Find and Replace not working in Protected Excel Workbook (for unlocked cells)

I have noticed a new issue in the desktop version of excel (v16.13.1) - I am working on Mac. 

I have a protected workbook with protected sheets and some unlocked cells which contain plain text. 

With the older version (before 2018) I was able to still use find & replace to quickly correct mistakes in these text cells, even though the overall workbook was locked (and sheet was protected) -The cells I want to be able to edit are unlocked and can be edited by clicking into them one by one. 

Since the new update, I can no longer use find/replace or the spell check option. 

I hope this is an update oversight and will be fixed soon!