Why is Excel selecting a different cell when I click?

Question

often, The cell above the one I am trying to edit is selected. Re-starting Excel seems to fix it, but this is happening pretty frequently

Answer 1

Hi @Turner, Dean,
Thanks for your response.
As I mentioned above, Check Zoom Level can resolve the issue. But maybe just temporally. I know this can be inconvenient when the issue still happens after a while.

You have a good point about how this issue may related to the graphics. I encourage you to submit feedback and upvote existing feature requests to show demand for updating this feature for the community at Excel · Community. The Product Team is in-charge of the feedback site, and they are constantly checking the comments and feedback from our customer. Many features have been developed or improved based on users' comment. 

For additional information, you can also submit a feedback through Excel and let Microsoft Product Team here your voice:

In the Help tab > Select Feedback > Choose Report a problem/Make a suggestion and fill in the form.

Microsoft wants to hear customer's feedback so that they can improve their products and customer experience. So please don't hesitate to give feedback to the Product team.

You can also Accept Answers that you found helpful. This will pin it to the top and users with similar issue can find it more easily. They can help upvote your feedback and make your demand more likely to be heard. I'm sorry for not able to assist further as I'm not in the Product Team, as I'm just a forum moderator and have limited access to Microsoft resources.

In the meantime, please kindly use the workarounds I provided to solve your issue temporally. I will also forward your feedback to the appropriate team for further consideration.  
Thank you for your understanding so far! 

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Answer 2

Hello @Turner, Dean, 

Thank you for posting your valuable question on Microsoft Q&A forum. 

I'm sincerely sorry that you're going through this frustrating issue. 

This issue has been reported by Microsoft users, and each case seems to have a different solution. You can try the suggestions below, as they have helped others resolve the problem: 

Check Zoom Level 

• Go to the View tab. 
• Click Zoom and set it to 100% or 125%. 
• Try clicking cells again to see if the issue persists. 

Disable Extend Selection Mode 

• Press the F8 key once to toggle off Extend Selection Mode. 
• Alternatively, press Esc to exit any active selection mode. 

Unfreeze Panes 

• Go to the View tab. 
• Click Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes. 

Frozen panes can sometimes interfere with cell selection. 

Disable Add-ins 

• Go to File > Options > Add-ins. 
• At the bottom, select COM Add-ins and click Go. 
• Uncheck all add-ins and restart Excel. 

Check for Scroll Lock 

• Press the Scroll Lock key on your keyboard. 
• If your keyboard doesn’t have one, open the On-Screen Keyboard (osk) and toggle it off. 

Try Safe Mode 

• Close Excel. 
• Hold Ctrl and open Excel to launch in Safe Mode. 
• This disables add-ins and macros temporarily. 

If the issue still persists, please confirm this information so that I can guide you with further troubleshooting steps: 

• Are you using a personal account or work/school account (gmail, hotmail, yahoo,… or your account have a company or school name)?  
• What is your current Excel version? 
• Is this issue happening on a specific file or on every file? 
• Did you try switching to Excel on the web and this issue still persists? 

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution. 

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