Excel tries to open every file

Question

When opening Excel on my Mac 12.7.6 it tries to open every file on my system. How do I stop this?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Excel is opening every file because it’s loading everything from one or more startup folders. Remove the files and/or clear the alternate startup location to stop this.

On Excel for Mac, check both of these:

1. Remove workbooks from the Excel Startup folder
   1. In Finder, type startup in the Search box and press Return.
   2. In the results, double‑click the Startup folder, then double‑click the Excel folder.
   3. Move any files out of this Excel startup folder to another location.
   4. Restart Excel and confirm it no longer opens all those files.
2. Clear any “At startup, open all files in” folder
   1. Open Excel.
   2. On the Excel menu, select Preferences.
   3. Under Authoring, select General.
   4. Find At startup, open all files in and clear any path shown there (or change it to an empty/unused folder).
   5. Close Preferences and restart Excel.

After these changes, Excel will only open its normal startup screen or a blank workbook instead of trying to open every file.

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References:

• Customize how Excel starts in Excel for Mac
• How to prevent files from opening automatically in Excel
• Customize how Excel starts
• Excel not responding, hangs, freezes or stops working