Forum Discussion
Slow Word linked object updates since moving spreadsheet to Sharepoint
My company does engineering projects where the project deliverables consist of a Word document with 20-60 linked objects (numbers, tables, and charts) from a large companion spreadsheet. Since the document and the spreadsheet evolve together, we need live links rather than static pastes.
Since migrating to SharePoint from our homegrown document management system, we're facing major performance issues. Word seems to ignore the local OneDrive copy, and hits SharePoint separately for each linked object, requiring about 15 seconds per link over a symmetric gigabit connection. A 60-link document needs 15 minutes to update!
The slow update issue persists even when:
- Using a brand new document containing nothing but the handful of link objects.
- Breaking external links in the source spreadsheet.
- Pointing links to the local OneDrive copy (Word seems to refactor these links to the corresponding SharePoint URL).
The problem disappears when links are changed to reference a local copy of the file, provided it's not within the OneDrive folder.
I'm seeking advice on:
- Whether this is a known issue with linked objects on SharePoint/Onedrive.
- Possible configurations or optimizations to improve performance.
- Alternative workflows for handling large linked documents more efficiently in SharePoint.
Thank you for your help!
1. Move the Excel file from OneDrive to a local folder (e.g. C:\Project Files\).
Right-click the link in Word → “Edit Link” → “Change Source File “ → Select the local Excel path.
Check “Save linked file” → Click “OK” .
Effect: Avoid round-trip to the cloud, and the update speed is significantly improved.
2. Turn off automatic updating and refresh manually
Hold down the Shift key to open the Word document to prevent automatic updates
Right-click the link → “Update Link” → manually trigger the update.
Effect: The time taken for a single update is reduced from minutes to seconds.
3. Fix OneDrive path redirection
Check the path:
Right click on the link → “Edit Link” → check the “Source File” path.
If the path contains sharepoint.com (https://xxx.sharepoint.com/...) then the path is wrong.
Fix:
Ensure that the Excel file is referenced directly via the OneDrive sync folder (C:\Users\Username\OneDrive\File.xlsx) after the local sync is complete.
