How can I prevent my excel spreadsheets from reverting back to the original format when updates are done?

Renee Roberts 5 Reputation points
2025-10-19T20:13:09.36+00:00

I keep spreadsheets for my financial accounts. I merge cells for the title, I change the width size of the columns, I frequently change the height of the horizontal column and I wrap text, I use fill color for some cells and if I use a dark fill color I change the font to white. In recent updates which are becoming more frequent, the merged cells revert to unmerged, the column sizes revert back to the original size, the height of the horizontal columns I have wrapped text in goes extremely high and the font that I changed to white disappears. I just in the last week changed from Microsoft Windows 10 to 365 and office to hopefully prevent this but it happened again yesterday. This is very time consuming having to fix everthing back for my purpose. What can I do to prevent this from happening?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows
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Barrett Buchmueller 5 Reputation points
2026-01-25T05:29:32.8133333+00:00

I have been plagued by this problem for years and never found a suitable solution presented anywhere online, here, or in other locations. Tonight, I stumbled upon this solution, which so far has proved to fix the problem. I have always pasted or typed text in a cell first and then formatted it by unchecking "wrap text". Tonight I reformatted the cell by unchecking that box before entering anything into it. Try that and see if it doesn't solve the problem.

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  1. Renee Roberts 5 Reputation points
    2025-10-25T19:53:45.44+00:00

    Hopefully I won't have any more issues but if I do I will have to run an Online Repair.

    Is there a way to save a copy of this conversation?

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  2. Thomas4-N 21,535 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-10-20T03:22:41.8933333+00:00

    Hello Renee Roberts, thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    I understand how frustrating it can be to spend time formatting your spreadsheets only to see those changes disappear after updates.

    First, make sure you always save your file in the .xlsx format instead of CSV or other text-based formats, because those will remove all formatting when reopened.

    Another step you should try is to run an Online Repair for Microsoft 365. Close all Office apps, go to Control Panel > Programs > Microsoft 365 > Change, and select Online Repair. This will reinstall Office components and reset settings that might be causing the issue.

    If the problem continues, please share whether the workbook uses Power Query, PivotTables, or OneDrive sync so I can provide more targeted advice.

    Warm regards,

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