Forum Discussion
"Getting Name" bug on my worksheet
One of the cells in my worksheet has a "Getting Name" bug on my worksheet - I have no idea what this is referring to - I've never seen this in my 40-years of using Excel - there are no Range Names nor Links in this workbook. What is it and how do I get rid of it?
10 Replies
It could be Excel trying to retrieve the user name of the person who is operating/editing in this cell.
The icon looks similar to the "X people are here" icon. But in my case, I doubt it. I'm using my own file, it's not shared, and Excel simply doesn't need to look up my own name, for me, the already-currently-logged-on-user.
Unless there's a bug, and it can't actually do that, and when it realizes it's me, it hides the icon, but today for whatever reason, Excel hit a bug and couldn't retrieve my own name, and so, never hid the icon. Peut-être.
Yes, it may be a bug related to this feature.
I've got the same. It's not associated with an actual cell, it's just a floating icon with a little "person" icon, and when I hover over it, it expands and says "Getting name...". It wasn't there when I was editing this file this morning. I've come back from work and voila... I have the same little floating icon. I've also never seen this before.
I'm using Desktop Win11 Excel build 2811:
- This is my own file, stored on my own OneDrive. It's not shared, there are no other users, so it's not an multi-user indicator of another user.
- The cells anywhere near the icon don't have any formula.
- I have zero Office plugins/extensions.
- It doesn't matter which cell is selected.
- There are no "Named Ranges" on this sheet, or in the Workbook.
- There are no linked-lists or as far as I can tell, anything at all that has a "Name".
Could it be that you have another session open somewhere? The “ghost” could be you, where you left another session of excel running, whether web or teams view maybe?
I'm having the same issue. There's nothing in the cell. I've tried to delete the cell, move the cell, delete the row. Nothing seems to work. It's bizarre.
Ditto. It's not associated with any particular cell.
Never seen it as well. On which Excel platform and version you are?
From ExcelJet, here are some possible explanations for the #NAME? error. Your image doesn't show the formula in that cell, so you're kinda making it hard for anybody to actually diagnose. I trust looking at the possibilities under that link will give you something to move forward with.
If you still need help, though, you can help us help you by giving more than just the error message and an incomplete image. "What's the formula as entered?" for example. Depending on how long, how many embedded functions there are, and so forth, it could simply be a misspelled function name.
I have the same problem. It's not the result of a formula. It's also not a #NAME? error. There are no embedded functions. The screenshot is correct; the error is the icon itself, not the cells underneath.
