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

On M1 MacBook Ventura 13.1

Removed all Office applications (except for OneDrive), removed all ~/Library/Containers Office folders (again except for OneDrive).

Reinstalled from Mac AppStore MS Excel version 16.68.

Issue remains with Stock Data with the same suggestion to log out and log back in with Office 365 subscription which I have.

Additional info:

I had support call with Microsoft and did similar steps (except for the ~/Library/Containers ones) and installing Office from office.com. Exact same results.

I showed the agent thru a Chrome browser session screen share all the steps and issues.

I also showed that I can open the same example MS Excel file using onedrive online / over the web and demonstrate that the Stock Data connector works with the cloud version but not the desktop version for the same subscription account.

The call was then dropped and I got no more support from Microsoft. Seems that the support agent was lost on next steps and opted to just end the call.

Answer 2

That's interesting since my non-problem Mac, with Ventura 13.1 and Excel 16.67, has worked fine all along with the Stock data type.

My other Mac, with Big Sur, is the one with the Stock data type problem for any version of Excel later than 16.64 (even the very latest 16.68 release).

So much for my theory that it's the version of Mac OS that is the problem.

Answer 3

Have you tried Excel 16.68 on the Ventura Mac?

Is your app install from office.com or the Mac App Store?

Answer 4

I've not updated the "good" Ventura-Mac to 16.68, but will soon. I'm guessing it will not break Stocks since this Mac, for some reason, is "immune" to the problem.

My Office 365 is directly from Microsoft itself.

Answer 5

This "unable to refresh data types" was causing me all kinds of trouble. Not a problem on my Windows tower but sure didn't work on my Mac laptop. I talked to Microsoft support a week or so ago but they weren't able to fix the problem. Followed the instructions here to uninstall and reinstall 16.64 and it was fixed in half an hour.