Forum Discussion
"This Workbook contains links to one or more external sources that could be unsafe."
I have seen this quite a few times.
Happens when you copy and paste data from one excel workbook to the other. Instead of pasting the data, excel pastes a link to the data. Possibly a manual error or the pasting settings in one of the paerson you share the file with.
If you ignore the security warning, the last data when copied would be there. If you click on update, the data would be retrived again from the linked document.
If you want to find the link, do this:
1. in find and replace box, type '.xls' and hit 'find all'. You'll get all links referring to xls and xlsx files.
Once you find the cell, verify the existing data, then copy and paste as values on top of it.
Excel does that if you have formulas that refer to or from the tab that is moved away from the workbook. The only way out of it is to remove those links.
These may hide in many places. If you do not use buttons etc you can skip those and do the following:- search for http (if workbook was on sharepoint) or .xls if not - search should be for formulas. Modify the fields to remove the wrong ones
- look at data validation - some of those data validation settings may use formulas too. Remove ones that point to outside workbook
- look at conditional formatting - that too may have references to an external workbook.
Some of those things you can detect and replace with the VBA scripts much faster than by hand.
NowshadAhmed I'm having trouble with the pop up whenever I open an excel file about links to one or more external sources. I'd like just to get rid of it. I tried "find all xls" but it just comes up empty. Where should I look please?
- First, thank you for your help. When I click on Formulas, and then on Name Manager, all I get is Define Name, Create from Selection and Defines Names, none of which have anything in a sub menu. Can you please hold my hand through this process. I just want to skip the extra step when opening a file.
- 1. Check formulas
2. Check named items in name manager
3. Check the source of data validation 'pick' lists
4. Check to see if any macro buttons are assigned to macros in an external workbook
5. Check the sources of any charts and pivottables
Why does the Trust Center settings (i.e., trusted locations) not prevent this security warning from appearing?
