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

The worldwide rollout is not expected to be completed until later today, so some people are still be impacted until then. I'm sorry I don't have an exact time.

Answer 2

Thanks, Steve. I'll keep trying and let you know when it works. Or if it still does not by tomorrow.

Answer 3

Same here. I was going to hold off on updating the MacOS until after today, but was having some issues.

Went through the delete/install process for hopefully the last time!

Answer 4

Two things:

1. I got an email today from Microsoft acknowledging my report of the Stocks problem weeks ago, and that the latest version fixed things. A nice surprise.
2. I don't think the following is necessarily a 16.69.1 problem, but I'd not noticed it before--double-clicking on the right border of the A column header of a Stocks entry cell (or any type of content) should leave enough space for the full Stock name. But Excel shaves off a little of the right edge. See the pic, where the "A" of "TSLA" is missing.

I don't think a separate thread is needed, so I'm reporting it here.

Answer 5

Special thanks to Jim Gordon, MVP, our sherpa on this issue for the past several months