Status bar not showing sum, average in Excel Online version. MS support can't help.

Question

In excel online, selecting some cells does not always shows sum, average even if selected in status bar.

For instance, if I select this

I get this in status bar

and if select this

I get only count:2

Making a SUM of the selected cells show the right sum value.

Any hint?

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your question. I understand that in some selections you only see “Count: 2” in the status bar, even though the cells contain values and the manual SUM function returns the correct result.

This can be confusing and frustrating, especially when you rely on the status bar to quickly verify totals in your worksheets.

Excel only displays Sum and Average in the status bar when it detects numeric data, and this is also true for Excel Online, which has more limited status bar functionality compared to the desktop version. A common cause is that the selected values are stored as text instead of numbers, even if they look like numbers. This prevents them from being treated as numeric, so Excel Online shows only the count.

In addition, Excel shows sum and average only when at least two numeric values are selected. If one or more cells in the selection contain text, blanks, or data in a non‑numeric format, Excel Online may revert to showing only the count.

To resolve this, you can convert text‑formatted numbers back to numeric format using one of these methods:

– Remove apostrophes or text formatting.

– Use “Convert to Number” (when applicable).

– Re‑paste values using Paste → Values to strip formatting.

Once the cells are properly recognized as numbers, the status bar will begin showing sum and average consistently.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best Regards,

Noel

Answer 2

The most likely reason is that one or both of the cells contain text which looks like a number but actually isn't a value. Among other methods it should be as expected if you Format the cells as either General or Number then re-enter the numbers.