Why does column A appear twice?

Question

I have an excel spreadsheet that when when I first open it, column A appears twice. But when I click on any cell or move up, it changes to show column A only once.

Answer 1

Hi JOHNNIE JOHNSON2,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Is it only column A that appears twice, or do the remaining cells also duplicate? I am trying to reproduce your issue, so I went to View > Window > Split, and then two column A's appeared on the page.

Is your situation the same as my guess? If not, please share a screenshot of what you see, as it would be very helpful for me to diagnose the problem.

Also, some third-party add-ins/templates and Office settings files could potentially affect Excel's abnormal behavior. Please refer to the methods below to troubleshoot one by one and share the preliminary results with me:

1. Open in Safe Mode: Press the Windows key and the R key to open the "Run" dialog box. Type excel /safe and press Enter. This will start Excel in Safe Mode with minimal features, which helps diagnose the source of the problem. If Excel works properly in Safe Mode, it is likely that an add-in or template is causing the issue.
2. Disable Add-ins: In Safe Mode, go to "File" > "Options" > "Add-ins". Check the list of active application add-ins and try disabling them one by one, then re-enable them to identify any problematic add-ins.
3. Check for Template Issues: Sometimes the problem stems from corrupted templates. Ensure there are no files in the following folders:
   • Navigate to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART, press Enter, and check for any files. If there are any, move them to the desktop. If not, close the folder. (You will need to check "Hidden items" in File Explorer - View to see the AppData folder)
   • Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\XLSTART or C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\XLSTART, and check for any files. If there are any, move them to the desktop. If not, close the folder.
4. Reset Office: Press the Windows key, search for 'Registry Editor', and paste the following path into the address bar. 
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office

Press the Enter key on your keyboard to navigate to the Office folder. Then rename the Office folder to Officeold. Restart Excel. Office will automatically generate a new profile. 

Disclaimer: Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click How to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Support to view the article. 

If you have any other questions or want to share more context, please let me know in your reply!

Best Regards,

Thomas C - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist