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XLOOKUP, FILTER NOT WORKING WITH EXCEL ON MAC 365.

Alex Han 0 Reputation points
2026-02-27T09:55:33.13+00:00

I am on excel version 16.78 on mac but i cant seem to use xlookup and filter as well. Any idea how I can fix this? is this because i'm in 365 free trial?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | iOS
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  1. Alex Han 0 Reputation points
    2026-03-06T21:45:43.87+00:00

    No, I kept running into the same problem even with the latest update and restarting excel. I had to redownload excel plus erase some files with credentials to get it to work.

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  1. Ian-T 7,620 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-05T05:08:59.8066667+00:00

    Hi Alex Han

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum and thank you for your question.

    This is not caused by the 365 free trial. XLOOKUP and FILTER are supported in Excel for Mac, but they only work when your Excel build is fully up to date and using the correct license build.

    Your Excel version 16.78 on Mac may not yet have dynamic array functions fully enabled if:

    • Excel hasn’t been updated via Microsoft AutoUpdate, or
    • The license hasn’t finished activating the Microsoft 365 feature set.

    Here are what you should do:

    • Open Excel
    • Go to Help > Check for Updates
    • Install all available updates using Microsoft AutoUpdate
    • Restart Excel (or the Mac, if prompted)
    • Confirm Excel shows Microsoft 365 under Excel > About Excel

    Or you can feel free to try these update steps in Update Office for Mac automatically

    Hope my answer helps, please feel free to let me know if you need any further assistance

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.  

  2. Q&A Assist
    2026-02-27T09:55:41.5+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    XLOOKUP and FILTER return #NAME? when Excel does not recognize the function name. On Mac Excel 365 this typically happens when the workbook or app version does not support the newer dynamic array functions.

    Key points from the behavior:

    • #NAME? means Excel does not recognize the function name or syntax and something must be corrected in the formula; it should not be masked with IFERROR.
    • An _xlfn. prefix may appear in front of unsupported functions and also leads to #NAME? when calculated.
    • These newer functions (including XLOOKUP) are only available in supported versions and require a Microsoft 365 subscription build that includes them.

    To fix the issue on Mac 365:

    1. Confirm that the Excel build actually supports XLOOKUP and FILTER. If the functions are not supported in the current build, they will always return #NAME?. In that case, update Excel to a version that includes these functions. XLOOKUP is available in Excel for Microsoft 365 and Excel for Mac with a qualifying subscription.
    2. If the workbook was created on a newer Excel version than the one currently installed, unsupported functions will show #NAME? until Excel is updated.
    3. If updating is not possible, replace XLOOKUP/FILTER with supported alternatives such as VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, LOOKUP, or combinations like INDEX/MATCH. The LOOKUP article explicitly recommends VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP depending on version; if XLOOKUP is not available, use VLOOKUP or LOOKUP instead.

    This behavior is not caused by being on a free trial by itself; it is caused by the Excel version/build not supporting those functions. Updating to a build that supports XLOOKUP and FILTER, or replacing them with supported functions, resolves the #NAME? error.

    References:

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