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

I have "Automatically keep Microsoft Apps up to date" unchecked and under Advanced, I have "Automatically download and install" unchecked.

That said, the Auto Updater regularly reminds me to update which gets annoying. I may try to stick with 16.59 next time to see if it works better. As mentioned, everything is working fine under 16.68 as I type this, but if I quit, it will break.

Answer 2

I have "Automatically keep Microsoft Apps up to date" unchecked and under Advanced, I have "Automatically download and install" unchecked.

That said, the Auto Updater regularly reminds me to update which gets annoying. I may try to stick with 16.59 next time to see if it works better. As mentioned, everything is working fine under 16.68 as I type this, but if I quit, it will break.

This looks to be the same experience I had.

16.64 has worked for me for several days now. Any attempt to go with a later version results in Stocks working for only a very short period of time (e.g. one Stock update, then the error).

Answer 3

This sounds similar, but 16.68 works repeatedly for me for several days...until I quit Excel and restart.

And 16.68 works on the MacBook without issue regardless of quitting.

One difference I noticed is that the MacBook doesn't have any addins active. I just disabled the Solver add in to see what happens.

Answer 4

This is consistent with my own experience that Excel 16.68 worked the very first time I ran it after a fresh install with fresh activation of my M365 subscription. But after quitting Excel and immediately re-opening Excel, it gave me the same error.

I again chatted with Microsoft Support just now. They were pretty useless. They aren't aware of Microsoft working on a fix, no timeline, they only said keep providing feedback.

So if we want this fixed, it's apparent we need to flood Microsoft with feedback using their app... what a silly system. Dev teams ought to just read the community forums. We're giving them all the intel they need here.

Answer 5

You can track your feedback here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/mycontent/

Basically to make it easier to provide feedback to MSFT, I took a screenshot of the problem. I've reverted back to an older version of Excel, but the Autoupdate keeps trying to upgrade me to 16.68 despite having autoupdate unchecked.

So in the older version of Excel, I just paste the screenshot in the window, and follow the steps to provide feedback with the issue. I'm hoping volume of feedback gets the job done since no one is providing answers otherwise...

To make it easier for you to provide more feedback despite using the older version of Excel in the meantime, here's the screenshot:

Here's my canned feedback message: Data types are still not working on Excel 16.68 for Mac OS X. Please read the community forums about this issue. It has all the intel you need: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/excel-data-types-not-working/5a8d788a-974f-4adf-8563-50d259d9d32c?tm=1668358372179