Excel file having links with different excel files opens with long delay

Question

Hi

some of our finance users are working on Excel sheet. they have one consolidated file which has link to almost 15 other excel files to fetch the data. it was working fine a couple of day ago but suddenly it is taking more than 20 minutes to open. Need guidance how to diagnose and troubleshoot the error.

Note. when we are trying to open file, it shows %age and when it reaches to 27% it stuck and takes upto 20 minutes more or less to open the complete file. file is shared with multiple users via SharePoint/OneDrive. we checked the same on offline (download file on PC) but same result taking too much time. we also removed the AntiVirus but no luck.

need support please.

Regards

Answer 1

Hi @Sajid Ali shah

Please run Excel in safe mode, then open the workbook from Excel for a check.

• To open safe mode of Excel, you can press and hold on Ctrl key, click or double-click Excel icon, until Excel asks do you want to start it in safe mode, then please release Ctrl key and click "Yes".

Plus, I suggest you let users manually update the link data.

• Go to File>Options>Trust Center>Trust Center settings...
• Click External Content from the left pane > Under Security settings for Workbook Links, select “Disable automatic update for Workbook Links” > Click OK.

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