above or below the cell my mouse is hovering over.
I sometimes have success in saving, closing and reopening the book, but not always.
Excel Office 365 version, updated on schedule, as always.
32 Replies
An outstanding set of observations and at least raised a laugh this side! And seriously, I think you likely have a point, how on earth can the issue continue for this long? A parallel is the notorious jumping cursor (generic, all apps, uses), affecting laptops even to include Chromebooks - for about 20 years and counting! I guess that's an industry cover-up, they must understand it, but the key component is cheap and/or difficult to easily replace. You can't even get laptop manufacturers or Microsoft to admit that one exists, even when showing them posts on their own forums! Despicable.
Lovely to see such different approaches.
NikolinoDE on one side is basically trolling people with this issue while trying to be helpful. Listing completely irrelevant generic workarounds for an issue that has been around for more than 10 years across all Excel versions, OS versions and multiple platforms (yes, I get to see this on both MacOS and Windows!).
On the other side, Vanheems reaching the ultimate level of disgust.
I think we are all missing the point. There must be a bigger design at play here.
There is no way an issue like this can be still around for so long across such a range of code bases, without considerable effort being spent in ensuring its continued existence.
Simple incompetence cannot explain this phenomenon: there must be a secret team in Microsoft dedicated to keeping this and other annoyances around.
Why? Maybe it's a social experiment. Or maybe to ensure expectations are kept low so new products won't look too bad. I don't know.
I can only applaud the effort and the astounding result. It's 2025 and Excel still thinks the pointer is in a different position. Congratulations!Several years since first reported. For me, multiple Windows rebuilds and on my 3rd laptop (employer-issued) but we realise now, these measures are not helping. We had a Microsoft rep assigned to the case who was later told to drop it and stop responding. For two years, I've been battling this issue every day. Microsoft are a quite disgusting organisation.
- If you have a touch screen, it may help to disable it. Worked for me.
Still seems to make sense for Microsoft to provide a fix...- Excellent suggestion! I will try it and let you know
I have this issue as well and found that it is the zoom that is causing this to happen. If you change to 100%, you will be able to click on the right cell.
I'm usually at 100% and see the issue consistently. Changing zoom, scrolling, changing screen, resizing the window are workarounds that work for a bit until the issue returns. And then the same workaround applied again may or may not help again.
I'm starting to think this may be connected to multiple screens and freeze panes used together, which I do quite a lot. Is this the case for others on the thread?I use multiple screens and get the issue. Tend to use freeze view less but still frequently get the issue so don't think its down to freeze view.
ı was dealing with this issue about a year. now as i read this comment, the fire extinguished. Thanks alot.
- That worked!! Thank you!!!!
My issue fix if I remove the bold from the font of data in excel
- Same issue over here. It destroys my soul.
- Please, everyone in the thread, make sure you have reported it! Hopefully if they have enough official reports (this isn't an official report, btw), they will take it seriously and work toward fixing it.
If you don't know how to make the report, ask and I will gladly guide you.
I'm losing patience in waiting for an update from Microsoft and dealing with this "fun" glitch, and my mouse is the one I'm taking that frustration out on.HandFoodler if you could drop a link that'd be great. Will definitely report.
- Sure, so I don't have a link, but there are two options within excel itself.
1. On the "file" tab at the bottom, there is a link for "Feedback". Click "I don't like something". A box should pop up, where you can report the issue.
2. Use the "Help" tab in excel, which will show a few options. I've done both "Contact Support" and "Feedback." Contact support forces you to first describe your problem and search their "suggested articles". So don't go that route. Click "feedback".
Someone contacted me within a couple days to ask for more details, and then asked me to send a wiped version of my workbook. Who knows if they ever looked at it?
But maybe, if we flood them, it will get their attention.
HandFoodler This happens to me CONSTANTLY and between two different laptops (Lenovo). Any time I use the trackpad to scroll left or right about 80% of the time I can no longer select the correct cell until I zoom in or out with the little nav bar at the bottom left to "reset". Its infuriating. And has been an issue for a at least 2 years.
Wanted to get on the record with reporting, Im having the same issues with the pointer attempting to select the cell I have it on, and the one above gets selected when i click, very irritating. Only way to get it back to normal seems to be to close the program and open it back up from scratch. like I said very annoying and even more annoying that there has been no response from MS for a month...Come On Guys! You can afford the staff to respond! Sheesh, at least pretend to care?!?
