AutoFill handle for Excel 2016 doesn't work

Question

Intermittently I've been running into issues where the auto fill handle will just stop working on my Excel sheets. When you mouse over the bottom right corner of the cell, the handle changes to the proper black plus sign looking one. However, when you double click to fill down, nothing happens. Since I'm doing this for an epoch date conversion, the regular fill box isn't working as it's just incrementing the date by 1 each time rather than following the formula/cells.

The options are enabled for the Autofill handle. I've tried disabling, re-enabling the handle, generating brand new sheets, everything I can think of.

So, for instance, using this formula {=((M2/1000)/86400)+(DATE(1970,1,1)-DATE(1900,1,1))} to convert epoch time, I'm unable to fill subsequent rows beneath the initial row it's input in. Every article I've found online simply shows you how to enable the feature but has zero feedback for troubleshooting beyond turning it on or off again.

Answer 1

Hi Beau,

Fill handle will work on double-clicking only if adjacent cell has the value.

"You can automatically fill a formula downward, for all adjacent cells that it applies to, by double-clicking the fill handle of the first cell that contains the formula."

To make it work, you must have the value in the adjacent cell, so Excel will understand till what row or column it must fill down.

Thanks,

Neha

Answer 2

Yeah. They ended up telling me "This isn't a feature" even though the option for it is obviously there, not to mention I've even seen people double click the fill button to auto fill.

Oh, and here you go Microsoft, since your techs think otherwise:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/fill-data-automatically-in-worksheet-cells-74e31bdd-d993-45da-aa82-35a236c5b5db

"You can automatically fill a formula downward, for all adjacent cells that it applies to, by double-clicking the fill handle of the first cell that contains the formula."

But yeah. Not a feature. Right.

Answer 3

THANK YOU!

That's ALL I ever needed. If you'd have told me I needed a formula in a cell NEXT to the column I was doing this in, then this mess could have been avoided. I'd also recommend updating your articles with some bold text on this because NO ONE until now has been able to figure it out.

Thanks!