Forum Discussion
Can't delete worksheet
I'm right-clicking on a sheet, clicking delete and nothing happens. The sheet is not protected. I'm not sure what's happening.
I'm running Excel for Office 365 MSO v1902 for Windows.
Thanks.
Hi
If the workbook is shared you won't be able to delete sheets. To turn
off sharing, choose Tools>Share Workbook.
On the Editing tab, remove the check mark from 'Allow changes by more
than one user at the same time'
Click OKHope that helps
Nabil Mourad
nabilmourad Where is Tools in Excel..
- I had the same problem, but the sheet was not obviously shared.
By doing SaveAs as a new sheet I was able to delete the unwanted sheets.
In my case the issue may have been caused because the file was in my shared google drive folder - so perhaps some kind of behinds the scenes sharing was in effect?Save As features worked for me. I was able to delete the unwanted sheet.
For those of you that are using the online version and found that all the suggested posts didn't work
I opened the file in browser rather then app and it worked that way.CosminBuc Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
DougFresh Please can you tell me how I can run Excel as admin. I have the same issue of not being able to delete sheets in Excel.
If you on Windows and have administrative user rights
Win -> Excel -> Run as administrator
- If anyone is having this issue in 2024, running Excel as an admin worked for me as well. 🙂
- This didn't work for me
- Simple convert the excel file to CSV Move all the sheets to another workbook and delete? That should do the trick
- Disabling sharing worked for me.
- Review tab -> Unshare Workbook.
I have tried all the options others have offered to be able to delete a tab on a sheet, and nothing!
As someone else mentioned, I only started having this problem after the last Microsoft Office Update!
I figured it out:
Go to the Review tab and click "Protect Workbook". It will have you enter a password to unprotect it. Then you can delete the sheet.
- The OP explicitly states: "The sheet is not protected." Are you suggesting that the user protect, and then unprotect the worksheet?
- I had this same issue tried the various suggestions to no avail. What worked for me was I closed the file then moved the file to my desktop opened it then I could delete the sheet like normal, I saved, closed the file and move it from my desktop back to its original location. I think grumbled0re may be right and it is shared on one of my shared drives, so moving it to my desktop moved it out of a shared location.
I think I'm in worse shape. Working in Microsoft Excel for Mac. Clicking on the Excel icon opens to the desktop about 30 of what I'm certain are corrupt sheets. Password or no password will not allow me to unprotect a sheet in order to delete it. I can close a sheet, but cannot delete it.
Edit > Sheet > Delete Sheet gets me to—
A workbook must contain at least one visible worksheet
had this problem and some others. starting Excel as admin helped and I noticed the problems all happen when Excel wants to show a popup. Closed Excel, and found a broken Excel process in the task manager. Killed that one and all was good again .....
