How do I stop Excel from using AppData/Roaming for Hyperlinks?

Question

I have an Excel 2013 spreadsheet that resides on a network and all hyperlinks are within folders in the same folder as the spreadsheet.  Excel keeps changing the Hyperlink address to the C:\Users\my name\ AppData/Roaming folder on my local C: drive.  How do I turn this "feature" off? (It is totally contradictory to using hyperlinks.)  Also, I am the only user of this document.

Answer 1

Dear Jon,

From your description, it seems that the file is created with Excel 2013. If yes, I’d like to confirm whether you create a link referencing to the Excel file created with Excel 2013 in a newly created Excel 2016 file, save the file on your local computer and the issue happens when you click on Update after opening the local file.

 

If yes, I’d like to confirm whether the issue occurs in the specific Excel 2013 file. If you copy the data from the Excel 2013 file to a newly created Excel 2016 file, re-add the link formula in a newly created Excel 2016 file, restart the computer and do a test, what’s the result?

Moreover, what formula are you using, could you upload some screenshots and some screenshots showing the issue in your environment? Please also upload a full screenshot of the Account page in the Excel 2016 application you are using for our reference. You can access the page via File>Account.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Best Regards,

Cliff

Answer 2

Good Morning Cliff and thanks for the fast response.  The Excel spreadsheet was created with 2013 as a part of Office 365.  There are no links pointing to this document.  We do not have 2016 versions on these computers.  The file is located on the network in a folder with its associated links.  I created it there so that I would not lose any hyperlinks within. 

There are times that links previously created work perfectly and a day later, hovering over indicates that they have been changed to C:\Users\Jon.Blake\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel"project name"

No one else utilizes my spreadsheet at this point.  (That I know of: Perhaps someone else opened and caused the defective one?)

One thing I did notice, an older copy of the file that I saved to my personal folder on the network still has the official links (see Project Tracking test version attached which is also on the network).

Jon C. Blake

Answer 3

Dear Jon,

Thanks for your updates.

About the links, I’d like to confirm how you insert the links, use the formula like what I showed above or the Link option by clicking on Insert>Link. From your description, there are no links pointing to the document. So it seems that the links in the file are pointing to other files stored on the network.

If yes, are the file and other files the links are pointed to stored in the same folder in the personal OneDrive online place (www.onedrive.com), the OneDrive for Business library (https://tenantdomain-my.sharepoint.com/personal/username\_tenantdomain\_onmicrosoft\_com/\_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx), a site library in SharePoint Online or a network shared folder on a server?

If they are stored in SharePoint Online, do you use the OneDrive sync client to sync them to your local sync folder and then add the links in the affected file?

Please list the detailed steps about how you insert the links in the affected file and upload some related screenshots so that we can do a test in our environment to see if we can reproduce the issue.

Thanks for your effort.

Cliff

Answer 4

Dear Jon,

Welcome to share any updates at your convenience if you need further help on this issue.

Best Regards,

Cliff

Answer 5

Hi Cliff, I have an update as the hyperlinks have once again changed to the

appdata/roaming location.  When an Excel Document is set to "Autosave" it

defaults to the file location users/.../appdata/roaming/Microsoft/ on your

hard drive.  By turning off autosave for this folder or directing the autosave

to my network folder where my files are located, it does not lose links after

a crash or close without saving.