Excel Data Types Not Working

Question

Updated 12/19/2022

Data Types are currently not working as expected for all users of Microsoft Excel. The work-around I recommend is to revert to version 16.64.

If you are affected and haven't already done so, please take a moment to notify Microsoft that you are affected by this problem. The way to do it is to use the Menu Bar and choose Help > Feedback > I Don't Like Something. Microsoft uses the Squeaky Wheel method to prioritize bug fixes. The more reports, the higher up the priority list the bug gets. Please do this from the current update of Excel before reverting to 16.64.

To revert to version 16.64:

Use the Menu Bar and choose Help > Check for Updates to launch AutoUpdate

In AutoUpdate, set updates to Manual to prevent AutoUpdate from automatically updating after you revert to the older build.

In Finder, navigate to the Applications folder

Right-click on Microsoft Excel.app and choose Move to Trash

Restart your Mac

Empty the Mac OS Trash

Use this installer to install build 16.64 of Microsoft Excel: Excel

Some users may be able to find a work-around, which is why I am posting this discussion. Some users will be blocked from this due to licensing or IT department restrictions.

There are third-party solutions available. I don't know which ones are great and which ones are less good. I'm hoping people will try them out and reply here with their results and recommendations.

On the Insert tab of the Ribbon choose Add-ins > Get Add-ins.

In the resulting dialog enter the word Stock in the Search field then click the spyglass icon. There are a lot of add-ins available. Let's chat about them in this thread.

Answer 1

Yes agreed, that is consistent with my experience. Some certificate, ini, or other system file seems to be incorrectly changed upon exiting the app. And it works both ways. 16.68 and 16.69 work on first use, but quitting and reopening causes the problem. Reverting to 16.64 is the opposite problem for me, first use doesn't work, but quit, reopen and then it works. 16.65-16.67 don't work at all from my attempts.

You'd think some developer can follow the app's exit procedures and check for some flag or variable that is being incorrectly flipped. Feels like some wrong if,then statement somewhere in their code.

Answer 2

Thanks for the suggestion but it hasn't solved the issue that my stock sheet won't update and when I try and do so it says ~'sign out and sign in with your account', which I do, and it doesn't work.

It's hard to comprehend how a company that sucks as much as Microsoft does continues to make so much money. It's just so unbelievably aggravating how much time I (and the rest of humanity) has wasted trying to get its crappy products to work right. I will say it again, there's no good on Earth Bill Gates can do at this point that should get him out of the hottest parts of hell.

Answer 3

Reverting to 16.64 did not resolve this problem for me but attempting to do so fixed it. Here's all of the steps I took including the important deviation that made a huge difference.

1. Launch Auto Update and Disable Automatic Updates
2. Use UninstallPKG to remove the Microsoft Excel package.
   • When uninstalling a package there is an advanced options setting. I have all of these on which removes preferences and attempts to remove any directories created by the package so that nothing is left behind. I think this setting was key to resolving the issue.
3. Installed the 16.64 from the download link in your post.
4. Opening the Excel file with 16.64 still gave me the error message about being unable to update the stocks, so I gave up and ...
5. Used the Auto Update Tool to upgrade to the latest version.
6. When I opened the Excel file with 16.69 the problem was gone.

I don't know exactly what I did to fix it but I highlighted the step that might have made the most difference. I'm not really sure why this didn't fix it for 16.64 as well but since I no longer have the problem I cannot test it further. Hopefully this helps someone resolve it and we can narrow down a set of minimal steps to fix it.

Answer 4

Where can we download the UninstallPKG?

Answer 5

Maybe here: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/48159/uninstallpkg

Disclaimer: I've not tried it myself.