Hyperlinks in excel

Question

Hello,
I have an excel file with a ton of hyperlinks from sharepoint. However, i have to rename 500-ish files in the sharepoint /for QoL improvements/. My question is, are these hyperlinks will be still valid in excel after i rename them on sharepoint? Not planning to move them from the folder, just renaming them.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hello,

It depends on the kind of SharePoint link you pasted into Excel.

• If your cells contain a plain path to the file that includes the file name (for example a URL that ends with .../folder/MyFile.xlsx) those links will break after you rename the files.
• If your cells contain SharePoint links created with Copy link set to People with existing access, or links based on SharePoint Document IDs, they will keep working after a rename because they are tied to the file's unique ID rather than its name.

Best way to avoid breakage before you rename is to replace the current hyperlinks with durable sharing links. Open the file in the SharePoint library, choose Copy link, make sure the setting is People with existing access, copy that URL, then replace the corresponding hyperlink in Excel with this URL. Those links survive renames and moves.

If you are not sure which type you have, test one file. Rename a single document in SharePoint, then try both a typical path style link and a Copy link in Excel. If you want, tell me what one of your existing hyperlinks looks like and I will confirm whether it is safe or needs converting.