What to Do When Excel Keeps Crashing / Freezing

This tutorial will show what to do when Excel keeps crashing or freezing.

 

 

Sometimes, Excel will hang or freeze when responding to an error – or crash completely. There can be a number of reasons for this occurring and the solution may be as simple as rebooting your PC or updating your antivirus software.

However, if neither of these fixes solves the problem, you may need to try one of the ones mentioned below.

Install Excel Updates

Once of the most important things to make sure of is that your Excel installation is up to date.

If there are updates to install, there will often be a message just underneath the Ribbon when you open Excel.

 

 

You can click Update now to update the Microsoft Office, or you can ignore the message and update the Office Microsoft Office at a more convenient time.

If this message doesn’t appear, you can check for updates from within Excel.

In the Ribbon, select File > Account.

If an update for Office is available, it will show under the Product Information

 

Select Office Updates and then select Update Now.

Disable Unused Add-ins

An incompatible add-in could be causing the crashing problem. You can remove the add-ins not required.

In the Ribbon, select File > Options.

 

 

Then, select Add-ins and, making sure Excel add-ins are selected in the drop-down list, and select Go…

 

 

OR

In the Ribbon, select Developer > Add-ins > Excel Add-ins.

 

 

Note: If the Developer tab is not visible in the Ribbon, click here to see how to show it.

In the Add-ins dialog box that is shown, remove the check mark from any add-ins that you are not using and then click OK.

 

 

Remove Excel Animation

Excel graphics animation is on by default. This can cause issues and lead to Excel crashing. To solve this problem, you can switch this option off in Excel Options.

In the Ribbon, select File > Options.

 

 

Then (1) select Advanced and in the Display options, ensure (2) Disable hardware graphics acceleration is checked and then (3) Click OK.

 

 

Start Excel in Safe Mode

When you start Excel in safe mode, a number of features are not available. This includes any toolbar changes or add-ins. You can start Excel in safe mode by holding the CTRL key down when you start Excel and hopefully the crashing issue is resolved.

 

 

Repair or Reinstall Microsoft Office

Unfortunately, if none of the above options solves your problem, you may need to repair or reinstall Office on your PC.

First, try repairing the installed version of Office.

In the Settings App in your PC, select Apps > Apps and Features and then scroll down the list until your find your installation of Microsoft Office.

Click on the Modify button, select Online Repair or Quick Repair, and then click Repair.

Reboot your PC and try your macro again.

If this does not help, you may have to remove Microsoft Office from your machine by uninstalling it and then reinstall it.