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

Thanks for your work on this, Jim. And the summary of bug resolution based on whether it is found in Beta, Current Channel Preview, or Current Channel.

As you may have seen from my earlier posts to this thread, I first reported this problem back in May 2022. At the time I was signed up for Current Channel Preview, which I just now activated again. The problem worked its way up to Tier 3 support, which while more knowledgable, had me spinning through lots of ideas including many uninstalls, reinstalls, capture of videos, logs, etc including download of 2 different 3rd party packages to capture data (very surprised MS does not have they own). Countless hours over several months. I never had direct contact with anyone from Engineering. In fact the message I was getting was that this was a one-off, just my problem. Obviously that was not correct.

I will consider joining Beta, when I have a backup machine with data I am willing to lose. I agree with ParadajzNAS that it would only be worthwhile if it meant actual contact with engineers (I am a retired software engineer...). It is too painful and time consuming to work with most support people, especially for anything at all complicated.